4 Tips for Achieving Your Goals
New Year's resolutions are an incredible tradition our culture has - one of my favorites! This idea of bettering ourselves, reflecting on the past year, making changes and looking towards a better future is a really great habit to get into. Especially for business owners!
My 2018 Goals
- Design 5 full invitation suites
- Develop & launch a new product/line
- Blog 1-2x a month
- Email marketing 1x a month
- Lose 20 lbs
- Spend more intentional time with my people
- Make art for fun
Resources
Here are some planning resources I use when mapping out my yearly goals:
- PowerSheets
This workbook is phenomenal! Lara walks you through creating the big goals with questions about how you'd like your life to look when you're 80 years old, what legacy you'd like to leave, etc. And working from that big picture she continues to drill down til you have daily steps you can take in order to achieve those goals. - Day Designer Planner
I love this planner! In order to stay on top of things I have to list out my daily tasks, and there are few things as satisfying as crossing tasks of your list. This planner is gorgeously designed and bound, and includes goal setting prompts as well as ample space for all your daily to-dos. - Elle & Co. Blog
I mention Lauren's blog all the time - but it's because she's so freakin' smart and oozing with practical tips. She has several blog posts about how to stay on task, plan your day, get organized with online tools, how to optimize your workflow to become more efficient, and a ton more! What I truly appreciate about her blog is how organized and to the point it is. Her design is clean and tasteful, she communicates effectively and succinctly and delivers quality knowledge - no fluff here! To top it all off, she even has a library where you can download all kinds of helpful resources - Goal Digger Podcast
Gotta love a good podcast - head to the gym, pop those headphones in and get inspired while working out. Multi-tasking at it's finest. Jenna's podcast is dripping with helpful business advice. She has interviews with some of the most talented people out there, and gives her secrets away freely. One of my goals should be to listen to every episode, that's how transformative it is.
Tips
Schedule a goal date the beginning of each month
When Zach and I first got married we had two different expectations for how our down-time would look. I assumed we'd go on all these grand adventures together, exploring the city, working out, eating good food. And Zach thought his bachelor routine would stay exactly the same - so when he got home from work he would just hop on the computer and start working on personal illustration projects til 2 am. Needless to say, we were not on the same page, so we quickly started goal planning dates. I'm a dreamer, and this is one of my favorite things we do. We sit down and brainstorm together about what we each want to accomplish this year, in 5 years, in a lifetime. Career goals, personal goals, family goals. This helps us to spur each other on in these goals, and it also helps us structure our days and expectations. Even if you don't have a partner, setting aside some time each month to check back in on your goals and plan out your month is pivotal for actually accomplishing those tasks.
Break your goals down into small actionable items (monthly, weekly, daily)
This year I want to lose the baby weight - 20 lbs is my goal. When I look at that on it's own it's huge, seemingly impossible, and I find it hard to figure out where to start and end up procrastinating. In order to make some progress I've gotta break it down into easily manageable chunks. My monthly goal is to lose 4 lbs, with a weekly goal of losing 1 lb. That means I need to set some daily goals: run 3x a week, do 100 pushups every day, drink 8 glasses of water, make healthy(ier) meals.
When I see it like that it becomes much less intimidating. Some things I even break into hourly goals - like the water and pushups. I do 10 pushups and hour and drink 1 glass of water. When I look at my tasks like that it seems much more achievable. Speaking of... I need to go do 10 pushups.
Get an accountability partner/tell someone your goals
I have a few people I talk to about my dreams. I have other business owners that help hold me accountable and encourage me, as well as facebook groups I'm apart of where I can ask questions and learn things. And then I have a couple people in my life who I tell my personal goals to, and they help me stay on track, check in with me on a weekly basis and also provide me with great ideas (and great workout partners!) I would also suggest blogging or posting about your goals - sometimes putting it out there where everyone knows what they are is exactly what you need to motivate yourself to keeping chipping away at them.
Reward yourself
This is my favorite part of goal planning (besides achieving said goal!) The reward I give myself at the end, and sometimes even the middle if it's an especially hard or long goal. It gets me even more excited to complete my tasks. For example, my reward for blogging and working on my email marketing is a coffee and pedicure, and my reward for losing the weight is going on a fancy date with Zach to a baller restaurant and eating some freakin' delicous food (counter intuitive maybe, but what can I say, food is a huge motivator for me!) This is fun, pick something you can reward yourself with to keep you on track!
