Things People Who Achieve Their Goals Never Do

"This year, for sure...!"
At the beginning of the year, a sales manager opened a new planner.

He wrote down the following three goals for the year.

Increase department sales by 10% year-on-year.
Acquire 20 new clients.
Pass the certification exam in the fall.

Last year, he was chased by the work right in front of him and couldn't move as he had hoped. He wanted to change that this year. Thinking this, he added his sales plans and study schedule.

By the time he finished writing, he felt like this year would go well. He hadn't started anything yet, but he even had the feeling that he had moved forward a little.

However, when work began, a different daily routine started than the one he had when he opened his planner.
He dealt with emails from the morning, and had meetings in the morning. In the afternoon, he had consultations with subordinates and client correspondence. Unexpected troubles also occurred.

He thought he would do new business development when he had time, and study for the certification after getting home. While thinking this, the day would end.

The next day was much the same.

He is not being lazy. He is working seriously on the tasks right in front of him. In fact, precisely because he has a sense of responsibility, he prioritizes requests from clients and subordinates.

As a week, then a month passes like this, the goals from the beginning of the year become detached from his daily life.
When he looks back at his planner after a long time, he might think the following.

"I couldn't keep it up this year either."
"I must get more motivated."

However, the surge of emotion immediately after setting a goal is not the same as continuing to take action toward that goal.

Writing goals in a new planner and imagining yourself after achieving them makes you feel positive. However, that sense of elation does not last for a whole year.

What is necessary to achieve goals is not to keep your spirits high, but to calmly continue the necessary actions regardless of your mood.

Turning outcome goals into today's actions

To do that, you first need to think about "outcome goals" and "action goals" separately.

The difference between outcome goals and action goals is whether or not you can control them yourself.

"Increase department sales by 10% year-on-year," "Acquire 20 new clients," and "Pass the certification exam" are all outcome goals.

You can make an effort, but sales and the number of new clients acquired are also influenced by the other party and the market environment. You cannot decide the result of passing a certification exam yourself.
Above all, even if you only look at outcome goals, you don't know what you should do today.

I have been involved in the apparel industry for a long time. In apparel stores, each staff member is given a monthly sales target.

However, surprisingly many staff members do not know what to do when told, "Please sell 1 million yen this month."

Although they engage with customers, they repeat the same explanation to everyone. If sales do not increase, the conversation tends to become vague, such as "Let's be more proactive in our customer service" or "Let's try harder."

Therefore, instead of tracking sales, track "how many customers who visited the store were guided to the fitting room."

Then, the content of what the staff thinks about changes.

What are the customers looking for?
What kind of clothes do they usually wear?
At what timing should I suggest trying them on?
What combinations would make them want to try them on?

Compared to when they were only looking at the result of sales, what needs to be done today becomes more concrete.
If they actually try them on, customers can check the fit and comfort, and it becomes easier for them to imagine themselves after the purchase. Trying on clothes is an important action on the way from visiting the store to making a purchase.

What is important here is not to set just any action goal. It is to break down the process until results are produced and find the actions that you can influence along the way.

Which actions should be chosen depends on the industry and the company. However, it is easier for the front line to act if you break it down into actions that you can execute yourself, rather than just setting performance goals.

Incorporating actions into daily life

However, just deciding on an action goal is not enough.

Suppose the sales manager mentioned earlier decides, "I will contact five new customers every week."
This is more concrete than just setting a sales goal, but if it is not decided when to execute it, it will be pushed back by the work right in front of you.

Instead of saying, "I'll contact them when I have time," decide, "I will contact them at 9:00 AM on Tuesday and Thursday." Furthermore, link it to your daily routine, such as "When I turn on my computer on Tuesday morning, I will check the candidates first."

In psychology, a plan that links a specific situation and action in advance like this is called an "implementation intention." It has been shown that by deciding "when, where, and what to do," it becomes easier to translate goals into actual actions (Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006).

There is also a way to use habits that have already been established as cues for action.

After the morning assembly, check one sales candidate.
After finishing lunch, solve one qualification exam question.
After the sales meeting, check the results of the action goals.

When you repeat the same action in the same situation, the situation itself becomes a cue for the action, and gradually it becomes easier to start with less conscious effort (Lally et al., 2010).

Instead of doing new actions when you think of them, incorporate them into the existing flow of daily life. That way, you don't have to think, "When should I do this today?" every time.

On the other hand, even if you decide on a time to execute, you cannot start if the action itself is heavy.
For example, even if you decide to "study for the qualification exam after lunch," if you are required to study for one hour every time, it will be difficult to get started on busy days.

In that case, make the initial action small.

Open the problem book.
First, solve one question.
Decide whether to continue once you have finished one question.

If linking to a habit means "deciding on a signal to start," then making the action smaller means "lowering the burden of starting."

*Please see this article for ways to overcome tedious tasks.

Starting a task is sometimes explained as "work excitement," where you get into the mood after you begin.

However, starting an action does not always guarantee that your mood will improve. Even so, if you solve one problem, you have one problem's worth of progress, and if you send one message, you get one message's worth of response.

Regardless of whether you are in the mood or not, you get closer to your goal by the amount you have acted.

Observe and continue while making adjustments

Finally, periodically check the actions you have decided on.

Vacant houses tend to deteriorate when people stop coming and going. This is because cleaning and ventilation are not performed, and it becomes difficult to notice small changes.

Goals also gradually disappear from your daily life if you stop looking at them.

Even if you decide to send five messages every week, if you do not check, it might become three messages this week, one message the next week, and eventually you may stop doing it altogether. You yourself might not even know when you stopped.

Periodically checking progress encourages goal achievement. It has been shown that effectiveness is particularly likely to increase when progress is recorded or reported to others (Harkin et al., 2016).

Record the number of messages sent every Friday.
Check results with a supervisor or subordinate once a month.
If it is a certification exam, keep a record of the number of problems solved or the range covered.

The purpose of observing is not to blame yourself for not reaching the goal.
If you cannot perform the decided action, perhaps the time you chose to execute it was bad. It is also possible that the frequency was too high. If taking action does not lead to results, you need to review the action you are pursuing itself.

Because you observe, you can correct.

The exhilaration of the beginning of the year will eventually fade. There is no need to try to maintain it.

Change outcome goals into actions you can perform yourself.
Decide on the date, time, and signal for taking action.
If it is difficult to start, make the first step smaller.
Check your progress and make adjustments as needed.

People who achieve their goals are not always full of motivation.
Recommend a fitting to one person. Send one message to a prospective customer. Solve one problem. Record your results on the weekend.

Each one is a modest action.

Goals are not achieved solely by resolutions made at the beginning of the year.
What people who achieve their goals never do is leave things to motivation. Place the necessary actions into your daily life and continue them calmly. That accumulation will gradually bring your goals closer to reality.

By the way, there is no single correct answer for a goal. There is no single correct answer for the vision beyond it either. So, what should you do? Please use this article as a reference.