The Path to Achieve our Goals

A well-known tradition for the New Years Eve is to write the goals (personal and professional) we expect to achieve next year. As with many people around the world, maybe you did it last year, as I did, but unfortunately when people are going through this list on the last months of 2013 it is possible that many of them haven’t achieved many of their goals, which is very frustrating.

If you don’t want to be part of the people that don’t achieve their goals I will introduce you to a tool called Gap Analysis that may help you in order to accomplish your objectives. This tool that has been used in businesses starts by determining your present situation or As-Is, listing its characteristics and attributes. For example in a race the starting point is the As-Is. So if you want to achieve your goals the first thing you have to do is understand and describe your starting point.

After you have determined your As-Is, you have to know where you want to get, in other words which is your desired state or To-Be. As you did with the As-Is, you have to determine the characteristics and attributes of the desired state. In a race, this will be the finish line where the athlete must arrive to win.

Until this point we have determined the starting point and the finish line but unfortunately this is not enough to achieve our goals. We also have to highlight the gaps that are keeping us far from our goals, and that need to be filled. After we determine the gaps we can undertake actions, or projects in order to close these gaps. In the race, the gap would be the distance between the starting point and the finish line, and guess how the athlete can close this gap… Obviously: running, running and running!!!

Now that you know the gap analysis methodology you can use it to achieve your personal objectives but also the goals of your entrepreneurship. Start by defining the characteristic factors and attributes of the As-Is and proceed to do the same with the To-Be. Once you have described these current and future states you may determine the gaps and the projects to take on, in order to move from the As-Is to the To-Be. You will see how it helps to determine specific projects in order to achieve your goals. Finally I can only say: go for it!

Image taken from Flickr.com