So, you have established your Designed Retirements plan and now to you have to execute it.  Some of the items are easy to do, some are more difficult.  It’s easy to plan an outing with your spouse, but not as easy to volunteer at a local charity.  The latter requires some pushing to actually do it and that first step always seems to fade into something else.

How to get going on these more challenging projects, execute and then complete your goal can be intimidating.  But it doesn’t have to be if you recognize that you ARE procrastinating and need to STOP it.  You’ll never get a goal completed in one easy step unless it’s a phone call that has to be made or an email that has to be sent, so you need to make baby steps, that become strides as you gain confidence in your ability to achieve your goal.

Follow the outline below to overcome the procrastination and achieve what you want.

1. Understand what you want to achieve and why – Putting it on paper is a first step, but delve deeper into exactly what achievement looks like. Picture yourself DOING the task or goal you want to achieve and understand why it is important for you.  This will make its importance much more understandable and the why clearer.
2. Take a first step – If it’s doing a web search, or researching a topic for how to achieve your goal, do it, AND MAKE NOTES. This will provide the beginning of a game plan to achieve the goal before you begin any tasks.  You don’t need rework, so understanding the steps required is important if you want to achieve the goal.  As you understand the steps, note which ones are going to provide a challenge or will be most difficult.  This will avoid procrastination within the tasks and make you aware of the actions that may adversely your ability to achieve your goal.  You may even have to practice making a phone call or draft an email in order to prepare yourself to complete it.
3. Celebrate the first step – OK, you’ve done it. Two weeks ago, you probably never thought you would, but now that big step is behind you.  You have overcome your procrastination and an atta boy is richly deserved.  Just rewarding yourself will want to make you complete the rest of the steps for your celebration at the end.
4. Push ahead like the first step and celebrate each completion – What’s worked before will work again and the objective is to push through your procrastination and get to your goal. Congratulate yourself for each step completed and then look at the next task, understand what is needed to complete it, and then get going.  As you become more confident in your ability to get past the procrastination, the tasks will become easier and your goal totally realizable.  Work through the “I don’t know” moments by simply telling yourself you need to do this.
5. Celebrate at the finish line – You’ve done it and it was work, but you can look back and realize what it took to complete the tasks to get to your goal, know you worked through them, and now can celebrate what was previously a dream, now realized. You have you to thank and thank you should.  You deserve it.

Goals are important in life and procrastination stops them from happening.  Recognize this and work through it.  You’ll be a better person and what were once unachievable tasks will become commonplace.  You did it, you deserve the credit and your goals achieved as a result.