It’s the new year, which means it’s time for all things planning and goals!
So you sit down with your journal or planner and start making lists of all the things you want to do and be this year, and the list starts getting longer… and longer… and longer…
How are you ever going to get it all done?
Whether its creating a new product, planning a sale & promotion, or organizing a vacation, the most common complaint I hear from entrepreneurs is that they don’t have enough time to do it all.
Seems like a valid issue, doesn’t it?
But what if I told you that any perceived lack of time on your part is actually a lack of clarity.
And it’s not necessarily a lack of clarity in terms of where you want to go and what sort of success you want to achieve; it’s more a lack of clarity on how you’re going to get there.
But when you get super clear on not just what you want to achieve, but how you plan to get there, with a clear path to your goals, and a framework to set them up correctly.
And what do you get when you set up goals the right way? All the time in the world!
To help you plan your journey for the new year, I created an entire Goal Achievement Planner available to Business Class members — but I’m offering you a sneak peek today. Click here to download the 3 Tiers of Success Worksheet (normally ONLY available to Business Class Members) to help jumpstart your new year goal setting.
Plan your itinerary
When planning a vacation, would you book an airline ticket before deciding on where you wanted to go?
Probably not.
The same is true for success planning.
Your goal is the destination, and only once you determine the goal can you adequately start planning how you’re going to get there.
One of the biggest myths I see about goal setting is that it’s all about the big goal; the thinking seems to be that if you just create the intention (“I’m going to make $100,000 this year!”) it will somehow magically happen.
While I certainly wish that’s how it worked, it almost never does!
Instead of relying on one big goal, you need to remember that the goal is the destination — but you’ve got an entire itinerary to plan in order to get there! You must break down your big goals into actionable steps, spread out over the course of the whole year, in order to make progress.
BIG PICTURE PLANNING
Your destination is all about vision and defining what your life and business will be like in 12 months – and why. You also want to establish milestones of success. This is where your 3 Tiers of Success Worksheet will help you figure out what success actually looks like — in all areas of your life.
Once you’ve figured out your destination, you have to plan how you’re going to get there, which brings us to…
90 DAY OUTLOOK
Once you determine your big picture yearly objectives, you want to break it down into 90-day goals and identify what needs to be done in a given 90 day period.
I like 90-day increments because it’s enough time to accomplish a lot — but not so much time that you start to get overwhelmed. Think about what you can actually accomplish in the next 90 days that will move you significantly toward your big goals.
MONTHLY HABITS
Reaching your goals isn’t just about defining what tasks need to be done and then doing them.
It’s also about creating a routine for yourself that lends to you reaching your objectives. What steps do you need to take every month to achieve your 90 day goals? Maybe this means reaching out to a certain number of potential customers, writing blog posts, hosting webinars, writing emails, etc.
These are the tasks that you must regularly do to support reaching your goals.
WEEKLY INTENTION
Of course, with big goals, it can be easy to get overwhelmed by the number of tasks or minutiae of a project.
By organizing your workload into weekly segments, or intentions, you can put structure to your to-do list that makes it more attainable and manageable.
Beyond the regular monthly tasks you need to do, there will be smaller to-dos that you can break down into weekly intentions. Things like: Write the first module of my program, work with designer to redesign packaging, write a sales page, hire a VA, choose a photographer for new product photos, etc.
Here’s a tip: there are 12 weeks in every 90-day period, so see if you can break your 90-day goals into 12 steps.
DAILY TO DO
Now that you have a clear path towards your big vision goals, you can prioritize more effectively on a daily basis.
But don’t try to cram too much into one day! You’ll see big progress and feel most productive when you focus in on limited daily to-do list. I like to have no more than 3 main tasks on my list. Any more than that and I start to feel rushed and overwhelmed.
On the road to success
Once you’ve mapped out your journey, the path to success becomes so much clearer.
In fact, one of two things may happen:
- You might realize that you have too many big goals! If you work through this framework and have waaaay more than 3 main to-dos per day, or you simply can’t imagine how you’ll work it all in, you may need to reassess your big goals. Can you prioritize? Delegate? Hire help?
- You might realize that you need to dream bigger! If this plan helps you see that you can easily reach your yearly goals in the first 90 days or so, it’s time to set those goals a little higher. Go back to the 3 Tiers of Success Worksheet and reimagine what your “hairy scary successes” actually look like — then rework your plan to get there and beyond.
Of course, this is just kind of the top level of planning; in the Business Class Goal Achievement Planner, I go into a great deal more detail on each step, with videos and worksheets to help you make the most of your planning and understand the nuances of each stage. If you’re curious what it’s all about, be sure to click here to grab your 3 Tiers of Success Worksheet for a glimpse at just one of the many resources available exclusively to Business Class members!
