Goals – One Insight Closer

The best thing you can do to achieve your goals

January 6, 2022January 6, 2022 by EvieBurke, posted in failure, Goals

Have you ever set a big goal for yourself and then run out of time to get everything done over and over and over again?

We’ve all experienced this at some point. It’s so frustrating! And you might blame yourself, call yourself lazy or wonder why you can’t just get the things done you need and want to get done.

Or the flip side of this happens: you don’t set that big goal because you’ve been burned by not having enough time, and you don’t want to experience that again.

One way to prevent this from happening is to be clear on the daily, weekly, and monthly tasks that you do in your business. It will help you know how much time you have to dedicate to your bigger goals or which tasks you can delegate.

The best thing you can do to achieve your goals is to set up containers for your tasks. This means having a place to organize all the goals, projects, and tasks you have for your business. It can be on paper or digital, and it doesn’t matter as long as it works for you.

When you have a container, you’re clear on what needs to happen when and what you have time for.

I was working with someone on this last year. We were going through her week and everything that needed to be done when she had a realization. She realized that unless something came off of her plate, she couldn’t offer a class she had planned on. This came as a relief to her. It wasn’t that she was wasting a bunch of time; it was that her plate was already full and there was no room for anything else.

She decided instead of shifting things or letting something go so she could offer the class; she would focus on the things she was already doing in her business and promote her current offers. There was no need to make things more complicated.

This allowed her to keep more of her personal time for other things, which is very important!

So, set up your containers so you can keep track of all the moving pieces of your business!

Reach out if you want to chat about your situation.

PS. You’re NOT lazy. You just haven’t found a way to keep track of things that works for you!

If you prefer listening/watching, you can catch this on Facebook or YouTube.

The top goal-achieving secret to use when planning next year

December 2, 2021December 1, 2021 by EvieBurke, posted in Goals, planning

It’s the time of year where we start thinking about our goals for next year and contemplating everything we want to experience and accomplish in our business and life.

I don’t know about you, but I find this part so much fun! This is the dreaming part, the what could I do next year part.

Don’t stop here, though! Yes, you need to know where you want to go (the goal part), but don’t forget the how part that comes next. The how part is the process; this is where the work gets done.

This is the top goal-achieving secret: focus on the process, not the goal.

Yes, set your goals — you need to know what you’re working toward. But in your day-to-day, focus on the process.

The process part includes not only mapping out the details of how you’ll achieve that goal but also includes:

how you set up your day
how you keep track of everything you want to do and accomplish
your ability to stay on task

Again, focus on the process, the systems you use to accomplish your goals.

You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fail to the level of your systems.
James Clear (Atomic Habits)

Focus on the process, and you’ll achieve your goals.

If you prefer listening/watching, you can catch this on Facebook or YouTube.

Type writer with piece of paper that says "Goals." Over top of the image is the text "How do you make sure all the projects and goals that you want to achieve get done?"

How do you make sure all the projects and goals that you want to achieve get done?

January 28, 2021January 28, 2021 by EvieBurke, posted in Goals, planning

How do you make sure all the projects and goals that you want to achieve get done?

This is a question I was recently asked by someone who is ambitious but lacks infinite time.

Okay, so we all lack infinite time.

She has multiple ideas and projects that she wants to do this year. She wants to move forward with all of them now. But she knows if she does that, it might be too much for her audience at once (not to mention her).

This is where a marketing calendar comes in.

Start by looking at your goals for 2021 and then make a list of all the projects you want to do, events you want to host/create, and things you want to promote, and put them on your marketing calendar.

It doesn’t have to be super detailed, you can make it simple.

Next, think about how long each idea/project/goal needs for prep time, promo time, and delivery time.

Not everything has every category.

For example, you might decide that you’re spending one week in March to promote your already created freebie. There is prep for that (writing the promotional social media posts and scheduling them). There’s the time you’re promoting it and staying engaged with those posts, but there isn’t any delivery time because that’s automated.

While you’re promoting the freebie, you can work on the prep for a project you’ll be promoting in April.

I walked my Next Level Business Mastermind clients through this process during our 2021 Planning retreat.

Creating a marketing calendar helped them know what to expect in the upcoming year.

It also prevents finishing up one project and then quickly trying to determine what you want to do next so you can get it prepared and out there.

Instead, they know what is on their agenda for the year, and what needs to be done in the background while promoting something else.

Do you use a marketing calendar? Why or why not?

Text on picture of woman working at desk: 6 tips to complete the goal pushes against your comfort zone

6 tips to complete the project or goal that feels uncomfortable and pushes against your comfort zone

September 24, 2020September 23, 2020 by EvieBurke, posted in comfort zone, Goals, motivation, planning

Last week I shared that I broke my habit of running around trying new projects and things that didn’t work by focusing on a project that forced me to learn and exercise a critical business skill that I lacked.

Working on that project was uncomfortable, pushed against my comfort zone hard, didn’t come naturally to me, and I wasn’t always motivated to keep going.

And yet I did, and the project was a success in the areas I needed it to be.

So, how did I do it?

The truth is there wasn’t just one thing that allowed me to complete this project. It was a combination of things.

Below I’ll share what I believe were the most significant contributors to completing the project.

My future success depended on me learning this skill.

While I wasn’t motivated to do this project specifically, I knew that not doing the project would mean I’d continue to have crappy results in my business. Basically, this skill was so important I knew that all my future success would be built on what I learned through this project. Not doing this project would mean my business would not move forward.

I was clear about my deadlines.

Because the project was uncomfortable and pushed against my comfort zone, it was super important to be very clear about what needed to be done and when. This allowed me to put on blinders to the larger project and only focus on the specific task in front of me.

Knowing that I wanted to start sending invites x days before the project began meant those deadlines weren’t moveable. Once I sent the first invites out, I was now committed to the date. It was out there.

I spread the work out over time.

I also made sure that the work was getting done, but was spread out. This allowed me to keep my energy up. I generally have more energy and attention in the morning, so I made sure those uncomfortable tasks came first.

I regularly reviewed my progress.

I gave myself time to review what worked and didn’t and adjust. Because the skill I was learning didn’t come naturally to me, I paid attention when something felt more in line with me (more down my alley, more me) and made a note of it to repeat later.

I had clearly defined tasks.

I was very clear about the tasks that needed to be completed. My task wasn’t to “invite people.” The tasks were to “make a list of at least 25 people that I think will benefit from this” and “personally invite that list of people via a phone call.”

It helped to focus on today’s task (or tasks) for the project. And because I spread the work out, I usually only had one 30-minute to 1-hour block of this to do each day. Once it was done, I could move on to tasks that felt much easier.

The bonus was how great it felt to have the task done and be able to move on.

I remembered my bigger goal when things felt hard (my why).

When things felt difficult, I’d take a deep breath and remember what I saw on the other side of this project. I’d remind myself why it was important to do this.

This sounds a bit like my first reason above, but this one is a bit deeper. The first one, my future successes depended on me learning this skill, is more of a nuts and bolts reason.

This reason is more of a mindset shift. It was about reminding myself that I could do these hard things and why it was important to step into being a person who did this hard thing and what that would do for me.

Again, it wasn’t just one of the above reasons that allowed me to complete the project that, on some levels, I did not want to do. It was the above reasons together that made the difference.

I’ve read multiple places that what makes a goal successful isn’t just about remembering why it’s important to you. It’s about putting the systems in place that support the work of doing hard things—remembering your why is one crucial part of that.

What questions do you have around doing projects in your business that feel uncomfortable or push against your comfort zone? Or share your experiences with this. Let me know in the comments.

How do you tell when you’re avoiding things, and when it’s something to put your heart and business into?

September 17, 2020September 23, 2020 by EvieBurke, posted in Goals, perspective

Last week I shared details of the pattern of avoiding something with an exciting new project.

It can sidetrack you from doing the work in your business that you need to be doing.

This week I said I’d share how to recognize this pattern.

Sidenote: a project can be almost anything you do in your business that is multiple steps. It might be a marketing plan, program, class, or any number of things.

So, how do you tell when it’s a project or idea that allows you to avoid other things, and when it’s something that you really should be putting your heart and business into?

It can be difficult to differentiate because it can feel the same at the beginning of both types of projects.

One question to ask yourself is, “Why do you want to do this new project/idea?”

One answer to look more into is, “I want it to be easier” (your it might be any number of things).

Sometimes making things easier is a legitimate reason.

You might be adding a needed system to your business to make it run smoother, or you recognize you’re spending more time and energy on something than you need to be.

Sometimes making things easier is legitimate, but isn’t actually a priority.

Moving your email marketing system from your current system to a more expensive and robust system might be something you’ll need to do when you get to a certain point. Still, if you’re not going to be using even half of the features, it’s probably best to wait a bit.

Other times making things easier is a way of avoiding something in your business.

If things are falling through the cracks and lots of important tasks don’t get completed, you can decide you’ll only focus on that one big project for a while. However, without the skill of knowing how to keep track of the things you want to accomplish in your business (this is a skill, most of us aren’t born knowing how to do these things), you’ll feel even farther behind after the project is over and you still have all that other stuff to do.

This is the pattern for most answers to “Why do you want to do this new project/idea?”

Some of the reasons are legitimate, some are legitimate but not a priority, and other reasons allow you to avoid things.

At one pivotal point in my business, I realized that I was hopping from one great idea to another to avoid learning essential business skills by telling myself that this new thing would quickly bring in money. It never did.

I needed income, and it felt like nothing was working.

I did what I tell my clients to do; I took a step back and evaluated what worked and what hadn’t worked.

The good news was some things worked that I didn’t realize.

The bad news was that skill that I was avoiding was holding me back in almost everything else.

I created a new project for myself that made learning and using that skill a priority. I knew it wasn’t going to make me immediate money, but not learning and being comfortable with that skill was costing me a lot (and later, I invested in a program build on that knowledge).

I still found myself evaluating this project periodically because I kept wondering if this was my new distraction. It wasn’t.

Here’s why I knew the new project wasn’t a distraction:

It helped me build and exercise a skill that I needed to move forward in my business.
I knew it wasn’t prudent to move forward with any other projects until I completed this one.
I had clear goals and tracking metrics created to track my progress.
I gave myself more time to set it up and do it. This didn’t mean I waited months. In reality, it meant instead of going from idea to release in 2-3 weeks, I did it in a little over four weeks (in this case, that extra week really did make a big difference).

If these things had been present, it might have been a distraction:

If I do this, it will make all my other problems disappear (the magic pill or magic wand type of solution).
The feeling of I must do this thing now, while the idea and motivation are fresh. If it’s a good idea, it will continue to be a good idea even when the idea/motivation is no longer fresh.
I’m ignoring a skill I know I need to learn.

Doing the project was uncomfortable. It pushed against my comfort zone, I was learning something that doesn’t come naturally to me, and many days I was not motivated to keep going.

Next week I’ll share what I did that allowed me to complete the project despite the uncomfortableness and lack of motivation.

Are you wondering if your new idea or project is a distraction or not? Bring it to the Your Productivity Break meeting on Wednesdays at 1pm Central (join the FB group, Productivity for Women Entrepreneurs, for the details) or send me a private message.