CBP S1E3: Developing an Action Plan for Your Goals

In my super-scientific, ultra-analytical Facebook survey, people indicated they had trouble reaching their goals because they didn’t know where to start. Here are some quick thoughts on ways you can start developing an action plan to realize your goals, even when they seem unachievable.

Articles referenced in this episode:

• How to Create a Mission Statement (https://www.coffeegritandinspiration.com/mission)
• Goals Workshop (https://www.coffeegritandinspiration/goals)

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Transcript

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So this week I’m talking about goals. So a few – months ago now, I guess – I did a super, super “scientific” Facebook survey to understand what people are struggling with when it comes to goals. And one of the questions was, “What holds you back from achieving the goals you already have?” And one of the main answers was, “I don’t know where to start. I don’t know how to take a goal, and turn it into an action plan.” And so, I wrote a couple blog posts about that, and I will link them in the description, but I also wanted to talk today specifically about creating an action plan for your goals. What I find to be super helpful when I’m looking at my goals and how I’m going to get to those goals is to really dig down into why I want them. Why are they important to me? What am I passionate about when it comes to those goals because that will not only reinforce the importance of those goals to you and why do you want to accomplish them. 

So I did a blog post about how to do a monster “brain dump” of all the things that you’re working on right now and all the things that you’re focused on, all the things that you’re passionate about, I’ll link that in the [description] as well, but what it really comes down to is that you can’t focus on too many things at one time. 

In a book I read by Angela Duckworth called Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance [affiliate link], she talks about a conversation that Warren Buffett had with his chauffeur, or pilot, something like that – one of the things that, you know, incredibly rich people has – and he was telling that guy to write down everything that he could think of that he was working on right now, and then cross out everything except five things. And that’s because you can’t divide your focus that way. 

So one of the things you’d see if you went to the blog post I’m talking about that I wrote, is about taking all those things that you’re working on and passionate about and bucketing them into hopefully 5 things, or less, to focus on. And then those things lead you to your high level goals which can then be broken down into mid-level goals, which can be broken down into tasks. And that’s really how you come up with your action plan. 

So one of the examples that I’m focused on right now, two – I have two high level goals that I’m going to use as examples in this podcast – and the first is, my husband and I want to build a house. And to me, right now, that feels like a big, huge, monster goal that we will never achieve. Because there’s so many little things that need to be done first, before we can build a house, that I, I just, I do get stuck sometimes wondering where to start. So I’m going to use that as an example. And the other goal I’m going to use as an example today is losing weight. And that one I feel like I’m a little bit clearer about, I’ve got a better roadmap and I’m going to use that as an example of how to create an action plan when it comes to your goals. 

So the first step is to look at that big, monster goal – so in my case, building a house – and break it down into obstacles. What is preventing you from accomplishing that goal, today? And when I look at this, for myself, the two biggest ones that come to mind are probably – number one, I don’t have a down payment, and number two, my credit score is not the greatest. I had some issues in the past with finances, and I’m getting over it now, but that’s definitely an impediment. I think that if those two problems were solved, I would have a clearer path to the rest of my goals. So those are the two biggest obstacles.

When it comes to losing weight, it was a little easier to identify that. And that was, I don’t get a lot of exercise because I work from home every day, all day, every day, every day. On a good day I would get like 500 steps a day. And so that, combined with the fact that I like to snack way too much, I saw those as my two number one obstacles. So I had to solve those problems first, and then I could get on with actually meeting my goal. 

So looking at your obstacles, think of that goal that you are super passionate about, and you know all the reasons why you want to do it, and its something that really fires you up. Think about the top, maybe, two to three obstacles that come to mind when you think about “why can’t I just go do that today?” And those three are the ones that we’re going to focus on when it comes to breaking those down into an action plan. 

So now that you’ve got those obstacles in your mind, we need to think about “What do I need in order to solve this problem?” So, for example, my credit score. In order to buy a house, I need to have a better credit score, so that I can get a better interest rate, so that my house payments are affordable. So to improve my credit score, I needed to get a handle on what my credit card balances were, and pay some of those down, because when I looked at my credit score, it really is about the credit balances that I’m maintaining right now, and not anything related to, you know, negative marks, or collections, or anything like that. So I could see that the first thing I needed to focus on is to improve the credit score. 

The second thing was the down payment. And that one for me is a little bit harder, because I think…when I think about the amount of money needed for a down payment and how I would just save that by saving a little bit of money out of every paycheck, that seems to be a really daunting task for me. I could maybe save $200 a month? $300 a month? And even over a year, that’s only three thousand six hundred bucks, it would take me like, 10 years to get the down payment that I need. So I needed something else for that.

So I did two things. One, I created a spreadsheet with all of my credit cards in it, and all the balances, I put in a formula that calculates out the interest, and came up with a plan for how I’m going to pay down my credit balances. And we’ve been following that plan for about two months now, we’ll keep going for, I think, the next year. And then all my credit balances should be paid down and my credit score should greatly improve. 

For the down payment, part of that plan you’re listening to right now. My hope is to create a little bit of a side income using my blog and podcast, and other things, to be able to put aside more money. So that’s one plan. I’m also – I am saving, I am setting aside some things, I’ve got a couple different ways I’m trying to do that. But the point I’m trying to make here is, when you take that big strategy, that big goal of buying a house, and you break it down into what are the immediate problems you need to solve, and then how are you going to solve those problems, and get creative with it, that’s when you end up having a plan. 

So if I want to solve my problem with my credit score, then I need to pay off my credit card debt. And I’m going to pay off my credit card debt, by x, y, and z. And that’s how you start to create an action plan. Ultimately, what you should end up with is, something you can execute on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, that moves you towards that mid-level goal that gets you to your high level goals. So in this case, my high level goal is build a house, my mid level goal is improve my credit score, and I’ve got stuff I’m doing on a bi-weekly and monthly basis that is moving me towards that goal of improving my credit score. 

So if you’re stuck, and you’re not sure “what are the problems that I need to solve?” with a goal? What I kind of like to do is, look at those obstacles and say, “what do I need to do?” and then, “why do I need to do that?” and “and why do I need to do that?” and “and why do I need to do that?” and it should lead me to my high level goal. If it’s not, then it might be an obstacle that really isn’t preventing you from this goal. It might be preventing you from doing something else, but it’s not in the way for this goal. So you really want to understand, this is where I want to be, what’s stopping me from being there – truly, really truly stopping me from being there, and how can I solve that problem? 

And then turn it into something that you can track! I use a number of different things. The one I’m using right now is called GoodNotes, and it’s where I keep my bullet journal, but a bullet journal, or any kind of journal, is a great way to keep tracking where you’re at and what you’re doing. So once I know I’m trying to improve my credit score, here’s what my debt is right now, and here’s where I need it to be by x day, and here’s where I want it, you know, each month I want to pay off this much, or I want to have this card paid off by this day, and here’s how I’m going to do that, you start to develop those plans that help you see the light at the end of the tunnel. It helps you see that you can, actually, achieve these small things. And enough small things helps you achieve your big thing.

So that’s the thought I want to leave you with today is, really spend some time thinking about those goals that drive you, that move you, that get you super excited, and why aren’t you achieving them today. What is in your way? And then look at those obstacles and think of creative ways where “if this was solved, then I’d be able to do this other thing.” Identify those top obstacles, come up with an action plan of how you’ll get to those obstacles, and don’t be afraid if your action plan will take a year to execute. It probably will! None of this stuff is quick fixes, otherwise it would already be solved for you by now. Right? You would have already solved it. 

So these are things that will take time. They’ll take time, commitment, energy, tracking – you’ll need to make sure that you’re actually achieving those things and keeping yourself on course. And eventually you’ll get there!

The websites I’m going to point you to today is Coffee, Grit, and Inspiration, of course, and the articles I’m going to point you to is one on how to create your mission statement – that’s where we do a monster brain dump and then kind of sort through all that stuff, get rid of the things that we really don’t need to focus on right now, and end up with a driving statement, something that we can use as our purpose. That one is www.coffeegritandinspiration.com/mission. And then there’s also a set of articles, on the Coffee, Grit, and Inspiration website on goals, and that one is www.coffeegritandinspiration.com/themes/goals. 

So I look forward to seeing you there! I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful week, and I’ll talk to you next time! Bye now!