We embark on personal goals and ambitions with great hope and good intentions. But somewhere down the line we tend to fail in our execution.
If you observe closely, you’ll notice that this happens because our actions during execution are informal.
We understand that setting goals at a personal level is important, however, our already busy schedules and routines make it impossible to repeatedly take specific actions that make us achieve our personal goals.
A good example is when we make a New Year’s resolution to start and maintain regular exercise. Typically, after a few days or weeks we lose track and fall back to our earlier routines.
We fail to carry on, fail to build a habit, and fail to achieve the target we hoped for.
This happens with most new “personal goals” that we set out to accomplish on our own . . . with only ourselves to hold accountable for our actions and in-actions.
When you’re accountable only to yourself, you’re informal. Self-accountability rarely works. New habits are very fragile so they are easily broken.
So, how do you make this work?
The alternative approach is becoming professional at whatever our goals are. Do we skip the office or work regularly? No. But, why not?
This happens because we take work seriously—professionally. Our professional work helps us make money, build our reputation, and keep or grow our status. There is also a higher “accountability authority” to whom you must show your progress.
Knowing this, instead of chasing your personal goals informally, you can choose to go after them professionally.
Here are some tips to make your personal goals more achievable by taking a professional approach:
- Set aside dedicated time for actions related to your personal goals.
- Attach rewards to those goals.
- Explore how you can build your reputation with actions required for those goals.
- Find ways to increase your status by performing those routine actions.
- And finally, find someone other than yourself to hold you accountable.
By making the “personal” process professional and formal, you can work around ineffective “informal” self-accountability.