Born and raised in America I know one thing for sure. I know that our culture is one of achievement. We are driven to succeed. We are driven to compete. And at the heart of this desire to compete and succeed are personal goals.

In motivational book after motivational book the same old story is shared. The story is of a study done with college students some thirty odd years ago. Of this study group only 3% set goals and the remaining 97% did not. As the group was followed over time, it was found that the 3% who had set goals and taken action on their goals earned 80% of the income of all 100% in the study group. Although the example is old and tired it stands as overwhelming proof that goal setting with action is powerful.

For me, I have found the initial stage of setting goals is easy. I can dream up ideas, business concepts, and directions for success and set my goals in place. The rub is in the finish. I tend to peter out. Maybe the goal was not the right goal or maybe it simply had no real power or passion. Whatever the reason, the process of beginning without finishing is frustrating. Has this happened to you?

The payoff is in the finish. I have heard that starting is 99% of the battle with anything you want to accomplish. And if you don’t finish how important was the 99% of the battle? How much effort and time did you waste? Was a continuous start and no achievement enough to cause you to stop setting goals?

I nearly quit. Even if you have done the same or are in the process of beginning and never finishing these simple ideas may help you. They were a Godsend for me. As I started focusing better and applying these steps my goals started to have a great beginning and finish. It felt so good.

The first thing I did was to get real with myself.  All of my ideas and goals were mounting. One idea after the other popped into my mind. Soon this was happening at the rate of about one per day. Every one seemed to be the next best idea and a goal was quickly designed and put into place. Then the next idea popped up and I lost focus on the goal I had just set. It soon became a paralyzing chaos of my mind. I had to stop the madness. Too many goals were stifling my ability to succeed at all.

I decided to throw in the towel on all my goals. They literally were tossed into a burn barrel. A new beginning was at hand. Then I made an agreement with myself. My agreement was to pick one goal that had importance and work it until I had succeeded with that goal. It became the theory of going slower to go faster. The good news was it worked.

After the agreement with myself I began on step two. Step two was a mind dump of all ideas and things I intended to accomplish. Over the next day and half all ideas went onto one sheet of paper. It is true that many of the ideas I originally had and abandoned to the burn barrel came back to my list. I wondered, “Was I doomed to repeat my error?” The answer came back immediately and it was a resounding “No.”

I spent another day and a half pondering my list. Then on the third day I began on step three. Step three was to prioritize my list. On my office wall I put up a big sheet of flip chart paper and created an impact chart. Along the horizontal, or X axis I used numbers, one being easy to accomplish and three being hard to accomplish. Along the vertical, or Y-axis, I did the same. A one was low benefit for accomplishing the goal and a three was big benefit for accomplishing. From my list I began plotting each idea where it fit on the impact chart. When it was all plotted I decided to begin with the quadrant that indicated big benefit and easy to accomplish.

My process had gone from working ten or more goals at once with little effort to focusing on the easiest with biggest benefit. It was a laser-focused approach. For me it was gold. Step four was to build the goal and action plan for that single goal and work intently to accomplish that one single goal first. The intention was to finish one and move on to the next goal. Each one would increase in benefit and difficulty. It was much like going to the gem to build muscles. Repetition became the key to goal setting and accomplishing success.

Step four is usually where failure occurred. To circumvent this failure I needed anchors in place. My anchors became affirmation and physically writing out my goal and plan every morning. Seeing the goal and visualizing the goal kept me aligned and thinking about my action plan all day long. It worked for me and if you are having trouble moving from having the goal to accomplishing the goal you may want to do the same.

This four-step plan to accomplishing your goals works. I am proof. I challenge you to follow the steps and succeed with your goals. I encourage you to stop spinning your wheels on multiple goals and give laser focused energy to one goal at a time. Remember the concept of going slower to go faster. If you choose to keep doing the same thing and expect different results you are only frustrating yourself and will wind up down the road wondering why your goals are beginning and never finishing.

Decide today to change you ways. Decide today to get some traction one goals at a time. You will be happy you chose to take different approach.