Here we go again – it’s a brand new year and everyone is making promises to achieve great things.  Goals are set – and many fall by the wayside even before January is out.

Just like personal New Year Resolutions, your business goals need more than a vaguely good intention to achieve them successfully.

You can’t ‘do’ a goal – it’s usually too big and too broad to achieve.  What you need is a series of steps and tasks that take you from where you are now to where you want to be. There may even be smaller goals along the way to mark your progress.

Take your goal and turn it into a plan with things to do in some kind of logical order. Chunking it down means you can do the smaller things.  It’s a bit like assembling flat pack furniture – you know what it’s supposed to look like when it’s finished and, providing you have all the bits and a set of instructions, there’s a good chance you’ll end up with a piece of furniture that resembles the one in the picture!

Make sure your ‘picture’ is clear and detailed so you know exactly what you’re aiming for. Assemble your instructions and the ‘bits’ you need to get started and you’ll be surprised how quickly you will move towards your goal, ticking off tasks as you go.

Final piece of advice – keep your goal’s ‘to do’ list visible on your desk at all times or stuck up on the wall so you don’t ‘forget’ or ‘park’ it.