How to Achieve Your Goals Through Behaviour Change
When people set goals, their first step is often to dive into making action plans. Their process is primarily task focused.
Whilst being task orientated is an important part of achieving specific results, when it is the main or only focus it misses a vital component of what it takes to achieve what matters most to you consistently and persistently.
And that vital component is having the right behaviours and habits.
You can have the best action plans in the world, but without them being combined with the right behaviours and habits you will find it very hard to achieve your goals.
But people don’t often assess what behaviours and habits they need to achieve their goals. In addition, they don’t look at what current behaviours and habits they have that will sabotage their progress and results.
As a result, they risk progress being slower and harder than it needs to be and, potentially, they risk not achieving the results they desire at all.
To avoid this pitfall and to set yourself up to succeed in achieving the results that matter most to you, it helps to have a process that integrates your action plans with the right behaviours and habits to deliver specific and tangible results.
The first step is to increase awareness and start turning that awareness into action that drives change and results. Here are some steps to help you get started with that:
3 Steps to Achieve Specific Results Through Behaviour Change
Step 1 – Get as specific as you can on what the exact outcomes are that you want to achieve or the change you want to create.
The reason getting as specific as possible is important is because the more specific your goal is, the more specific you can be about the behaviours and habits you need to achieve those results. The more specific your behaviours, habits, and actions are, the more specific your results will be. So get as specific as you can.
Step 2 – As you think about the outcome or change you want to achieve consider these three questions:
- What specific behaviours and habits would set you up to succeed in achieving the specific outcomes you identified in step 1?
- What specific behaviours and habits do you currently have that could sabotage your progress, hold you back or stop you from achieving those results?
- Based on your answers to those two questions, what action will you take, and when will you take it, to ensure you are fostering the behaviours and habits that will support you in achieving the specific results you want?
Step 3 – Create an action plan that integrates both your behavioural strategy and logistical tasks required to achieve your goals.
Break your plan down into small steps that feel manageable to do. Implement it
The bottom line:
You can have the best action plans in the world, but without the right behaviours and habits integrated into them, you reduce your chances of achieving the results that matter most to you significantly.
Having a process that integrates the right behaviours and habits with specific actions and tasks is a powerful way to set yourself up to succeed.
