Ideally, your firm has already made plans and set goals for 2013.  However, many goals made at the start of the year are often forgotten three months into the year.

Here are 4 rules for staying focused and achieving your goals:

1. Ask someone to hold you accountable.

Accountability is key  when it comes to keeping your commitments. Whether it's your firm partner, an attorney in a different firm, or one of our marketing associates, set up a regular time to meet with someone you trust and who has your best interests at heart and request they help keep you accountable.

Simply knowing that they will ask you about your progress every week can motivate you to stay the course.

2.  Make sure they are S.M.A.R.T. goals.

This is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results-oriented, and Timed. A good goal needs to incorporate all of these criteria. It is not sufficient to say "I want to be a millionaire." That statement may be measurable, but does not include time frames, it does not lay out a specific game plan for how you will accomplish this goal, and it may not be realistic for you at this point in time. 

An example of a SMART goal is: "I want to meet in person with a minimum of 4 different potential referral sources every month for the next 6 months and ask them to send me business."

3.  Make your goals smaller.

While this may seem contradictory at first, we have found that sometimes setting a goal that's so big it feels unreachable actually kills your motivation. Break up your long-term goals into smaller ones that you can reach on a regular basis. 

For example, gaining 50 new clients in the next 12 months may sound overwhelming, but this works out to about 1 per week. If you know that you convert 50% of prospects that come to your legal practice then you only need 2 new people to walk in your door per week in order to achieve your goal.

4.  Focus on the right goals.

Whenever I have a client that goes more than 2 weeks without achieving the goal they set, I start asking questions to determine if this is a goal they really feel passionate about.

If there is no commitment to a particular goal, it will be very difficult for most people to devote time to accomplishing it.  Before you commit time, energy and resources to a goal, make sure it is something you truly care about and that will make a noticeable difference in your practice.