How To Use Project Milestones To Stay On Track With Goals

Before we get to nan bosom of utilizing task milestones for our goals, we first request to look astatine what a extremity is. A goal’s intent is to return thing you are not satisfied pinch and create actionable steps to execute your desired result.

Common goals see achieving a weight summation aliases loss, making financial purchases, aliases finishing a individual endeavor for illustration moving a marathon.

Therefore, choosing task milestones is cardinal to reaching your desired goal. This helps you enactment connected way and support you focused erstwhile achieving that extremity whitethorn look impossible.

Goals and Project Milestones

A goal’s intent is to alteration thing permanently, for nan better.

If you group a extremity to prevention $10,000 complete nan adjacent 12 months, nan intent is to alteration from being a spender into a saver.

You whitethorn opportunity that a extremity to complete a full-course marathon (26.2 miles) would beryllium complete erstwhile you decorativeness nan marathon. I would reason that, connected nan contrary, completing a full-course marathon has turned you into a marathon runner.

This contrasts pinch a project. A task is thing you do successful a fixed period. Once complete, you move connected to nan adjacent project.

For instance, you whitethorn person a task to create a trading campaign. Once nan run finishes, nan run is over. Done.

You whitethorn person learned a fewer things on nan way, but for each intents and purposes, nan task is finished, and you move connected to nan adjacent one.

How Can We Combine Both Parts to Achieve Our Goals?

A extremity is your higher purpose, and a milestone is simply a measurement to measurement your progress.

To springiness you an example. Imagine you group nan extremity to prevention $10,000 successful 2022, starting connected nan first of January.

You could group a monthly milestone of $834.00 sent to savings. This way, you guarantee that you person capable costs astatine nan extremity of each period to nonstop $834.00 to your savings account.

However, milestones are not ever arsenic elemental to set. For example, let’s return nan marathon moving goal. How would you group milestones to execute that goal?

It would dangle connected wherever you are starting. If you are already a runner, moving 5 miles whitethorn not look very overmuch of a milestone. You whitethorn already do that respective times a week.

However, you could group yourself milestones for moving a 10K title and a half-marathon (13.1 miles). In this scenario, you would springiness yourself six months to hole for your marathon.

After 2 months, you want to tally a 10k title successful nether 1 hour. That would beryllium your milestone and then, group a milestone to tally a half-marathon successful nether 2 hours astatine nan five-month mark.

The Benefits of Project Milestones

Meaningful goals request to beryllium beyond your existent abilities—they request to agelong you. By “stretch”, I mean they person to propulsion you out of your comfortableness zone to thief you grow your capabilities.

Often, erstwhile we group a goal, we person nary thought really to execute it; each we cognize is we want to execute it.

If you group a extremity to go nan CEO of your institution wrong nan adjacent 10 years, but currently, you are connected nan little rungs of your company’s firm ladder, it whitethorn look impossible. However, if you break that extremity down into milestones, you could group a milestone to beryllium a head of your ain section aft 2 years—a overmuch much realistic achievement.

Once you execute that milestone, you would group yourself nan milestone of becoming a head and past connected to nan activity team.

Milestones are stepping stones towards a bigger goal. All you request to do is attraction connected nan adjacent milestone.

If you attraction connected achieving your milestones, past step by step, you move person to your bigger goal. It’s much motivating because nan adjacent measurement is ever conscionable a fewer months away.

Big Goals, Manageable Milestones

Let’s opportunity you tally your ain company, and by nan extremity of nan decade, you person nan extremity to person revenues of $10 million. This allows you 8 years to execute your goal.

Often, a extremity that acold distant will look intolerable because you are looking astatine it from wherever you guidelines today, which whitethorn beryllium owning a business pinch a $50,000 yearly revenue.

For you to ain a $10 cardinal business, you will request to change. How a personification who runs a $10 cardinal institution coming will beryllium different from really a personification who runs a $50,000 business. To go a $10 cardinal business owner, you will person to spell done a bid of targets and alteration arsenic a business personification on nan way.

In this case, you could group yourself 8 milestones. Then, you would request to cipher really overmuch you request to turn your business each twelvemonth to execute that goal.

For example, successful your first year, you could group nan milestone of doubling your maturation to $100,000. That’s each you would request to attraction on. What do you person to do to double your business revenues?

If you execute that successful nan first year, your adjacent milestone mightiness beryllium to double it again. You will person learned a batch from that first year, and you tin usage that acquisition to activity retired really you could double again.

In this example, your milestones are breaking down a extremity that whitethorn initially look intolerable into achievable steps that, taken together 1 aft nan other, will yet person you scope your goal.

You could break yearly milestones down still further. For instance, if your yearly milestone is to execute $100,000 successful revenues, your quarterly milestone would beryllium $25,000. So now, nan mobility becomes: what do I person to do to bring successful $25,000 successful gross complete nan adjacent 3 months?

This intends you do not person to interest astir what will hap successful 8 years. Instead, you only request to attraction connected nan $25,000 successful nan adjacent 3 months.

Milestones Give You Data Points and Direction

Milestones enactment arsenic nan waypoints to show that you are moving successful nan correct direction towards nan bigger goal. If you find yourself falling behind, you tin reappraisal your attack and set it to get backmost connected track.

For instance, you whitethorn find that aft 2 quarters, you are down successful achieving a gross of $100,000 for nan year. You mightiness beryllium connected $35,000. This now gives you 2 choices. You tin either set your milestone for this twelvemonth to $75,000, aliases you could modify your income strategy.

Milestones springiness you information points you tin usage to set your attack if you autumn down your goal.

An illustration would beryllium if you find that May and June are mediocre sales, but August and September are awesome sales. You whitethorn not beryllium alert of this successful your first year, but erstwhile you cognize this information, you tin usage it to maximize income successful those months successful nan pursuing year.

Key Takeaways

Milestones and goals spell hand-in-hand. Your extremity needs to look intolerable (or almost impossible) erstwhile you group it. Luckily, having a measurement to way your advancement will thief you support your eyes connected nan bigger picture.

Your milestones springiness you mini-celebrations on your journey. They pass you that you are either connected aliases disconnected way and supply you pinch information you tin usage to course-correct your travel towards successfully achieving your goal. Use these cardinal takeaways and nan operation of goals and milestones to execute occurrence successful each areas of your life.

Featured photograph credit: Glenn Carstens-Peters via unsplash.com