How to create a one page business plan – Successful goal setting for 2012
Do you need help with successful goal setting?
Hi again! 🙂
I am grateful that you came back to continue on your path to creating a plan for your business and your life.
Two days ago, we talked about creating a vision. How are you doing with that?
Are you dreaming BIG? VERY BIG??? COOL!!! 🙂
Then yesterday, we discussed creating your specific mission.
There are so many ways of fulfilling a vision, that you have to be much more concrete about how exactly you want to reach your dreams.
Think about it this way:
Your vision could be: I want to travel all over the world
Your mission tells you WHERE exactly you want to go
Now we one to step three: Your specific goals.
If you are on a journey around the world, you need to set parameters of when you want to be where so that you know that you are on track.
Otherwise, you run the risk of loving, lets say, Spain so much, that you forget to travel to France, England,Germany,….
In the end you will have had a great time in Spain, but you will have missed your ultimate goal: To travel around the world.
Does this make sense?
So come up with precise, tangible goals that you or your coach can hold you accountable for.
This takes courage, I want to warn you!
This is when the dreaming stops and the work begins.
It is good work, but it can be scary.
You might have to tap on this repeatedly to get over the resistance.
For creative people with the mind of an artist, this can feel downright threatening, as now there is the possibility of missing the goals.
There can be fear of judgment, fear of failure, fear of boredom, fear of overwhelm.
Many of my coaching clients struggle with this, and we have to tap through the self sabotage that can come up.
Don’t worry, these fears usually don’t stay for long. You just have to work through them and replace them with excitement and enthusiasm.
EFT is great for this. If you need help: Send me an email, and we can do a 20 min free strategy session.
I’d love to hear from you!
OK, now that you have worked through this, here is your next step:
Come up with goals
First, financial. How much do you want to make?
Please don’t say “A Million Dollars” if you have never made that before. Your subconscious mind will not understand what “A Million Dollars” means unless you have an experience or tangible value or reason why it has to be that exact sum.
To get started, why not take what you are making today, and simply double it?
Seriously: If you don’t know how to double your income, you certainly don’t know how to make “A Million Dollars”.
So set yourself a goal, by when you want to have doubled your income.
Set yourself a goal by when you want to have consistent, recurring income
Set yourself a goal by when you want how many clients
Set yourself a goal by when you want to teach your first workshop
Set goals for when you want your social media to be up and running, when you want to have your blog under control.
Know when you want your optin page and your giveaway to be online.
For your life, you might want to think about when you want that clutter to be gone, when you want to be on that healthy diet, when exactly you intend to join the gym, and how often you want to work out.
Set goals that are measurable.
This way you can’t overdo it.
You will notice very quickly if you overbooked yourself, when you truly put times to your goals, and put those deadlines into a calendar.
You can’t go to the gym 4 times per week when you also want to join the PTA, take dance lessons, join the reading club and spend an hour a day decluttering, while tending to two small children and working 4 hours per day in an office.
So why bother thinking that you have to have these goals?
Take it one step at a time, focus on your priorities and then get going and do something.
Put this on paper – no, put it in the calendar!
Put it on one of those huge, old fashioned calendars that cover half your desk.
Make sure that you see that calendar. This is your guideline for your life.
This keeps you on track, allows you to plan, allows you to be proactive.
it will take a bit of time to get used to being so organized, but you will see quickly how freeing it is when somebody comes with a request and you can clearly see that your calendar doesn’t allow for you to do it.
You can say “no” to requests, and you can also say “no” to the bright, shiny objects that can so easily sidetrack you from staying focussed.
Trust me: we all do this when we see an opportunity. There is just too much to do out there, too may fascinating, new things, too many responsibilities.
Only when you are clear about your goals can you begin to feel safe that you are working on your success.
In the end, nobody, including yourself, will ask you how many things you tried to do. People will ask you how many things you actually did.
Everything you tried but didn’t finish will make you feel rather guilty or not satisfied.
Satisfaction comes from accomplishing your goals, not from trying out how many things could be done.
There is a second place for your goals:
And this is right in your face 🙂
No, seriously: Having your goals on a calendar gives you a great visual, but you have to have them in front at you at all times.
Your subconscious mind will thank you for the consistent reminder of what you want to focus on, what is important to you.
Get a sticky out and put it on the bathroom mirror, with the goals for today.
Write your goals for the year on a piece of paper and hide it behind the bathroom mirror, to be discovered again December 31st.
Do what you need to do to remind yourself how important your goals are to you and what you have decided to do.
You can program your smartphone with reminders.
You can put notes in your wallet.
Bottom line: You have to get used to being OK with working on your goals at all times.
Oh, did I mention that working on being relaxed or being fit is also a goal?
If it is important to you, it is not a luxury, it needs to be a goal.
Your wellbeing is just as important as your financial wealth.
Make sure you put these goals in the calendar, too!
Again: If you need or want something in your life and in your business, you need to plan for it and have to take it seriously.
Being relaxed is serious business, and you will be surprised how fun and easy it is to stay on schedule when you feel that your schedule supports your lifestyle and your happiness.
Tomorrow, we will talk more about the strategies you can come up with to reach your goals. For today: Just come up with what you want, be clear about t and tell yourself when you want it.
Please leave your questions and comments below. Thank you so much! I truly appreciate you!
Love
Ingrid
Great job on this article. I always have trouble with this. Thank you!