For many people, Monday officially was the kick-off of the New Year.
But it’s already a week into January — is your excitement still going strong for all the lofty goals you’ve set for your business?
I don’t need to [INSERT A LAME STAT] here for you to understand that resolutions, goals, and to-dos are hard to stick with no matter whether it’s a personal goal, financial goal, relational goal or anything else.
If you’ve followed along with the past few episodes (episode #30 and #32) on how to set and crush your goals this year — then this is the missing piece you’re probably already realizing you need, to actually get shiz done.
So far your goals have been large, lofty and maybe even a little pie-in-the-sky… we all feel this way at the beginning of a new year, don’t feel bad!
In today’s episode, I want to break down how to actually tie your tasks and productivity to your goals so that you can be the friend at the table celebrating because you crushed all your goals.
How to Actually Hit Your Goals in 2019
Step 1: Break your goals into quarters
Your brain functions much better and doesn’t freak out as much when tasks are broken into smaller chunks. That’s totally not a scientific statement, but it’s true! It’s also easier to stay on course, keep yourself focused and get bigger results when you have a shorter time frame to get it done in.
So take your BIG goal for the year that you want to accomplish. Remember this goal needs to be specific + measurable with a definite time frame. Then break it down by what needs to happen each quarter for you to consider it crossed off.
Let’s say someone wants to make $50,000 in revenue in 2019. And she knows it will take her some time to ramp up to her full potential for sales, so she estimates she can bring in $10,000 in Quarter 1.
Step 2: Create progress goals
How will you actually make that $10,000? What would you need to sell, create, do, be?
Once you know how you’re going to bring in the revenue, break it down into 3-4 progress goals that show you if you’re on target and tangibly give yourself a way to hit that goal.
For example, It’s easier to know you have to fill X group program spots this quarter to hit the goal, than to just know you want to sell $10,000 of services.
But then take it a step beyond just tangibly figuring out how to sell that much revenue in a quarter.
Besides selling, what has to happen? How will you find the people or sell to them? A second progress goal in this instance could be that you physically talk or make an offer to 4 people week.
If you know you need X, and you have a pretty good closing rate of % when you talk to them, then it suddenly becomes a numbers game and your focus for the wu quarter becomes: how to do I bring in 4 people a week to talk to?
Step 3: Create actions + tasks
This is where the magic happens. If you noticed your thought progression throughout this goal-setting process, you’re getting more and more specific and focused as you work through each stage.
This step is where you get to the meat of why most people’s goals fail. They never make it out of a dream.
Remember our last question above: How do I bring in 4 people a week to talk to?
Ta-da! You just narrowed down the heart of what you need to “do” to grow your business.
Your action steps become all the ways you’re going to find people to connect with that are ideal.
This could be going to more networking events, running ads, having sales conversations, being active in communities with your ideal people, etc.
Because you’ve set progress goals and broken your goal into a three-month time period, you know exactly if you’re on or off the mark to hit that goal.
Now what?
Did you make an offer to 4 people this week? Looks like you have more people to talk to next week OR you need to get out there and start connecting.
This process of breaking a goal down into realistic steps has been a game-changer in my own life (both personal and professional) and for the clients, I work with to set and implement this quarterly breakdown of goals.
Do you see how if you know your target is four dreamy people a week to talk to, that all your marketing efforts are going to be on where to be to attract them, what messaging they’d look for based on what you’re offering in Step 2.
There’s a planner that follows this same type of outline that I’m describing that my fellow paper planners will love. It’s called Self Journal.
By taking the time to put the CEO hat on for your business, you’re truly transforming what your business is going to do in the next year.
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
Step outside the box and allow yourself space and time to grow into this goal. I can’t wait to hear how you’ve grown at the end of this year!
