“Begin with the end in mind.” Steven Covey
Systematic thinking forces people to organize their lives around incremental goals, making achievement of an end outcome much more likely.
Incremental Goals
Not sure how to get started? Follow these steps:
- Identify your end goal. For example, your end goal could be to be more fit, and have a healthier weight and diet.
- Break down your goal into concrete markers. For example, if your goal is to be fit and have a healthier weight and diet, your goals could look something like this:
- Lose ten pounds
- Be able to ride 40 km on your bike
- Create weekly meal plans from scratch
- Dine out only twice a week maximum
- Lower your blood pressure by a minimum of five points
Learn about the power of goal setting.
Take each sub-goal, and break those down into pieces, each in order from first to last. For example, to achieve your sub-goal of creating weekly meal plans, you could break it down further:
- Browse through recipe books or online, and choose recipes for one month
- Choose 20 dinners, 5 smoothie recipes, and 10 lunches
- Create weekly shopping lists
- Buy groceries every Sunday evening
- Prepare your meals on Sunday nights
- Eat out on weekends only
Complete lists like this for each sub-goal.
- After executing the sub-goals’ incremental goals to completion, you will have achieved your broad scope goal! Good job!
If you think of life as a grocery trip, it makes sense to take the time to plan out the grocery list. This helps to ensure that we are spending our money on what we need, and don’t end up with a disorganized smorgasbord of items in our basket, with no sauce for the lasagna!