Now don’t worry if you haven’t made your goals for this year I’ve got you covered. If you listening to last week’s episode, you would have already learnt about the ins and hows to create your own unique way to plan for your goals.I reveal my whole new process around how I intent to plan for my goals and the reason why I’ve decided to plan for one goal at a time rather than the conventional goal setting of three. Not a problem if you missed it you can always have a listen after this one! So this week I’m still talking about al things goals, Today I will be specifically talking to you about what I’ve found helpful in the past when choosing goals in my business. And my thought process around choosing goals, including my process and the question I ask to help me find my most appropriate and desired goal.
Goal Categories
I’ve made quite a few goals in the past and before writing this episode I looked through them. And I can easily seen that not all goals are the same. That’s why in my mind I look at goals a little differently by grouping them into categories. Personally I see three different types of goals. There are project goals that usually include a longer process of task to build, but you kinda know most of the milestones to make it happen. Such as creating an online course, starting a podcast, Building a website these are what I call project goals. Then there are more number orientated goals or specific goals these are the ones that usually take more time, and are continually measuring, therefore you an ongoing process to re-evaluate what your doing to reach said goal is working. For example these would be things like gain more traffic to your website or Increase sales by 30% or make xyz amount of revenue next year etc. Then there are more personal goals in business these are goals less focused about the outcome and more attention on what it is that you wish to do or achieve. This could be things like do an online course to learn my about xyz, Create a better workday routine or work with a person in a particular industry, Do more Collaborations. Obviously there will be a some what sort of result or outcome from doing all these things but really you’re focused on the what you want want to do.
Brain Storm Goals
Knowing what type of goal you have also helps you understand how to tackle it. The first thing that I do when it comes to goal setting is grab a pen and paper and sitting down to write or more scribble out very elaborate brainstorm. Whilst keeping in the back of my mind the different categorise for goals. I begin by write down all possible goals I can think of. I personally prefer to use paper and pen because it feels freeing and flexible then doing this exercises typed on a laptop. Plus when typed digital it always feels it has a unintentional order of rank. If you do brain dumps before you can think of it like that but with goals. This help me see all the possible things that I could work towards and also help me realise that I can do it all!
Process Of Elimination
Even if you have one goal or three goal it’s really important making sure that they are worth being your goal. To get it down to one or three we have to do a little bit of a process of elimination. In order to work out the best goals for you and your needs and wants. We need to test them, i do this though asking a series of question. It’s time to work out which goals are most aligned to our needs and wants in business.
Question One
So some of the questions that I would ask each goal within my brainstorm is. How excited are you to do it? I think we can get caught up in what we think we should be doing because what’sa name over there is doing that. But really when running your own business you should have excitement about your goals. But not doing things because you think you should all the time. So if you already see a few goals on your piece paper that feel uninspiring and instead fill you with dread then they might be the best ones to scrap! Excitement with your goals is more likely to keep us motivated to accomplish it. That being said don’t get excitement confused with feeling scared, just become something is a seems at little scary it’s still worth keeping as a goal.
Question Two
The second question I asked is Why Now? Just because others are doing things to grow there community, adding another thing to their income streams, automated their businesses doesn’t mean you have to have these goals too. This question will encourage you to think about appropriateness of that goal. Think about this not just in term of your business but in-relation to your personal life. If you know you have certain things you are thinking about like starting family and you want to put other things in place maybe the automated income streams is the best goal for right now. But if your business is ticking over your making a living and your perfectly content with where you are at doesn’t mean you have to keep growing. But maybe improve what you already have.
By asking the now question, forces you too detach from the what in your goal and more the why you want to complete this goal now. Don’t choose a goal purely based on excitement you need to think about the appropriateness for you to focus your time and energy on it right now. Because you might find that it’s something to do later down the line doesn’t mean you won’t ever accomplish it. It just mean it’s not the right time for it right now.
I’ve always felt in goal planning that you need make sure you goals are aligning with your personal life. If one of your personal goals is to make more time for friends and family but you’ve planned to. Launch 3 new things in your business it may make it difficult for you to find the time for both. So make sure you’re picking goals that also work along side of you’re personal goals in life and lifestyle you want.
Question Three
With this in mind the next question is what results will this goal grant me once achieved? and this is really a two part question. Do you really care and or how much will you benefit from this goals outcome?
If you’ve got a goal in your brainstorm that’s for example automate your on boarding process will this really help you get more clients? Probably not it may help you save some time is that a big enough benefit for the amount of time setting it up? For some it might be and for others you might actually like your current set up and haven’t really ran into any issues with it so the results may not actually be as beneficial to you as you might think. So make sure you really think about firstly what result you wish to see in your business.
Question Four
Lastly how will you feel if you accomplish this goal? and or what will it enable you to do afterward? Some goal aren’t always that fun or overly exciting but we have to complete them and they are worth doing. This may mean looking at the goal and really taking a moment on how you will feel when you achieve it and let your mind follow up on how this could help other areas or what it would enable you do in your personal life. Either way get an good idea if this goal will actually feel worth achieving, because it doesn’t do that and it doesn’t really enable you do other things either. it might not be as important as you think. Unfortunately you are the only person to honestly decided!
Thats it from me today folks I hope this goal setting exercise provides everyone listening with some guidance with choosing your goals in business for 2023. Again if you missed last weeks episode on How to make the best goal planning system for yourself in 2023. I share the complete way I intent to plan for my goals in 2023 and why I’ve decided to do it this way taking into account all my personal traits, strengths and weaknesses and rectifying all the mistakes I made with my planning in the past.