In life and in business, it’s so important to have goals. You always want to be moving forward and growing, and the only way to make that happen is to set clear, achievable goals so you know where you’re going and when you get there.
Unfortunately, too many people set a goal and never reach it. One of the biggest reasons for this that I’ve seen in my own life and with my clients is a lack of commitment. Commitment is the key to making progress and reaching your goals. Without it, you’re likely to give up or simply “forget” to consistently take the actions that you’ve identified that will move you closer to your goals.
Here are four steps you can take to help you achieve your smaller goals and get closer to your long-term goal.
Set a goal
This first step may seem a little obvious but it’s necessary. If you have a general desire to increase your profit, bring in more clients, or spend more time with your family, that’s nice but how do you measure it? If you have no set goal, it’s very hard to tell if you’re making progress and that can be discouraging. Often, it’s so discouraging that people quit taking action before they get what they really want.
Set a SMART goal for yourself (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-based) so you know exactly what you’re trying to achieve. Then move to the next step.
Identify the drivers
Now that you have a goal, what do you need to do to make it happen? If your goal is to boost profits, maybe you need to monitor productivity and improve billing and collections. If you want to complete a marathon, you have to fit in a certain amount of training and build up to it. If you want to spend more time with the family, what are the time-stealers you need to cut out? The journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step, and you need to know what that step is.
Commit for 90 days
Committing to a goal can feel overwhelming, especially when the future is unpredictable. I like to think of commitment in 90-day chunks. Anybody can do anything for 90 days. At the same time, it’s long enough to see real results and make real progress. Choose the actions you’ll take to move the needle toward your goal and commit to it consistently for 90 days.
Achieve and reset
You did it! You’re 90 days closer to your goal and it’s time to celebrate. As long as the action you took is connected closely to your goal and you did it consistently, you should see real progress. Now it’s time to evaluate, set a new goal and intention for the next 90 days, and keep moving forward.
If you need help reaching a financial goal for your law firm, feel free to reach out. We help our clients achieve goals they never thought possible by identifying what’s holding them back, finding the best course of action to fix it, and making it easy to track their progress.
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