After the turmoil and turbulence of 2020, it’s not surprising that many people are not setting any New Year’s resolutions this year. Our mental health took a hit last year and the pressure of ‘new year, new me’ just isn’t necessary.
You worked hard all of last year to achieve your goals, so why should you feel the need to revolutionise the way you live or work. If you want to use the start of a new year to refresh and reset then that’s great, go ahead, but not all of us do.
Having said that, we shouldn’t just roll over into 2021 with the bad habits we’ve fallen into and no idea where we’re going or what we want. So, how can you become clear on where you’re heading and get those goals in place to smash the coming year?
Let me take you through step by step…
Process of Review
There are three questions you can ask yourself to review anything, and they’re really simple.
- What went well?
- What didn’t go so well?
- What can I do better next time?
Use these three little questions to review either a particular activity or event, or you can review the past 3, 6 or 12 months. Set some time aside to think carefully through different aspects of your life, your business or whatever you’re deciding to review and write down the answers, rather than just thinking about them. By getting this on paper it will help you to see it and also to remember it for next time.
Start with the positives and review what went well. Think about what you did to achieve that, so you can make sure that you keep these aspects for next time. Build on the positives.
Then move onto the things that didn’t go so well. While you might not have had any disasters, there are bound to be things that didn’t go as well as other things, or didn’t go as well as last time maybe. Think about what it was about these things that caused them to not go as well, which leads nicely onto the next question.
Use the last question to set objectives and goals for next time you do the activity or for the coming months. You’ve written down the aspects that didn’t go as well as they could’ve done, so start there. But then once you have thought about these, think further in the future. How are you going to change what you did before, build on it and improve? Set yourself some goals based on this.
Looking Ahead & Goal Setting
That leads us nicely into the next section, goal setting.
You’ve almost certainly heard of SMART goals before, but it is a good practice to follow when goal setting so let’s review it quickly.
S – Specific – be specific with your goal setting. Specify exactly what you want to achieve and don’t be brief. The more details in here the better.
M – Measurable – It must be quantifiable. Saying you want to ‘get better’ at something or ‘lose weight’ is very open ended. How much weight do you want to use? And how will you know you’re better and achieved your goal?
A – Achievable – Don’t go too big too soon. Goals can be broken down into achievable steps, but you need to be able to see yourself reaching this goal. If you can’t envisage it, it will make it a hell of a lot harder to achieve.
R – Realistic – While dreaming big is great, you need to be realistic or you will only come away disheartened and unmotivated. Let’s face it, as cool as it would be to have a flying pig, stay in the realms of reality.
T – Time Bound – there has to be a deadline on the goal. If it is left open ended there is no incentive to push yourself to get there.
Your goals should push you out of your comfort zone enough to help you progress, but not be too terrifying. You should be able to see yourself achieving your goal and regularly imagining what it will feel like to get there will help you on your way. Think about setting goals with different time frames on too, with the shorter-term goals being smaller and more achievable and leading up to the longer-term goals, that are a little larger and will push you even more.
Break Your Goals Down into Actionable Steps
Ticking your achievements off your to do list gives you a huge sense of achievement and will keep you on track to success. So, for each goal you have, break it down into actionable steps to help you get to where you need to go.
An example of this:
Goal – I want to turnover £60,000 between 1st January 2021 and 31st December 2021.
Great goal, but how will you achieve that?
Break it down to a monthly turnover target, which would be £5,000 per month in this case.
Now that you have your monthly goal, break that down further by looking at your offerings.
Say you have 3 packages, one at £250, another at £500 and the final one at £1000.
Review your previous sales to help guide you in what you’re likely to sell and then break it down into how many of each product/offering you need to sell in order to hit your target. So, for our example let’s say you need to sell 6 x package 1, 5 x package 2, and 1 x package 3 each month.
By selling these packages each month this will take you up to your £5,000 goal per month and therefore will take you up to your £60,000 goal for the year.
Sounds simple, but by breaking it down it will keep you on track. And remember there will be flexibility within the months. One month you may not make it, but another you might do more.
Another example that isn’t financial could be:
Goal – To build my own website and launch by 30th April.
Break that goal down into the different steps.
- Map out and plan what you want from your website including site map – 31st January
- Gather images and write the content for each page of the website – 31st January
- Research into CMS and make decision on which to use – 31st January
- Buy domain, hosting, SSL and CMS ready to set up website – 15th February
- Set up the CMS and get the website ready to start building – 28th February
- Build each page of the website as per your plan and site map – 31st March
- Test and finalise the build ready to set it live – 15th April
- Get a third party, someone you trust to test and review too – 15th April
- Launch – 30th April
The key here is to make sure that each step has its own deadline to keep things on track. You may have to be flexible with the dates as you work through, but this will help to keep you focused and pushing on. You may also find that you come across hiccups or extra steps you hadn’t foreseen when you planned the goal initially and that’s ok. Add them to your list and move things around as you need to, and keep in mind the bigger picture of the end goal.
You’re Not Alone
And I don’t mean this in a scary, ghostly kind of way…
But more the fact that you don’t have to do everything yourself. Perhaps there are things you can outsource to someone else to help you achieve your goals? This isn’t cheating! It’s being sensible.
When it comes to something, just for example building a website, it may take much more time and stress in the long run for you to build it yourself, than to outsource it to someone else. If you wanted to manage it long term, but didn’t have the time and/or expertise to get it off the ground at the start, you could talk to the website builder and ask them if they can show you how to update it when it is finished. That way you have control but can invest your time more wisely in the short term into your area of expertise.
Be wise about where your expertise lie. Would you be better spending your time doing what you do best? Or would you be better investing in yourself and taking the opportunity to learn something new? There is no right or wrong, but don’t be afraid to ask for help.
And on that note, I’m just going to leave this quote here from Michael Jordan “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.”
I hope this has helped you to decide where you’re heading in 2021 and to set yourself some goals that push you out of your comfort zone. Despite the lockdowns and troubles, we still face this year, there is so much we can do and that is firmly where we need to keep our focus. Try not to worry about things that are out of your control, as this will just leave you frustrated and unsatisfied. Focus your efforts on things within your control and stay on track to hitting your goals.
I’m always here and happy to help. If you have any questions about goal setting or anything marketing, please do get in touch.
Facebook: @marketingbuddie
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