003: Creating an Action Plan for Goal Success

Hello, hello everyone. Welcome to Productivity Paradox. I’m your host Tanya Dalton,  and this is episode three. Part three of our anatomy of goal setting series. Today is  our final step in our three step process. I’m really excited because in episodes one  and two, we laid the groundwork for setting achievable, personalized goal. The  keywords here was achievable and personalized because we found our why. We  really focused on why these goals are important to us, and we customized them so  they would fit you, and where you want to go in your life. We set our what by setting  smart goals, and now today is our action day.  

 This is our how. How are we going to achieve these goals, and how are we  going to make it so these goals seem so much more reachable than they’ve been the  past. Let’s think of it this way, I’ve talked a lot about we’re laying down the roadmap,  right, for finding our goals. If you were traveling across the country from California to  Florida with no map, no compass, no GPS, would you be able to make it to your end  destination? I can tell you right now that I would not. I would end up in Central  America or if I’m being totally honest, I would end up in Canada because I have a  terrible sense of direction, but even if you have a great sense of direction, and maybe  you would end up in Florida, it would probably take you two or three times longer  than if you had a map or if you had some directions because with a map you know  where you need to go. You know what roads to go on. You know where to turn, and  you know what’s coming up ahead. It’s easy to prepare for the next steps.  

 That’s what we’re going to be doing today. We are going to be creating a map  for you so that you can get to those goals, and you can get to that endpoint where  you can celebrate these goals that you have customized and personalized for you  have now been achieved. It’s really not a terribly difficult process, I promise you.  There are three steps we are going to be focusing on today. Step one is finding the  time. Step two is designing that map, and then step three is creating accountability.  

 Let’s go ahead and get started with talking about step one, finding the time. A  lot of people like to think of their time like a water class. You have a water glass, and  once you fill it up and it becomes full, the water starts spilling over because there’s a  limited capacity, but I’m here to tell you your time is not a water glass. At least if it is,  

your water glass is probably a lot bigger than you give it credit for. Don’t get me  wrong, you have limited amounts of time. We all only have certain amounts of time,  24 hours in a day, but you probably have a little bit more than you think you do. You  need to learn to run your time like a bank account. That’s how I like to think about my  time.  

 What do I mean by that? Just like a bank account, I budget my time. I budget  my money, I budget my time. I have a limited amount of funds in my bank account. I  have a limited amount of time in my day. The difference is with our bank account, when an emergency crops up, we’re able to somehow find money by tightening our  belt somewhere. Let’s say for example, the engine in your car dies, and you need to  use your car to get to work. Are you just going to leave your car sitting by the side of  the road, or will you get that engine fixed? You’ll find a way, right? You’ll figure out a  way that you can pay to get that engine fixed. You won’t go to Starbucks for a  month, or you skip a pedicure or two or three to get that engine paid for, but we find  a way to tighten up our belts.  

 That’s really what you need to do in terms of time. Really, instead of saying I  don’t have time to go after these goals, try saying it’s not a priority right now. How  does that feel? We’ve already talked about these goals in terms of them being  important to you because they’re customized to you. They are priorities. We found  that through the reflection process. Now we need to treat our goals like they are the  priorities they deserve to be. What we need to do is find the areas in your day that  are your time sucks. Now, I guarantee I can probably name for you a couple right  now, and I’ve you were in the room with me, you’d be nodding your head. Are you  ready? Facebook, checking your phone incessantly, binge watching a TV series,  these are all things that we do, we all say that we don’t have time, but we have time  to do these things. These are not contributing to your personal priorities. These are  the things that are not moving you forward towards the person you want to be.  

 It’s okay to take time to check our Pinterest or look at the new funny cat video  on Buzzfeed, but if you’re saying you don’t have the time, figure out exactly how  much time you are spending on these tasks that are not bringing you revenue. By  revenue, I’m thinking about that bank analogy again. You want to bank up the time  for yourself to make room for your priorities. I could do a whole series on finding  time for yourself, but I need to make it brief today because I really want us to focus  on goal setting, but try to target those areas where you can tighten your belt and  bank up the time later. Five minutes here, five minutes there, it adds up. Pretty soon,  you have 30 minutes, 45 minutes.  

 Think about those things you’re doing in your day that are taking up a little bit  more of your time, and see if you could tighten your belt a little bit. There’s lots of  techniques we could talk about in focusing on finding this time and banking time, but  that is something I’d really like to dedicate another podcast episode or two or three  to talking about because I really do think that’s something important, but for now,  let’s focus on finding the little tiny bits of time in our day where we can allow  ourselves to focus on our goal setting.  

 Step two is designing the map. I have a really quick and easy download that  you could use to help you create this map. You can grab that at InkwellPress.com/ podcast. If you look on the show notes for episode three, there’ll be a link there for  

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you to download this quick and easy worksheet. I’m going to go through it with you.  It might seem a little confusing because I’m going through it verbally, but when you  have it in front of you, I promise you it’s super super easy to do. Let’s go through the  worksheet together. I’m going to give you an example of a goal that I had. My goal  was of course, starting a podcast, which you are listening to right now. I will go  ahead and post an exact image of the action worksheet I created for starting this  podcast in the show notes so you can see a plan of goal setting in action. This is the  actual plan that I used to get to where I am today, recording this podcast and sharing  it with you.  

 On the sheet, there’s a section for you to write down your smart goal. Of  course the smart goal is specific, measurable, attainable, rewarding, and timed just  like we talked about in episode two. My goal was I will help others reach their goals  by starting a productivity podcast by the end of the quarter. Then, what I did is I  broke it down into the steps that I needed to do to accomplish this goal. I had 10  steps, brainstorm editorial calendar, create bullet points, research topics, create  content, edit for 20 minute shows, record podcasts, intro and closing lead ins,  podcast channel created, sound edited, and then post on a weekly schedule. That  seems lik a lot doesn’t it? When I look at that I think, wow, there’s 10 steps there, am I  going to be able to do this.  

 Then, on the worksheet and the whole worksheet just walks you right through  this. It shows you how you can group them together to create four mini goals for  yourself. I created four mini goals as well as little measurable steps. For example, I  took the first two items on my to-do list, which was brainstorm an editorial calendar  and create bullet points. I created mini goal number one, editorial calendar. I made  that measurable because I said I would measure it by having a calendar completed  with bullets. Then, I took my next three to-do items, research topics, create content,  and edit for 20 minute shows. That was my mini goal number two, creating content. I  made that measurable because I said I would have episode scripts ready for  recording. I did this for all four mini goals. Again, you’ll be able to see this on the  image that I’ll post at InkwellPress.com/podcast under episode three. Feel free to  follow on in looking at that.  

 What I did is then I then set deadlines for each of these mini goals. When you  look at the picture that I’ll post, you’ll notice that my deadlines are not evenly spaced.  Some of my mini goals will take longer, and some take less. My first mini goal was  much quicker, so I gave myself two weeks. The second mini goal was a little bit  longer. I gave myself a little more than a month. When I hit each of these mini goals, I  felt a surge of energy to keep my momentum going. That’s really what helped push  me along to get this done. I know that might have seemed a little bit confusing, but I  

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promise you if you go and download the worksheet, the action worksheet, you’re  going to see that this is such a simple simple process. It literally holds your hand and  walks you through the entire process. It should take you no more than 15 minutes, 20  minutes at the most to fill out how you’re going to create your roadmap for your big  goal.  

 What I’ve done here is instead of looking at this as one big overwhelming  daunting goal for myself, I now at it, and I think, wow I have these four mini goals.  This is completely achievable, and my first mini goal, I’ll have done in two weeks.  That’s really when the magic happens, when you really start to feel like, okay if I take  one step forward today towards this goal, after a little bit I’m going to be all the way  at the end. That is really at the heart of the whole process, is making it feel like you  can do, that you can accomplish these things. I really encourage you to use that  download because it is really easy to do, and it is easy to follow, and it’s going to  ensure that you feel successful with your goal setting. Okay? All right. That is step  two.  

 Step three is creating accountability. I really believe that creating  accountability for yourself is really important because we really have a hard time  when other people are asking us if we’re doing well with our goals. It’s really easy to  tell ourselves, “Oh I’m fine. I can push that off for another day,” but it really does help  to have somebody keeping you accountable. Marshall Goldsmith who is a world  renowned business coach, he’s the type of guy who charges $250,000 for one on  one sessions with the world’s largest CEOs. He says if you measure it, you’re more  likely to do it. I like Marshall, he sounds like my kind of guy to be honest.  

 What Marshall does is he has someone who calls him every single day, he has  hired someone to be his accountability partner. This person calls him everyday and  asks him a series of questions that he, Marshall, has written himself. He designed the  

questions to be a little bit hard. Not difficult in that it takes a lot of thinking, but  they’re questions that kind of hit in with what his goals are. They’re hard because  they ask for honest answers. He has to answer to someone else because he knows if  he’s only answering to himself, he won’t necessarily do it. You know what? Marshall’s  a lot like the rest of us. We’re all a little bit that way. His questions are directly related  to his goals and who he wants to be.  

 One of his questions is, “How many times did you insist on being right today?”  Ouch, right? That’s obviously something he wants to work on, and it’s really pointed,  and he has to answer it honestly. Another one of his questions, “How many steps did  you take today?” You can tell these are questions that are pushing him towards his  

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and he creates a little weekly snapshot at the end of each week to access how he’s  doing.  

 I’m not saying you have to create an excel spreadsheet, if that’s your type of  thing absolutely go for it. I love it. For a lot of us, that might be a bit much, and that’s  okay to not create an excel spreadsheet or anything like that. That is one of the  reasons why I really love daily habit trackers. That is why I incorporated them in my  planner because I really feel like it holds you accountable. I like the idea of using a  daily habit tracker, and having somebody else hold us accountable because honestly,  you can lie to yourself all day long. We all do. I do it too, but it’s so much harder to lie  to someone else. It’s the same thing with saying no. You can say no to yourself all  day long, “No, no, no,” but if somebody else is asking you, and everyday you’re  answering no, eventually it becomes a little bit embarrassing, and you want to give  them a yes. That’s the beauty of having somebody hold you accountable that is not  you.  

 What is nice about accountability partners is you don’t even have to contact  each other everyday. You don’t even have to be in the same room or in the same  physical space. It is nice to touch base once a week, but you could be texting each  other, or sending each other images of what you’re doing, or you could be sending  an email. It’s a great way to stay in touch with someone who maybe you don’t see on  a regular basis. It could be your aunt. It could be your cousin. It could be your best  friend who lives in another city. It’s a great way to stay in contact with someone, and  it’s a good idea to have someone else hold you accountable.  

 I’ll give you a great example of how I have to use accountability partners  myself because do you remember how I talked about how I really wanted to start  working out? We talked about this in episode two, I believe, where my reflection  sheet had showed me I need to start working out. I said I was going to work out. I  created an action plan, and part of it was I needed to figure out a type of exercise I  could do that would not hurt my back. I needed to find a place that I could do that,  and then I needed to sign up for some personal training sessions to make sure I did it  correctly because of my back issues, and then I needed to start going on a regular  basis.  

 I did mini goal one, great. I did mini goal two, fabulous. I got to the part where  it was time for me to sign up for my personal training, and I didn’t do it. Didn’t do it,  didn’t do it, didn’t do it, didn’t do it again. For some reason I kept giving myself the  excuse of I have so much going on, I don’t have time to call, which is silly. Right? I  was telling myself no, just like we all do. Finally, I said to my husband, “Listen, I really  need you to hold me accountable. I need you to ask me everyday for a week if I have  

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called to make this appointment to get this personal training done.” He said,  “Absolutely, I’ll be happy to do it.”  

 He asked me and I said, “No.” He asked me again the next day, “No, no.” Finally  I said to him, “Listen, if I say no to you one more time, I want you to call and make  the appointment for me. I will have to go, and then I will start making the  appointments.” I knew if I broke the ice there and got in, I would be fine. The next  day my answer was no again, and my husband said, “Okay, I’m going to call and I’m  going to make the appointment, and then you’re going to start going.” He did. He  made the phone call. I was sitting in the same room with him while he did it. For  some reason I couldn’t do it, but he did.  

 He calls, makes the appointment, I go to the appointment, while I was there I  made the next appointment, and you know what? Now I’m going all the time. I’m  going to classes. I’m going on a regular basis, and I feel so much happier because you  know what? I needed a little extra push, and he gave it to me. That is okay. We all  need a push from time to time, me included. I’m not going to pretend like I have all  the answers or I do everything right because I don’t. I’m human just like you, and I  need accountability just like we all do.  

 Keep that in mind that it’s really important for these last three steps for your  action items. You want to make sure that you are setting time aside, you want to fill  out that action worksheet that we have that download for, and then I want you to  create accountability for yourself. I think the important thing to remember for your  goals is you can dream big. You just have to make big plans to go with it. That’s all  there is to it. Big dreams take big plans, and you can do it because you know your  why, you know your what, and now you know your how. I’m really excited for you to  lay out this map of how you’re going to accomplish these goals. I really am excited to  see how you’re going to take those goals you set for yourself and create them into  actionable plans.  

 I would really love for you to post images of your action worksheets on social  media and tag me, InkwellPress on social media or use the hashtag  ProductivityParadox because I want to see how you’re doing, and I would love to see  you accomplish your goals. Email me, let me know because that is the reason why I’m  doing this podcast. I really want to see you making a difference in your life. Let me  ask you a favor, if you feel like you’re ready to set and achieve your goals, and you  feel like you’re going to be successful this year, do you mind giving me a 5-star rating  or doing a review for me on iTunes because I would love to keep this podcast going,  and I’m really excited about it because I have a really fun first season planned.  

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 Our next episode is going to be focused on finding your personal mission  statement. We are going to be talking about setting your priorities. We are going to  be talking about learning how to say no. All kinds of things that I have planned for  this podcast, and I am really excited that this is just the beginning of our journey  together on this. This is so exciting, and I am so glad that I set this goal for myself  because it’s because of getting to help people like you and work with people like you  that really makes me happy. I’m hoping that you’re feeling empowered and ready to  go for your goal setting because I really know that you can do it.  

 I’d love to connect with you. Again, if you’d like to find the show notes,  InkwellPress.com/podcast, and you’re going to go to episode three to download that  action worksheet, and to see my own action worksheet. If you’d like to find me on  social media, I’d love to chat with you there. You can find me on Facebook, Twitter,  Instagram as @inkwellpress. All right, until next time, happy planning. 

**This transcript is created by AI, so please excuse any typos, misspellings and grammar mistakes.

Tanya Dalton is a top female keynote speaker. Her talks on productivity and purpose are motivating and inspiring. As a woman, Tanya brings a unique perspective to the conversation about goals, habits, and time management.