Winterize Your Goals: Be Prepared For Life's Storms

With the winter season hitting us hard, now is a great time to change your attitude, perspective, and surroundings—with a good winterizing of your goals! As you hunker down in a winter storm, you’re in a perfect mind to focus on your long term goals. A winter storm allows you time to rearrange and spruce up every piece of your to-do list regarding your personal, business, and life goals. When you have sight on your future any personal storms won't disrupt your long term goals. You will be able to weather any storm that comes your way.

For those of you living in the south or west, winterizing your goal list might not have as much impact as it does for those who are being hit with a monster winter storm, but the concepts still work.

Now is a good time for you to take a look at what seems to be a never-ending to-do list of work, home, and personal goals. Think about what truly deserves your time, energy, and attention by evaluating, much like an investment, what will provide the greatest return—whether it be joy, peace of mind, or revenue. Then do a list—tackling what needs to be accomplished, and weeding out what doesn’t add value.

Here is a way to discover which items on your to-do list will or won’t be meaningful and impactful investments to support your goals when life's storms
come your way. Ask yourself:

• Will not completing this task be detrimental to my goals?
• Does accomplishing this task help support my goals?
• What exact purpose does this task serve?
• Should I add this task if it doesn’t support my goals?
• Do I really need to do what doesn’t support my goals?
• Is someone counting on me to handle this task?
• Which tasks are the most important and relevant to my goals?

Once you determine what needs to be on your to-do list, here are some strategies for initiating and following through with what I'm calling your winterizing process for your life's goals:

1. Outsource. Sometimes it’s advantageous for you to be the one to complete a given task, while at other times the job can be outsourced or delegated. An easy way to pound away at that to-do list is to hire or assign someone to do the work. This only works if it’s a lower-priority goal, necessity, or something that doesn’t make sense to do on your own. If the task or action is an extremely valuable, primary goal that’s worth your personal time and energy, manage it yourself. If not, think about someone who could learn from helping you do what must be done. Thinking of it as teaching opportunity to help enhance another person’s life or business skills, when appropriate, will serve multiple purposes.
2. Purge. Determine the likelihood and value of actually finishing the line item on your to-do list. Do you know in your heart that this is not a task or goal you’re going to put enough effort into? If so, it shouldn't be on the list at all. If you haven’t done it by now, it probably won’t add value, and perhaps it doesn’t really need to be done. The sooner you purge any items that you feel won’t be given your appropriate attention the better you will feel about your list and goals. Eliminate guilt…simply scratch it off the list. If it’s truly important, it will find its way back to you.
3. Task swap. Don’t just keep piling tasks on to your to-do list as more tasks only overwhelm you and your ability to reach those big goals. When you add something to your list, remove something else. Swap out one task for another by identifying items of lower value that can be outsourced or eliminated. Make wise trade-off decisions to help you re-prioritize your goals as you go, keeping in mind that new ideas don’t necessarily always trump current items on the list. Be willing to task swap so you aren’t always operating at extreme capacity—a pace that will eventually result in burn out and burn up of the to-do list.
4. Say no. The hardest two letter word --NO! A great way to keep the list short and manageable is by learning to say no. Don’t overburden yourself so much with an endless list of tasks. Too large of a list will only stress you out and stifle your productivity. In the time of a life's storm you risk becoming overwhelmed and shutting down. Look at the goal list you created at the first of the year and ask yourself if everything on it still aligns with your current path. Say no to anything that doesn’t add value to your current priorities.
5. Just do it. Don't waste your time thinking about starting a project or being caught in a storm of fear, just get ‘er done now! To start accomplishing those priorities items on your to-do list, you need to adopt an attitude of just do it! Schedule time on your calendar that’s specifically highlighted for tasks on the list. You just have to get on the escalator and start moving. In no time you will be further up the ladder of success. An open-ended, non-defined plan for knocking off those projects is no plan at all—and things will likely never get completed. Like a snow storm, you don't need to plow out the entire yard, just the driveway, sidewalks, and steps. With your goals, outline a clear strategy with time allotted for the doing part of the to-do list. Once you’ve completed the task, it will feel really great to cross it off the list.

Winterizing your to-do list, like preparing your home for a winter storm, may seem like a daunting task at first—but the rewards will be enjoyed for a long time to come. When your priorities are clear and your goals are defined, you can better tackle what seems like an endless list of to-do’s. Most important, when distractions appear like a winter storm you will be prepared to get back on task.

Take the time today to push forward towards achieving your goals! You can do it! I know you can.
 

Sheri Staak

Experienced Vice President, Accomplished Leader, Sales Professional, Motivator, Blogger, Author