How are your goals coming along?

If you made resolutions, this is about the time that you’ve forgotten them or just given up.  If, instead, you set goals, you most likely are trying to figure out how to accomplish all of those worthy goals by the deadline you set.

Are your goals starting to seem overwhelming?

If so, don’t get frustrated.  Start breaking them down into smaller chunks.

Question:  How do you eat an elephant?  Answer:  One bite at a time.

Keep that in mind as you work to achieve your goals.  The best way to do this is to look at what you’re trying to accomplish.  Then make a list of the steps you need to take to achieve that goal by your deadline.  Then begin scheduling those steps into your daily calendar.

Let’s say you’ve decided you want to learn to play the guitar by the end of this year.  There are a number of steps you’ll need to take to reach that goal:

• Buy a guitar
• Hire a guitar teacher
• Schedule lessons
• Practice

But even with that list, those are some big things to accomplish.  For example, you don’t want to put “buy a guitar” on tomorrow’s schedule — that’s a huge task.  Buying a guitar needs to be broken down into smaller chunks as well:

• Talk to friends who play guitar
• Read some reviews of beginner guitars
• Visit some music stores to see their selections of guitars

You’ll want to breakdown your search for a guitar teacher the same way.  Talking to other people who play, asking for recommendations at music stores, reading online reviews, and so on.

This is the way to accomplish any large goal you have.  Break it down into manageable chunks.  Keep breaking down the steps until they are easy to accomplish each day.

Then once you’ve got your task list broken down, be sure to work on something each day that moves you closer to your goal.  Before you know it, you’ll have accomplished that goal.

To your happiness!