Get Started on Your Goal: 8 Steps to Get Things Done

✅ Get Started on Your Goal
8 Steps to Get Things Done

Welcome to 2025. New year. New opportunities. How determined are you to move forward with your goals, large and small?

“I’ll get to it later.” “I don’t have time to do this now.” “I wish I could get started building this new habit in my life.”

Ah, the familiar refrains of procrastination. Unfortunately, this melody never seems to get old. Like a familiar love song filled with longing, these thoughts may too often remind us of where we wish we were and don’t seem able to get to.

Yet there’s a major difference between an unanswered love song and a love song of self-compassion we can sing to ourselves. It’s simple. While we cannot control the actions of others, we can influence our own choices and actions.

Procrastination is simply putting things off. We all procrastinate sometimes. But let’s face it, some of us put things off more than others. According to Joseph Ferrari, PhD, professor of psychology at DePaul University, about 20 percent of people in the United States are chronic procrastinators (American Psychological Association, 2010). Ferrari explains that procrastination is not just delaying, but purposely waiting to make a decision or act.

As the new year begins, is it worth taking a second look at how and when you put off what matters to you? How might you choose to shift that pattern of behavior so you can move forward?

Speaking for myself, although I am not typically a procrastinator, I do have places where I get stuck in non-doing and waiting to act. For me, the sad song I keep singing is about organizing family photos – the many, many photos sitting in boxes stored at my home. We have more boxes of photos than I’d like to count. My family has snapped many of the photos, while others were inherited from loved ones. Some of you may remember when you’d print photos at the store and they bonused you with you two extra sets of prints. So many pictures! Well, we still have most of them. Perhaps it’s no surprise, but I need to get started on this task!

🎯 Here are 8 steps to help you (and me) move forward with our goals:

1. Make a firm decision to get started on the undertaking. You might want to write down your goal and post it somewhere you can see it daily.

2. Think ahead and begin the venture with the conclusion in mind. Define your objective. What would you like to have accomplished when the project is completed? How do you want to feel? Remember that you have the freedom to choose what you do, how you do it, and that you’re responsible for your choices (Covey, 2020).

3. Prioritize what’s most important about this venture. Make a realistic list of the parts of the project. This list may change as your understanding of the job and what it will take to complete it evolve.

4. Consider available resources. Who can help you get this done – family, a friend, a consultant or coach? Discuss approach, strategies, options. Is there a skill you can learn or strengthen to help you accomplish this goal?

5. Break the project and its tasks into reasonable chunks from start to completion. Start small and create manageable chunks that you have sufficient time to do effectively. “I’m just going to take out one box, a small one. I’ll start easy with something that seems manageable and give myself enough time to make good progress.”

6. Create a contingency plan. If you find that you are not meeting your goal, developing a wanted habit, or procrastinating on the steps, then what will you do? Instead of ignoring what’s getting in the way, Gabriele Oetingen, PhD’s (2024;2014) research on motivation reveals that it can help to boldly name the obstacle and create a plan to address it.

For example: “If I’m getting bored with today’s task, I’ll take a short break to walk the dog. Then I’ll come right back to the project.”

7. Reward Yourself – Celebrate being on the path and your successes along the way. Pause to notice your wins. What did you accomplish today? How does it feel to be making progress?

If you haven’t done what you wanted to today, how can you support yourself with self-compassion? Consider using your contingency plan to get back on track.

8. Rest and renew. Remember to take care of yourself. Get enough sleep, eat healthy foods, exercise in a way that respects your body and your abilities, interact with other people that you enjoy.

What goal are you procrastinating about?
How could you just get started?
What’s your plan?
When will you begin and what are your first steps?

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. No content is a substitute for consulting with a qualified mental health or healthcare professional.

© 2025 Ilene Berns-Zare, LLC, All Rights Reserved

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References:

• American Psychological Association (2010). Psychology of procrastination: Why people put off important tasks until the last minute.
• Covey, S. R. (2020). The 7 habits of highly effective people. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
• Oettingen, G.(2024). WOOP.  
• Oettingen, G. (2014). Rethinking positive thinking: Inside the new science of motivation. New York, NY: Current/Random House.

Ilene is a Featured Author on PsychologyToday!
Read her blog series Flourish and Thrive: Navigating transitions with mindfulness and resilience.

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