Setting Goals

The limiting factor is the bottleneck that can affect how rapidly you make your wish come true. For your plan to be successful, it must be designed to get past this limiting factor.

Consider these examples: Gus is a middle-aged lawyer whose wish is to get back into shape by exercising at six each morning before he heads to the office. But Gus hates to drag himself out of bed that early, so every morning he invents a new excuse to sleep late, and every morning he skips his workout. Sleeping late is the limiting factor in his plan. If he’s ever going to shape up, he first has to get up.

Mary is a salesperson who plans to double her sales in the next year, but she is terrified of cold calling for prospects. Fear is her limiting factor. She will have to deal with this fear before she can increase her cold calling enough to double her sales.

The distinguishing characteristic of a limiting factor is that once you overcome it, everything else falls into place. If Gus develops the habit of bouncing out of bed at six each morning, he will soon be able to work himself into shape. If Mary learns to enjoy cold calling instead of fearing it, her sales will skyrocket off the charts.

Now consider your wish. What is it that most limits your progress? What factor, once changed, will make everything else fall into place? It might be a habit you need to change as it was with Gus; or it might be your way of looking at the world, as it was with Mary. Once you have pinpointed the limiting factor in your wish, design your plan to overcome it.

Schedule Progress Reports

Once you’ve listed the steps of your plan and scheduled them on your calendar or daily planner, you need to schedule regular progress reports to see how you’re coming along.

A progress report is like looking out the window while you’re riding a train. By observing what you’re passing, you can tell whether or not the train is going in the right direction. But if you aren’t paying attention, you can come to the end of the line and find yourself in the wrong city.

To schedule progress reports, estimate how long it will take you to complete your wish and divide that time into regular intervals. If your wish will take a year, make a progress report every month. If your wish will take a month, make a progress report every week. Include these reports in your plan and schedule them into your calendar, the same way you schedule the other steps of your plan.

When the time comes to make a progress report, write your answers to these questions:

1. Have I met the milestones I planned to meet since my last progress report?
2. Do I need to change my plan to reach my milestones?
3. Do I need to change my milestones?

Circumstances change constantly. Your plan may need to change with them. If you find that you need to make changes, make them. If you need to revise your plan, revise it. That’s what a progress report is all about.