The Power of ‘HOW’: 3 Steps To Achieve Your Goals

Here at Inclusive Innovation, one of the most common challenges our clients face is HOW to achieve their goals. Sure they might have got a stellar ambition, but all too often HOW to get there seems elusive and overwhelming (especially when you consider the magnitude of the Sustainable Development Goals). The same goes for New Year’s resolutions. Have you ever wondered why so few of our noble resolutions actually become reality?

We have a theory and it’s nicely summarized by renowned author Antoine Saint-Exupery: “A goal without a plan is just a wish.”

To kick off the year at HQ (and to truly practice what we preach), our global team of facilitators came together to embrace the Creative Problem Solving (CPS) method and work through a simple and fun activity that would help us unlock our goals for the year. Rather than wish them true, we used the HOW HOW tool to break our goals down into simple, bite-sized (and most importantly) actionable steps.

Read on to discover how using the HOW, HOW tool could help you achieve your goals.

3 Steps to Materialize Goals in 2024:

We have found great success in the exercise of breaking down a lofty seemingly unattainable goal into small actions that are easy to implement in our daily lives. It’s a way to hack our minds and get ourselves in motion.

STEP 1: Ideate and explore your resolutions

– List Your Resolutions: Start by jotting down your resolutions for the year. This sets a direction for your evolution. Be flexible, though, as the future is unpredictable, and life can surprise us. Select a few that you’re willing to spend time and energy on.

– Uncover Motivation: Identify the driving force behind each resolution. A strong motivation is key to persevering through challenges. Imagine: how will you feel when you achieve what you want? Feel it and write it down.

– Reward Yourself: Determine a reward for yourself upon achievement. How will you celebrate your efforts, time, and energy invested in achieving this goal?

– Set Deadlines: Establish clear and realistic deadlines for your resolutions. Without a date, there’s a risk of procrastination.

STEP 2: Identify your Assistors and Resistors

– Identify Your Assistors: Consider (and, list!) the things – people, events, trends, opportunities – that could support your progress, and help you achieve your resolution. Don’t stop at one. Note them all down.

– Identify Your Resistors: If something is missing in our lives, there’s likely a barrier preventing it, like fear or limited financial resources. Take a moment to reflect and compile a list of potential obstacles that may be impeding your journey toward achieving your resolution.

STEP 3: Build your How-How Action Plan

Using all the lists you’ve come up with as stimulus…

– Start with the few significant actions that will lead you to your resolution, leveraging the resources identified earlier (see the example below.)

– Break these actions into smaller, manageable steps, answering the “HOW” question to every significant action, to create a detailed action plan.

– Employ the Assistors and anticipate Resistors to add detail to your action plan.

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Breaking down ambitious goals into manageable steps enhances their achievability. Check out our example:

By following the three steps we’ve outlined here, you’ll not only explore (and ultimately better understand) the intrinsic motivations behind your resolutions, but you’ll also find a supportive framework to break down your goals into actionable, achievable elements.

Concrete steps for concrete actions!

We hope you find this process as effective and enjoyable as our team did… and we’ll be sure to invite you to test our new service when it launches 😉 !

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Note: if you want to know more about the Creative Problem Solving, a methodology that unlocks creativity and transforms it into versatile tools for every aspect of our lives, dive into the details in our article, “How and Why We Use CPS.”