Today’s topic of discussion is all about the Five Things You Can Do Today to Achieve Your Goals. There is a lot more to achieving any goal than just having the goal. But it is the first step.
You may wonder how some people seem so great at achieving their goals while other people aren’t so good at it. Part of the reason why some people fail is that they do not have a specific goal, one that is clear and focused. In addition, they do not have a schedule of action to actually work toward achieving the goal.
In order to meet any goal, start with these 5 things:
Clear, Specific, and Doable Goals
Each Goal Needs Set, Actionable Tasks
Schedule Everything
Take Action on Each Goal
Rinse and Repeat
How To Create Clear Goals
For any goal to be achievable it must first be clear and very specific. It also must be possible. You do want to challenge yourself a bit and set the goal high. But you want to ensure that any goal you set is possible. Therefore, you will need to do a little research in order to set a goal.
For instance, let’s say your ultimate goal is to lose 50 pounds. Obviously, anyone who needs to lose 50 pounds and sets their mind to it can do so. But they can’t and shouldn’t do it in one month. So an unreasonable goal is “I want to lose 50 pounds in a month.”
Instead, a more reasonable and doable goal is to state “I want to lose 50 pounds in 30 weeks.” This is in line with health recommendations not to lose more than 2 pounds per week and gives you a little cushion for plateaus and other issues.
Being Specific With Your Goals
Any goal that you really want to meet needs to have the “why” and the “how” included with the “what” of the goal. In the example above you want to lose 50 pounds in 30 weeks, which will be a little less than 2 pounds per week. You’ll need to look at your diet, compute the number of calories you should consume and the amount of exercise you need to see those results.
Thankfully, today there are online calculators to help you determine this easily. But let’s say that you determine that if you consumed 1800 calories a day, and walked for 20 minutes each day, you would achieve the goal that you set within the time limit.
So, now you need to include planning your meals and fitting in the exercise necessary to reach your goal. But because of the research you did, you know exactly what is needed to be successful with the goal you set.
Planning The Tasks
You can see a clear path to success just by going further and adding these actionable tasks:
* Eat 1800 calories a day * Walk fast for 20 minutes per day
Seeing that in black and white you can see that it’s very doable and achievable. But, there are a few more steps necessary to achieve your goals.
Scheduling Your Goals
Do not leave anything to chance. Instead, schedule the work necessary to reach your goals into a real calendar. Writing a list isn’t good enough – you need to schedule everything so that you don’t miss a single day due to losing track of your schedule. You’ll need time to eat healthier, which requires more chopping and cooking. And you’ll need time to fit in the exercise, which is going to really take more than 20 minutes due to prep time and recovery time. You need to be realistic about how long each thing will take and schedule them into your day properly.
No goal will ever be achieved if regular action isn’t taken each day. Each morning, look at your calendar and follow through on the plans that you’ve made and the criteria you’ve set for yourself to get things done. All you have to do is the minimum necessary each day to reach your goal. When you get through each day having done the minimum, you’re a success – each and every single day. There is nothing else that can be the result of daily activities other than success when you think of it this way.
What’s next?
Finally, you’ll need to repeat these steps every single day. When you make very specific and clear goals with very specific steps to achieving the goal, you will soon discover the secret to success that seems to escape so many people. The real secret is in the doing. It’s like going on a long hike – if you take one step at a time, moving in the direction of the map that you’ve planned out for yourself, you will get to the end and you will be a success.
Reaching your goals is just a matter of setting reasonable and realistic goals, and then setting up a schedule of actionable tasks and steps that bring about the end result you want.
You can start today to achieve your goals. I hope you enjoyed today’s article on the Five Things You Can Do Today to Achieve Your Goals.
Remember, I am always here for you if you need help with creating your goals. I offer one on one mentoring sessions that will help you create, plan and execute your goals.
Just sign up by using the link above. Pricing starts as little as $55.00, yes…really!
Today’s topic for our goal series is How to Prioritize Your Goals. In order to prioritize your goals, you’ll need to have a good understanding of what you need to be happy in your life.
The Four Areas of Goal Setting
Below are the typical four areas in which most people make goals:
1. Family – Spending more time with your kids or partner 2. Financial – Saving toward your six-month emergency cash or starting a business 3. Physical – Being healthy and more active 4. Personal – Getting more education, or devoting more time to spiritual pursuits
Where Will YOU Focus?
Within each of these areas are numerous concerns, but most goals can be summed up into one of these four areas. As to which goals are most important at any given time, you’ll need to ask yourself some questions to determine where to place your focus.
Which goals nag at you most often?
– What keeps you up at night that worries you? Are your finances suffering because you cannot earn enough money at your current job? You’d like to figure out how to get off the debt treadmill? This is a goal that fits in with all four of the areas. Financial stress can cause a lot of problems with your health. And even your personal development as well as cause problems within the family.
Which goals can be accomplished most easily?
– Some goals are very short-term but give maximum impact without too much work. For instance, maybe you have a goal of walking 15 minutes per day. This goal may only fit in with the personal and physical areas above, but walking 15 minutes per day will not take much away from the other areas. This can give you huge results and a feeling of accomplishment.
Compile A List Of The Most Critical
Which goals would give you the most pride in yourself?
– Will you feel better if you lose 20 pounds or will you feel better if you spend 20 minutes extra with your son? Keep in mind there is no wrong answer, although being healthy might ultimately give you more time in terms of years with your son.
Which goals have the most permanent results?
– When choosing whether to spend that extra money on your degree, determine how permanent the results will be. Realize that no one can take that degree from you; it will always be an accomplishment. What is it worth?
Estimate What Is Important
Which goals will still impact me in 5 years, or 10 years?
– If you start a business today, and work daily toward meeting the goals of that business, what will be different in five or ten years? How will that impact you now and in the future?
Which goals align with your core values in life?
– Any goal that fits into all four areas of your life is worth pursuing if it also fits into your schedule at the time.
What Goals You Control
Which goals are completely up to you, that you control 100 percent?
– Remember that you cannot control what anyone else does. So if any goal relies on the participation of someone else, and you don’t have their participation, you might want to switch gears and focus on something only you control.
Which goals are just for you?
– Some goals are completely personal in nature and have nothing to do with anyone else. For instance, you might want to read a particular author that has nothing to do with anything but your own pleasure. This is totally alright.
Which goals are just for others?
– There are “shoulds” that often get in the way of proper goal setting and these are goals that are only for other people. Your spouse wants you to lose weight, your mom wants you to go to college, your best friend wants you to start a business. None of these are a good reason to do something, although as long as you know going in why it’s okay to make it a goal.
Are Your Goals Rational?
Which goals cause you the most fear? Why?
– Sometimes the very thing you fear most is what’s best for you to do. Look clearly at your goal and figure out why it frightens you. Sometimes it’s the unknown, and like ripping off a Band-Aid, just doing it might be the best cure.
Which goals make you excited?
– Some goals immediately send tingles down your body and into your mind, pushing you forward to doing it. These are goals that are easy to do and probably impact your life a lot. However, do pay attention because if it’s a goal of becoming the high scorer on a video game you might want to question your “why”.
Which goals are most realistic?
– The best goals to put first are the goals that best fit into your life today, cover all four areas of life, and still fit into your schedule and where you control 100 percent of the effort.
When you answer all these questions, you’ll be able to see how the goals practically organize themselves.
Try making a spreadsheet and adding each goal to the four areas, then choosing the ones that cross the most areas to add to your schedule first.
One of the biggest mistakes people make when seeking to achieve a goal is to wait for inspiration and motivation. Today’s topic of discussion on our series on goals is all about How to Find Motivation to Achieve Your Goals. Imagine if everyone on this planet was waiting for motivation to get work done.
Productivity would drop to nothing, and our economy would collapse. Since productivity has improved over the years, it’s not likely that it has anything to do with real motivation. People are still doing the things they have to do in order to achieve a goal. Aren’t you?
Goals or Motivation?
Sometimes their goals might be set by them or their employer. It doesn’t matter who set it – it’s set, and someone is going to get it done. Am I right? How sad that in some cases people fail at so many things simply by ignoring the fact that motivation isn’t really necessary; only doing is.
They sit around waiting for inspiration to come wondering why everyone else is doing better than them. They’re waiting for some spark of motivation that will never arrive.
You can avoid this issue by realizing the truth.
Motivation Doesn’t Exist But What’s the Intention?
You probably have heard of the myth of the starving artist who can’t paint or the writer with writer’s block. It’s interesting that these creative professions have the same myth. Like weight loss, that some secret motivation has to come to achieve success. Some mysterious spark of inspiration that will get you off your bottom doing what you need to get done. If How to Find Motivation to Achieve Your Goals isn’t possible, then why should you even try?
However, nothing could be further from the truth.
Doing, Not Thinking, Gets You Real Results
Time and again, the people who are truly successful in their own lifetimes, are not people who wait for a spark. They are people who get up out of bed every single day, rain or shine and do things that lead to an end result of success. The successful painter paints every single day and if they hate marketing they hire someone to do that for them.
The successful writer writes; the successful doctor – doctors. If you want to be successful at something, do it. Live it. You will succeed. How to Find Motivation to Achieve Your Goals is basically up to you!
Many people get blocked by thinking that someone is better than, smarter than, or any “than” than them. The truth is, successful people aren’t smarter. Take a look at the most famous actresses that you know. Without exception, they are simply people who do their craft every single day. More times than not, they are simply being themselves in front of the camera. They are doing it, not thinking about doing it, and not dreaming of doing it. They go to auditions, get rejected, and then get up the next day and do it again.
Learn about the acronym S.M.A.R.T which stands for “specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and timely”. Every goal you set should meet that standard. After all, if you cannot be specific enough about what you want so that it can be measured, what is it really? You need to act on it in a realistic manner in a specific time frame. If you can’t it’s not really a goal. It’s a dream – perhaps a pipe dream!
Targets For Your Success
Envision Success
Some people think vision boards are a bunch of hocus pocus. But the truth is, being able to truly visualize yourself experiencing success will go far in helping you actually create success in your life. There are people who are good at seeing it in their mind and believing it, but others need more. Try making a vision board to see your dream down on paper so that you can then decide how to make your S.M.A.R.T. goals.
Follow a Schedule
It can’t be stated enough. Doers do. Successful people do. A “to-do” list isn’t going to cut it; you’re going to need to make a schedule and stick to it. If you want to write a 10,000 word eBook to sell to your target audience, you need to start at the endpoint. Then work your way back to today making a schedule that is realistic. You do this so you can follow it to get the work done when you said you wanted it done. Then let nothing stop you.
Experience Success
Set some smaller goals so that you can feel what success is like. If you’ve never once stuck to anything, you can’t know what success feels like and you have nothing to push you forward. People who experience success like to experience it again. The more success you experience, the more you’re going to realize that you can. It’s self-fulfilling.
Repeat Everything, That’s The Objective
Finally, keep doing it over and over again. With anything, you want to achieve, set the goal, track your success, and do something every single day toward achieving that goal. Again and again. It’s really that simple.
Motivation is a figment of the imagination, and not something that most people have. Most people get up in the morning by hitting the snooze button a few times, and most people do not feel especially happy about doing certain things. What they feel happy about is the end result, the deliverable.
Place your focus there and you will not need any motivation because you will be successful.
If you are looking for help with YOUR motivation, I offer 1×1 mentoring sessions that would help you kick your butt into action. Use this link to schedule a call, I would love to help you figure it out.
In order to set powerful goals that are achievable, take some time to research the dreams you have to find out if they’re even doable. You want to challenge yourself some but don’t make the goals so hard that you experience failure. Continuing with our Goal Series today’s topic is on how to set powerful goals you can achieve.
Goal Criteria
To ensure maximum success, make sure that your goals meet the following criteria:
Match Your Core Values
The more any goal fits into one of the four main areas of life – Family, Financial, Physical, or Personal – the more likely you are to be able to set a realistic goal that you can achieve. If a goal for some reason doesn’t fit into one of your core values, it’s not likely you’ll experience much success.
Be 100 Percent in Control
While goals that rely on others aren’t wrong, they are harder to achieve. Any goal that you control 100 percent is a goal that you can reach. Do ensure that you’re not letting fear get in your way or blaming fate for your failures, though. Self-limiting beliefs can get in your way on this one. Be realistic about whether you have control or not and give yourself more credit. For example, if you think you don’t have control over your financial future because “that’s just how it is,” you are mistaken. You need to eliminate this line of thinking.
Be Able to Envision the Goal
If you can’t see the end result, it will be very difficult to move forward toward achieving the goal. If you need to draw a picture, make a vision board, or take a day off to fantasize, just do it.
You need to see how it will all fit together in the big picture of your life. You need to see the end to be able to truly achieve it.
Every goal you make needs to be very specific in nature. If you really want to be sure to reach the goal, you have to know when you reached it. Instead of saying “I want to start a business,” state exactly what type of business you want to start. Who will be your clients? There is other information that makes the goal more concrete.
2) Be Measurable
At what point have you achieved the goal? If you can’t give a number or something that is measurable, then you won’t have a real goal. Let’s use the business example above. You might include that you want to earn x amount of dollars each week by a certain date. And then how and why you are going to do it.
3) Be Actionable
To achieve any goal there have to be steps that you can take to get there. Like using a map to reach a destination that you want to go to on vacation. You need to draw a map to your vision of success with the steps and paths you’ll take along the way. Put not only what but when, and how you’ll accomplish the step.
4) Be Realistic
You don’t want to write a goal that is too hard to achieve or worse, impossible. Be sure that it’s scientifically possible to do it by researching everything realistically. For example, you’re not likely going to start a business today and earn six figures by tomorrow or even the first year in business. Look at the research and determine what is doable and how you’ll do it.
5) Be Timely
Every goal has to have a time limit otherwise you may never achieve it. Start with the end and work your way back to today. By creating a list of things to do each day, you’ll be able to finally reach the end result. But, do set a time limit. You can adjust as you get into the project if it works to be more realistic. But resist the urge to change the time because you’re not sticking to your task lists. This right here is powerful!
In Conclusion
If you use this method to create powerful goals that you can achieve, you will not experience a lot of failures. You can always adjust your timeline and your goals as you learn more. The important thing is to give each goal a lot of thought, consideration, and study before setting it.
I hope you’re enjoying this series on goal setting. Today’s article on How to Set Powerful Goals You Can Achieve is just one of the many articles in this series.
There is a lot more to goal setting than just picking a goal and moving forward. While that is important, it’s also important to ensure that you are setting the right goals at the right time so that you can truly be successful. In order to ensure that you are setting the right goals for your business, answer the following questions:
Are You Setting Specific and Realistic Goals?
It takes a little research to ensure that a goal is realistic. If you’re not sure if something is actually achievable then you’ve not done enough research. Once you’ve set a goal that is indeed realistic, then you need to be specific enough in your description of it so that it’s also easy. Take the goal and work backward to create a schedule of actions needed to succeed.
Are Your Goals Multifaceted?
Focusing on only one part of your business/life is a bad idea. People live multifaceted lives and need to make goals for all areas of their lives in order to feel successful. If you have a wonderful business but your personal life suffers, then no matter how successful you are, you will not feel successful. Something will always feel as if it’s missing from your life if your goals aren’t inclusive. Therefore, make sure your goals include something from each aspect of your life. Are you setting the right goals for your business?
Scheduling Your Goals
Is Your Scheduling Representative of Real Need?
Once you create the schedule for yourself to reach each goal that you’ve set, you need to truly consider how representative it is of reality. Say your goal is to be healthy and reduce your cholesterol by 10 percent in six months. But, you haven’t set aside the time needed to exercise and eat right. If you don’t schedule the time needed, you won’t succeed because something will always be in your way taking time away from you. It will be very frustrating to practice your schedule because it doesn’t represent reality.
Use your calendar to block out time for each activity. For instance, if you are going to exercise 30 minutes per day, setting aside only 30 minutes isn’t going to be realistic. You’ll probably need to set aside an hour to account for getting ready as well as cooling down or getting cleaned up to go back to work.
Are You Learning from Failure?
Many times when setting goals and creating schedules, instead of learning from failure, people give up. Using the example above, once you implement your schedule to reach the goals that you have set if there are things you’ve forgotten to take into account, don’t give up. Learn from the failure and change the schedule to be more realistic.
You might find that in practice you have to rewrite all your goals and your schedule, but this is perfectly acceptable. Many people believe failure is something negative. The truth is, if you don’t fail sometimes you’re not going to learn much and it’s likely your goals are too easy.
Needs, Wants, Yours, or Someone Else
Do Your Goals Represent Your Needs and Wants or Someone Else’s?
A lot of people set goals that represent what someone else wants instead of what they want. This can really cause a lot of bad feelings and resentment. This can derail the best-laid plans. As you set your goals for your life, ask yourself if they’re really what you want for yourself or what someone else wants for you. Ask yourself if you’re okay with any goal you make for someone else before you embark on your journey.
It’s okay to do things because of someone else, but it’s important that you are honest about that and make some goals for yourself too that don’t involve anyone else’s needs or wants.
Are You Checking in Often to Stay on Track?
Schedules are very important to the success of reaching any goal in life. To-do lists pale in comparison to a well-laid out plan of tasks and activities that get you from point “A” to point “B”. Ensure that you look at your schedule or calendar every morning and every night. Note when you succeed in sticking to your schedule and where you don’t. Noticing a pattern of activity can be helpful in fixing a poorly written schedule as well as staying realistic about whether or not you’re sticking to the plan.
Being Positive And Intentional
Are Your Goals Focused Positively?
When writing a goal, it’s important to write them in a positive way. Or at least in a way that feels positive to you. In the quest to improve your life, try doing this. Write down a goal and then change the words to sound more positive to see if it isn’t more motivating. For instance, “losing weight” seems like a good goal, but for some people, it might signify deprivation. So instead, the person might frame the goal as “improving my BMI by 10 points” or “improving my cholesterol by 10 percent.”
Do You Have Too Many Goals Set at One Time?
Just as setting too few goals can be a problem, so can setting too many. Everyone has a personal life and a business life and points in between. If you have set goals in too many areas of life at once, you might tire yourself out and get overwhelmed. Instead, pick one personal goal, and one other type of goal to focus on. After you reach them, then you can add more goals as time goes on. You don’t need to do everything today. Slow and steady wins the race is a good motto to hang on to.
Setting the right goals for yourself takes some thought and consideration. Don’t try to set all your goals in one day. Instead, set some goals in different stages and in different areas of your life. Give a lot of thought to why you’re making the goal in the first place. It will save you a ton of headaches this way, don’t you think? Are You Setting the Right Goals for Your Business?
If you need assistance with setting your goals, I can help you. Contact me to schedule an appointment. You can use this link -> FREE CALL
Today we’re going to review what Smart Goals actually are and how you can make yours work for your business. So, what is a smart goal? Are you using them in your business? First, let’s find out what the acronym S.M.A.R.T. is all about then we’ll see how you can use them in your business.
When making goals, it’s important to learn about the acronym S.M.A.R.T. It can help you make better goals. Each letter stands for a different area of the goal. If you create a smart goal, you have created a goal that is Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Reasonable, and Timely. Using SMART goals can set you up for success in your goal setting. So, how do you do that?
Let’s see how below:
S – Stands for specific, which means that your goal needs to be spelled out very precisely. Using language that leaves no doubt as to what the goal is, why you want to achieve the goal, and how you will get it is very important. If you are not able to be detailed in your description of the goal, it will be hard to meet it. Take the time to do this part right.
M – Stands for measurable, which means that you should be able to use this as a metric for which to determine success. If your goal can’t be quantified, then it’s not a full goal and you won’t know how to tell when you’ve succeeded. An example of a measurable goal is something like: “I want to add 100 dollars per week of income to our bank by writing five 500-word articles each week for a life coach.”
A – There are different things that “a” can stand for but it’s usually actionable, assignable, or achievable. The preference to really get something good done is to make your goal actionable, meaning something where you can do something for each day that will eventually result in an accomplished goal. Goals should also be achievable or you will only get frustrated. Be accurate about the time it takes to reach a goal, and what actions it takes to get there. Also, know who will be responsible for doing it.
R – This can stand for realistic or relevant, and either or both are important and are true. If you want your goal to succeed, it should most certainly be something that is realistic or you will fail. It should also be relevant to your life’s vision and match your values.
T – Various authors refer to the “T” in the S.M.A.R.T. acronym as time-bound, timely or trackable. All of these t’s are important parts of the goal-creating and setting process. If you don’t set a time limit and you can’t track what is happening, your goal will be hard to quantify or show as achieved.
Whichever words you use to help you craft your goals, the important thing is that you need to have a process to help you make smart goals. Smart goals are goals that you follow through on achieving and know when you’ve met them.
There are many tools out on the market you can use to help you create your goals. Below, we’ll discuss a few of them and how they can help you achieve your business goals.
Goal Setting Tools
You can use old-fashioned paper and pen to make and set your goals, but what’s the fun in that? Today, there are so many wonderful online tools and software that can help make goal-setting fun and easy. When something is fun and easy, you’re more likely to stick to it long enough to actually achieve the success you desire.
1. Milestone Planner – Join the thousands of organizations who have already discovered the power of Milestone Planner, the powerfully simple way to build and track plans. From strategic planning to managing the tactical things that need to get done, Create a timeline, set milestones, maybe even invite your team, and start making progress today.
2. Mint – If you need to get control over your finances, and want to set up goals such as establishing a six-month emergency savings account, starting a business, and other goals, you can use this software to track your financial success and projections.
3. Basecamp – This is really a project management system, but any goal has to have actionable steps involved or milestones and tasks to take to reach success. You can use Basecamp for any type of actionable steps and it will even email you a reminder to do the task. This can work with your business life or personal life.
4. Google Calendar – Where were we before Google Calendar came alone? Unorganized, for sure. This is such a handy calendar that you can use for the most important areas of your life. Be it family, personal, financial, or physical – you can set your goals and work your way back inserting actionable steps and tasks to do each day. You can then let it email you a daily task list so you never leave anything out.
5. VisonBoard.me – This is basic vision board software that you can use to create your vision board and then print it out. You can also use something like Pinterest to create a vision board if you need to be fancier about it. It’s fun to create a vision board, and paste it on your wall, fridge, or in public so that you can see the reality of your dreams in person.
6. Lifetick – If you want very in-depth goal-setting software, this is it. It helps you traverse the four important areas where you should be setting goals and then view how they overlap and work with each other. This software helps you define your core values, and develop S.M.A.R.T. goals as well as track everything.
7. GoalsOnTrack – This software is a lot like Lifetick but has features that help you “chunk down” any goal into reasonable and easy-to-follow steps. Their whole idea is that you want to do less but get more. This software’s features encompass the 80/20 rule and put it to work for goal setting and achievement.
8. Goalscape – If you like to visualize your goals in pictures, charts, and graphs then you might like Goalscape. You’ll create a kind of wheel with your goal in the middle and everything you need to do to reach the goal will circle it. So you can see it in one glance.
9. Smart Goals Templates – If you like templates, these are some free goal-setting templates that are based on filling in the blanks for your goals. They will help you go over the various goals-setting steps needed to achieve results in both your personal life and career and business life.
10. Fingerprint for Success – Fingerprint for Success is a professional & personal development platform for individuals & teams to make amazing things happen at work and in life! Coach Marlee is the world’s first artificially intelligent coach! Marlee specializes in developmental and performance coaching. Based on decades of evidence-based research into human development.
Whichever type of software (if any) you feel you need to use for goal setting and goal realization is up to you. The important thing is that you visualize the results of any goal, write it out, and then take steps toward achieving the goal.
Looking for help with YOUR Goals? I’d be happy to help you. Contact me here
Today’s topic is Setting S.M.A.R.T. Business Goals. You have probably come across many articles, books, and audios that stress the importance of setting goals. Hopefully, you have taken the time to sit down and write out goals for yourself. But are you writing S.M.A.R.T. goals? S.M.A.R.T. goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-Related. I’m starting a new series of Setting Goals so the first one is Setting S.M.A.R.T. Business Goals. So get your pencils sharpened and your notebook ready because you are going to want to take notes for this series. Make sure you download the free e-book about goal setting also. You can locate it here ->>> Setting S.M.A.R.T. Business Goals
Specific Goals
Specific Goals are written out clearly and have a set time frame. When you write out your goals, state what you want, and give it a deadline. A simple goal of “earning money by working from home” becomes much more motivational if you phrase it as “earning $500 per month on a regular basis within sixty days”. Once you know what your plan is, it will be easier to achieve it.
Measurable Goals
It is important to have Measurable Goals, as they will help you track your progress. If a goal is not measurable, it will be very hard to define when you have actually achieved it. In the example above, by defining how much income you want to earn and giving it a time frame, you will know instantly when those sixty days are over if you have achieved the goal.
Attainable Goals
An Attainable Goal is a goal you know you can achieve. Don’t be fooled by the word “attainable”. It can still be a challenging goal and require effort to achieve, but it does need to be something you can do. For instance, if your goal is to learn to build websites and you have absolutely no experience, your goal shouldn’t be to build a huge, portal website in a week. An attainable goal would be giving yourself a month to learn the software and build a small, but functioning website. Otherwise, you will be putting pressure on yourself. If you are constantly setting unattainable goals, you may end up doubting yourself and become so afraid of failure that you start procrastinating on easy tasks. Make sure you’re on target to reach these goals.
Realistic Goals
While it is great to shoot for the stars when you are setting your goals, they also need to be Realistic Goals. Using the first example, the goal wasn’t to earn $500 within a week. Instead, the goal was to earn $500 per month within sixty days. If you are new to working from home, it may take some time for your business to be profitable. Instead of setting one huge goal, break the goal down into manageable “mini-goals”.
Time-Related Goals
You may have noticed that the example goals were Time-Related. There is an old saying that “a goal without a deadline is just a wish”. Having a defined timeline will keep you motivated. If you have an open-ended goal, it will be easier to procrastinate, and therefore, harder to accomplish. However, knowing you need to accomplish something in a set period of time will spur you into action.
What are YOUR S.M.A.R.T. Goals? Use this handy sheet to create yours. Worksheet
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Your Intentions
Setting S.M.A.R.T. Goals is really important to your business. It’s just like a roadmap to help you follow where you want your business to go. Don’t just make things up on the fly, let me tell you now, it doesn’t work. Sit down today and work on the worksheet to plan your goals. You’ll be glad you did!
If you’d like help setting up your goals, you can contact me to set up an appointment to discuss. Go here —> Discovery Call to schedule an appointment.
We’ve all heard the old saying “nothing ventured, nothing gained”. Like most old sayings, there’s a strong element of truth in those words. Are you a risk-taking business owner? Maybe you are and you don’t even know that you are one. Simple to find out though, take a look at this definition.
Definition
Definition of risk-taking: the act or fact of doing something that involves danger or risk in order to achieve a goal Starting a business always involves some risk-taking.
At the risk of following one old saying with another, without risk, there is not, and cannot be any reward. There is an element of chance inherent in every venture and unless that chance is recognized and faced, the venture will never become reality.
A Natural Risk-Taker
There are people who are natural risk-takers, as well as people who are very risk-averse. Do you find that to be true? The key to success when it comes to risk-taking is understanding what type of person you are. Take this quiz here ⇒ Quiz and see how you fare.
How does this personality trait affect your business when it comes to dealing with risk? It is important to keep in mind that the secret of success when it comes to business risk is mitigating potential damage in favor of potential gain.
Is it a Risk or a Danger?
Therefore, neither type of risk personality, in and of itself, provides an advantage over the other when it comes to risk management. A risk-taker can just as easily overreach themselves as a risk-averse person can underreach themselves. Interesting yes?
When faced with a situation that offers reward and risk, the key is to coolly and impartially assess the potential positive and negative outcomes. And then decide accordingly. No danger there right?
Being a Successful Business Owner
Successful business owners are sometimes seen as risk-takers simply because they understand the danger in a situation better than anyone else involved. So, while it appears that they are courting disaster, the reality is that the risks involved have been managed. This allows them to control negative consequences.
The Scenario
The successful business owner who takes a risk is very much like a professional tightrope walker. To the observer, it looks death-defying and, perhaps, frightening. To the performer, it is simply another day at the office. Their skill, training, and preparation sufficiently offset the inherent risk to make the feat only appear to be remarkably dangerous. What do you think?
In your own business, don’t be afraid of risk but, at the same time, don’t take the risk lightly. Weigh your options carefully and, when you arrive at a prudent decision, move forward with confidence.
And speaking of confidence, I have a great course on confidence.
Being Unique vs. Being Original: Is There a Difference?
Many people like to think of themselves as unique, and they will even interchange the word unique with being original. But are they the same thing? Can you be unique without being original?
Someone who decides they want to stand out may dress in a style that is outside the norm. If you look at people who adopt the Goth look, they often look similar from one Goth dressing person to the next. They may still stand out in a group that is not necessarily into that style. If they went to a Goth convention (if such a thing exists), no one would stand out. You would see variations, but it would be a common theme.
Perhaps you could be considered unique if you decided to wear all your clothes inside out. LOL!
You may even be considered original by doing this. But, what is certain is, you will get many people giving you a strange look. These looks could be exactly what you are going for.
There are also people who reinvent styles that have existed well into the past. Look at the Steampunk movement that has become popular in the last decade or so. This is a style that encapsulates a period where steam technology dominated the planet.
However, it incorporates modern day technology and fashion. It’s a hybrid of old world meets new.
But among the Steampunkers, for lack of a better term, don’t they all look alike, for the most part? Why not combine Steampunk with Goth? It gives a dark twist to the genre and at least initially, will let you stand out. But what happens when it catches on and everyone starts adopting it?
Is it still considered unique or original?
Take a look at the mindmap below and see where you fit in.
There are always those that try to set trends, either in fashion, technology, or both. The ones that do it often enough are called innovators while those who follow are copycats. It would be difficult to find people who would deny Steve Jobs was an innovator. Many believe that Apple will never be the same without him. Others believe he set the stage for Apple to continue as an innovative company for many years to come.
But, no one knows for sure what the future holds. However, people will continue to try what they feel is new when in fact is often just a variation on an existing theme. It’s like the old saying, the more things change, the more they remain the same!
What do YOU think? I NEED to know, so tell me what you think in the comments below.
Casey was a virtual assistant who specialized in social media. She enjoyed working for clients but she was hired for a month or two and then let go time after time. After noticing this pattern, Casey reached out to a friend in the virtual assistant industry who had spent years serving clients. This article helps to explain time tracking for your clients. This is critical to your business’s success.
Dana, Casey’s friend, explained that often it’s hard for clients to understand exactly what their service provider is doing. “So, they paid you for ten hours of social media help but they don’t know what they purchased unless you tell them. At the end of the month, it’s hard to validate the money they’re paying since they aren’t sure what happened with it.”
Dana went on to recommend Casey do a few key things to improve her time tracking for clients.
Start with a Regular Report
Every week, send a brief email to your client and let them know what you did. Don’t say something vague like, “I spent three hours on your social media.” That doesn’t give the client an idea of what you were doing.
Instead, provide relevant details. You could say, “I spent one-hour uploading 15 posts to your social media scheduler. Then I researched popular Pinterest group boards. I followed the rules of each board then pinned your latest blog post so you can get more Pinterest traffic. I also updated the branding for your Facebook fan page with the new logo we discussed.”
Measure Results
After you share what you did, include any metrics that might be helpful. For example, you wrote a new blog post that resulted in two big sales for your client. Be sure to mention that in your week’s report.
Keep in mind that the results you measure should match the client’s goal. If the client’s goal is to become a social media influencer, then mention that their new video tweet got 103 RTs and 1.5K views on Instagram. If you’re not clear on what your client’s goal is, you need to talk with them. Figure out what it is they’re looking for and develop a strategy to help them achieve it.
Schedule a Review
As a service provider, you want to make sure that you’re spending your time on projects that matter to your client. It’s smart to request a 15-minute call every month. You and your client can use this time to review what you’ve been doing.
This monthly review ensures that you and your client are working toward the same goal. Your client might see what you’re working on and say, “Yes, do more of that please!” or she might say, “No, I want to change direction on this project.”
Tracking Your Time is Good
It’s not just clients who benefit from your time tracking—you do, too! Even if you’re doing an unpaid internship or bartering with someone, track your time.
Plotting how long it took you to complete a task can be helpful so you know how much time to budget for future projects. For example, tracking your time might reveal it takes you an hour to write a blog post but you always thought you could do it in 30 minutes. Now that you have this information, you can block off a full 60 minutes to write without feeling rushed or frazzled.
Casey took Dana’s advice. She started emailing her clients a weekly report and began getting more repeat jobs. This enabled her to spend less time marketing her business and more time doing what she loved—serving her clients.
Discover the best tools for tracking your time when you download your free workbook!
Need help? Check out my new Group Mentoring Program. It will help you in making decisions that will help you in your business.
Hello to all of our visitors. Linda Henslee Enterprises provides Project Management Services to other online business owners. Need our services? Use our contact form to get in touch with us.
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