Category: planning

What are your goals?

Preparing for 2013 – Part 2: Goals and Strategies

by EvieBurke, posted in Goals, planning

What are your goals?This week’s article is the second of three.

I’m going back to the basics for 2013 and I invite you to join me. This is what I’m doing:

  • I’m creating and solidifying routines (or habits).
  • I’m setting goals for myself that are supported by strategies and clear plans of action.
  • I’m tracking each goal and strategy.
  • I’m recognizing what does and doesn’t work for and making adjustments as needed.

Last week’s article covered routines and the next week is about recognizing what does and doesn’t work

Now, on to the details for goal setting:

Set goals that are supported by strategies and clear plans of action

So, you have a goal in mind. What strategies will you use to meet that goal? What are the steps to complete each strategy?

A goal can have many supporting goals or strategies.

For example, take a basic goal like making a certain amount of money each month. That’s the main goal right? Now, how will you do it?

By meeting people? How will you meet them and stay connected? Perhaps you’ll network a certain number of times each month and begin speaking at different events.

Well, now you have two supporting goals: networking and speaking. What are your goals for those things? How many times do you want to network each month or how many people do you want to meet? How will you prepare for speaking or how many times do you want to speak each month?

So in this example the main goal is a certain monthly income, the supporting goals/strategies are networking and speaking and the steps to complete the supporting goals are what needs to be done to meet those supporting goals.

One hint here: If you want to start something new, the initial goal might be to research how to do it. The next goal might be to do it.

Track each goal and strategy.

Goals are easy to set and even easier to lose sight of if you’re not tracking them. This means looking at where you are with each one on a weekly basis.

The easiest way to do this? Make each goal specific and give it a due date.

In the example above the main goal was to make a certain amount of money each month. So, determine how you’re going to track it. One way is to take a piece of paper, write down each day of the month and then at the end of each day write down the amount of money you made and the total for the month. Slowly you’ll see the number grow.

If your goal is have 5 sales a month, then draw five circles on a piece of paper or sticky note and fill them in as you make your sales.

And of course, there are some goals that are simply, did this get done or not.

I have each of my goals on a post it note and they’re sticking in a notebook that holds all master and weekly lists. It’s easy to find and update them at the end of the week (or daily) that way. Many people post those goal tracking sheets in a place they every day and can easily update.

What goals do you have for 2013 and how will you track them? Share in the comments below!

Cup of Coffee

Preparing for 2013 – Part 1: Routines

by EvieBurke, posted in Goals, planning
This week’s article is the first of three.

2013 is quickly approaching. As it does, many people set New Year resolutions. I haven’t set New Year resolutions for a few years now – preferring a word of the year instead.

However, this year I’m not doing that either.

No New Year resolutions and no word of the year? So, what am I doing?

This:

  • I’m creating and solidifying routines (or habits).
  • I’m setting goals for myself that are supported by strategies and clear plans of action.
  • I’m tracking each goal and strategy.
  • I’m recognizing what does and doesn’t work for me and making adjustments as needed.

Now, let me back up and explain a bit. Resolutions can be a wonderful thing, but I have some baggage there. Too many years of: this year I’ll change and do this or be that. Which never really turned out the way I wanted because my previous patterns (or habits) were too deeply ingrained to be changed overnight. And basically that’s what I (and probably most people) expected on some level, like January 1st is a magical day that can instantly change people. So, I don’t set resolutions.

As for word of the year, I’ve had a lot of fun with it the past three years. Looking forward to picking it out and watching how it weaves through my year. But this year I’m not feeling it, so I’m not going to force it. As a quick aside, what things are you doing because it’s what you think you should do instead of what you really want to or feel called to do?

So, this year I’m going back to basics and I invite you to join me.

Create and solidify routines (aka habits)

Cup of CoffeeWhether you realize it or not, you have morning habits. What are the things you do every morning without really even thinking about it? Personally, I can make a cup of coffee and have my breakfast half made before I’m fully awake. It’s just my routine.

What are other things you’d like to do every morning? Get up earlier? Exercise? Meditate? Read? Walk the dog? Stretch? Laugh?

Creating or adding things isn’t only for morning routines. Don’t forget about the end of your work day routine, before or after lunch routine, or before bed routine (but if you’re looking for a place to start, start with your morning routine).

Pick one thing and add it to a routine. Then, create a checklist so you can easily see your progress.

And one hint here: don’t over complicate it! Want to exercise every morning, but you’re not sure what to do? Go for a walk, go up and down the stairs, do jumping jacks. The purpose is to do something, not to do it perfectly. Don’t get sidetracked by perfection.

What’s one thing you want to add to your routine? Share in the comments!

Next week’s article is about goal setting and the following week is about recognizing what does and doesn’t work.
girl dreaming out the window

Do You Have Castles in the Air?

by EvieBurke, posted in Dream, Goals, planning

girl dreaming out the windowIf you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them. – Henry David Thoreau

I have always loved this quote. I must have come across it when I was in high school, because I remember thinking about it then. In college I started a quote journal, and it’s the very first quote I wrote in it.

It’s funny how some quotes stick with us. The meaning changes, sometimes significantly and other times only slightly, as time passes.

For me, the meaning has only slightly changed. It’s become more of a concrete quote. And I realized it applies wonderfully to my life and business now.

You see, I love, love, LOVE setting goals, creating strategies to meet those goals and planning out the details of those strategies. I think it’s a lot of fun.

I was doing this for myself at the end of November when I realized that dreams and goals are the castles in the air. Sometimes they’re really cool and fun, but look a bit unattainable. How the heck do I get there?

The strategies and plans are part of the foundation, not all of it, but a very important part. They’re like the bricks of the foundation.

What’s the stuff that holds it all together and prevents it from falling over? That’s the work. When you follow the plans and do the work, you’re putting the mortar between the bricks. You’re laying a strong foundation.

Building on last week’s topic, don’t become discouraged if things don’t exactly go as planned. Sometimes those failures make the foundation even stronger or the foundation is now able to support a castle (or dream) that is even better than we previously imagined.

What are your castles? What dreams do you have for your life and business that you’re laying the foundation for? Share below!

photo credit: bolandrotor via photopin cc
Sign post with Failure and Success

Risk, Success and Failure

by EvieBurke, posted in attitude, Fear, Goals, planning, Quote

Sign post with Failure and SuccessI came across this quote last week:

Success and failure. We think of them as opposites, but they’re really not. They’re companions – the hero and the sidekick. – Laurence Shames

Interesting quote isn’t it?

I thought of it again over the weekend when I was given the topic of risk to discuss with the Jr. High youth group. The focus was on making your own decisions versus other people making decisions for you. So, we talked about risk, success and failure.

This week the speaker at an event I was at spoke briefly about taking risks and how some failures really set you up for your next success.

Sitting in the audience I was suddenly struck by how often the topic of risk, success and failure had come across my path in the last week.

Interesting.

If you don’t accept failure as a possibility, you don’t set high goals, you don’t branch out, you don’t try – you don’t take the risk. – Rosalynn Carter

I searched through my collection of quotes, looking for ones about success, and this one stuck out.

You see, last week I set some pretty ambitious goals for myself in the coming months, but they are possible with time and attention. I wondered out loud if I was expecting too much of myself in too little time. Perhaps I am. Perhaps I won’t meet some of the goals I set. Perhaps I will fail. And perhaps in failing I’ll be that much closer to another opportunity. Perhaps I’ll still have accomplished more in the failure than I would have if I never tried.

But maybe, just maybe I’ll succeed.

Success and failure, hero and sidekick. I’d wager that success usually follows what looks like failure. We just don’t always hear about the failure. We’d rather hear about the success – the hero of the story, right? But the sidekick is there, quietly supporting the hero in lessons learned.

What does this mean to you?

  1. Risk, success and failure. How do those play out in your life? In your business?
  2. What topics or ideas seem to be appearing over and over again? What do they mean to you? Why are you noticing them?

I’d love for you to share your observations in the comments below.

And I’ll leave you with one last quote:

So fail.
Be bad at things.
Be embarrassed.
Be afraid.
Be vulnerable.

Go out on a limb or two or twelve, and you will fall and it’ll hurt. But the harder you fall, the farther you will rise. The louder you fall, the clearer your future becomes. Failure is a gift, welcome it.

There are people who spend their whole lives wondering how they became the people they became, how certain chances passed them by, why they didn’t take the road less traveled.

Those people aren’t you.

You have front row seats to your own transformation, and in transforming yourself, you might even transform the world. And it will be electric, and I promise you it will be terrifying.

Embrace that; embrace the new person you’re becoming.

This is your moment.

I promise you, it is now, now, not two minutes from now, not tomorrow, but really now. Own that; know that deep in your bones. And go to sleep every night knowing that, wake up every morning remembering that.

And then… keep going.

– Unknown (emphasis added)

woman sitting in kitchen planning/dreaming with sticky notes all around

Are You Acting Without A Dream?

by EvieBurke, posted in Dream, planning, Quote

woman sitting in kitchen planning/dreaming with sticky notes all aroundHave you ever started doing something and then wondered why you’re doing it? I’m not talking about walking into a room and forgetting why you’re there or checking your email and forgetting you wanted to send a note to someone.

I’m talking about having a plan and acting on it. You’re a few steps in and suddenly you wonder: why am I doing this, how did I get here? This isn’t helping me get closer to my goals.

Sometimes it’s the shiny object that distracted you, sometimes it’s a goal that you suddenly realize is actually someone else’s (and not yours), and sometimes it’s the fear that if everyone else is doing it you should be too. However you got there, you find yourself doing something that isn’t really moving you toward your goals.

So, what happened? You started planning and/or acting without your dream, your why or your goal. Maybe it was someone else’s, but it wasn’t yours.

Why is dreaming important? It gives you your destination, it informs* your planning and it gives you the point in the distance to focus on.

I shared this quote on Twitter/Facebook the other day:

To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream, not only plan, but also believe – Anatole France

Three questions for you:

  1. Are you acting without your own dream?
    Be brutally honest with yourself. Are you working without a dream? from someone else’s dream? Or are you clear about what your dream is and acting from there?
  2. What is your BIG dream?
    Why are you in business? What is your dream that puts enthusiasm into your steps (or actions)?
  3. Do you believe it is possible?
    If you don’t believe it is possible, all the dreaming and planning in the world won’t get you where you want to go. Harsh, perhaps, but it’s also honest. Sometimes, you can use other people’s belief in you. If you’ve ever had a coach or mentor you might have experienced this. Your coach knows you are capable of your dream and you believe in their faith in you until you have enough faith in yourself.

I’d love to know your answers to any of these three questions! I invite you to leave a comment and share your insights.

*One bit of clarification, when I write inform I mean to give substance, character, and to inspire. So, “it informs your planning” is another way of saying it gives substance or character to and inspires your planning.
photo credit: Victor1558 via photopin cc