Archive for 90 day goals
Review Your Goals & Make the 2nd Half of 2008 Great
Posted by: | CommentsThe last day of June; the mid-way point of 2008. This is the perfect time to reflect on how we’ve done so far, and to make any course corrections for the rest of the year.
Over the weekend I was reviewing my goals and accomplishments for the second quarter. I achieved or came close to a number of my goals (yea!) but fell short on a number of others. I noticed some interesting trends about the ones I missed.
First, several of the goals are not high priority for me. They just don’t inspire me because they’re not moving me towards my bigger goals and vision. For next quarter, these goals won’t be included.
The second thing I noticed is that several of my goals for the second quarter should really have been steps towards one larger goal. Had they been placed under the umbrella of a larger goal, I think I would have been more likely to achieve them. Taking small steps towards a bigger goal is more motivating than completing a bunch of smaller goals because the payoff is bigger. Also, by having fewer, but bigger goals, it’s easier to decide what to work on. There are fewer choices to distract me.
Over the next few days I will finish creating my goals, including some deadlines for completing the steps. These milestone dates will be entered into my calendar so I don’t forget them. And I’ll make sure I take into account the things I’ve learned from the past 90 days.
Your Tasks
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, has two parts. First, review your accomplishments for the first part of this year. For goals you didn’t achieve, ask yourself:
- Is this still a priority? If not, good thing you didn’t spend too much time on it.
- Do you need to break this goal into smaller steps to help you achieve it next quarter?
- Should this goal actually be one step towards a larger goal?
- Were you trying to achieve too much last quarter?
- Does this goal move you towards your long-term vision for your business?
If you did achieve all or some of your goals, celebrate! Go out to dinner, buy yourself a treat, do a happy dance in your office. Don’t discount what you’ve accomplished.
The second part of my challenge to you is to create your 90-day goals for the third quarter of 2008. What will you achieve between July 1st and September 30th? Don’t know how to create 90-day goals? Check out my blog post How to Create Your 90-Day Goals.
Andrea J. Stenberg
How do you keep yourself moving towards your larger goals and vision? Please share your experiences by leaving a comment.
How did you do on your 90-day goals?
Posted by: | CommentsWe are rapidly nearing the end of March which means the end of the first quarter of 2008. At the end of December I suggested you set some 90 day goals for the first quarter. If you followed my suggestion, it’s time to revisit these goals.
Take a moment and re-read your goals. Now consider what you’ve accomplished since January 1st. Have you achieved your goals (or will you by the 31st)? If you have congratulations!
Take a moment and plan how you’ll celebrate. Will you buy yourself something special? Go to dinner with your family? Just take a moment and give yourself a mental pat on the back? Don’t skip this step. When you work for someone else you get recognition for your accomplishments. Don’t short change yourself.
Are your goals still a priority?
What if you didn’t achieve your goals? First, don’t beat yourself up. It doesn’t do any good to mentally abuse yourself for falling short. Instead, take a moment and acknowledge what progress you did make. Even if you only made it halfway you’re still further ahead than you would have been if you hadn’t set the goal.
Now ask yourself if these goals are still a priority. Maybe you’ve changed direction since January and these goals no longer fit your long term vision. If so, toss them out and move on.
If they’re still a priority you need to discover why you didn’t achieve them. Were they too ambitious? Remember I always have to watch myself or I’ll cram a year’s worth of work into these 90-day goals. If you did the same, vow to be easier on yourself next quarter.
Out of sight, out of mind
Did you forget about your goals somewhere in the middle of the quarter? It’s very easy to get caught up in the everyday work of your business and forget about the big picture.
If you did forget, for the next 90 days keep your goals in front of you. I’ve got my goals on a whiteboard beside my desk. I have monthly milestones marked off and I’ve written down my progress at the end of each month. I can always see at a glance how close I am to achieving these goals.
Do you run out of time?
If you remembered the goals but didn’t have time to work on them, perhaps you need to review your workflow. If these goals are truly a priority but you’re too busy you need to find some time in your week to get them done.
Is there some of your work that you can delegate? Entrepreneurs are often terrible delegators. No one can do it as well as we can. That’s why we’re entrepreneurs. But it doesn’t mean we can’t learn to delegate.
Can you turn over your bookkeeping to a bookkeeper or virtual assistant? Can you enlist the help of your family? There may be tasks in your business they can help with. Or they could agree to take on extra household responsibilities to cover for you while you work on these goals.
Are you wasting time each week? Professional organizers state that the average person spends one hour a day looking for things. If you could get better organized and save that hour a day you’d have 5 hours a week to work on your goals. If disorganization is the culprit, spend some time over the next week to get organized and set some systems in place. The time you spend now will payoff in the long term.
What about the internet? Most people don’t factor in email and surfing the web into their daily task list. They fit it in around other tasks and wonder why they don’t get everything done.
To cut down on the time email and the internet takes out of your day get disciplined. Unsubscribe to all but essential ezines. If you don’t read it, get rid of it. Be ruthless. You won’t miss it.
Next, set two or three times a day for reading email. Have you ever gotten to a sticky point in a project and thought “I’ll just take a break and check my email” and before you know it an hour has gone by? Try checking your email once in the morning, once after lunch and once shortly before the end of the day. I know one entrepreneur who has an autoresponder set up that informs people she’s received their email and will respond by a particular time.
Plan for working on your goals. Schedule some time each week to work on your goals. Mark it into your planner the same as you would an appointment with a client. If you can manage the same time each week, that’s even better.
I try not to schedule appointments or work on Fridays. This leaves me time to work on my goals or catch up on items I didn’t complete during the week. I’ve never yet had a Friday that wasn’t busy, but keeping it open has allowed me to accomplish a lot more.
How did I do?
I didn’t achieve all my goals, but I came pretty darned close so I’m pleased. First, I was a little too ambitious – I had six goals for the first quarter. However, by week three I’d realized that was nuts so I crossed one item off my list. I’m putting it forward to another quarter. In fact, I may not work on it until the third quarter.
Of the goals that remain, my first was to write 36 blog posts by March 31st. This is my 39th post, so yeah me!
I planned to run a six-week teleseminar series where I interview one business expert a week for six weeks. I didn’t accomplish this goal, but the first teleseminar for the Build Your Business Teleseminar Series begins April 3rd with blogging expert Yaro Starak. So I can count this as pretty good progress.
I had a goal to hit 500 daily readers for my blog. I’m not there yet, although I did hit the 500 mark on one day and the average number of readers is growing steadily so I’m pleased with this progress.
I planned to run two teleseminars. The first one last week was a success. My second one is this Friday. Item complete.
I also had a financial target for this quarter. I haven’t quite reached it, but I’m really close. As a result, next quarter will be much sunnier.
Overall I’m pleased with my progress for the first quarter of 2008. Between now and next week I intend to spend a few hours planning the next 90 days. I hope you do the same.
Andrea J. Stenberg
How did you do on your 90 day goals? Please share with us by leaving a comment.
Can Using The Law of Attraction Help My Business? Part 4 – Taking Action
Posted by: | CommentsFor some unknown reason, many proponents of the Law of Attraction forget taking action. But
really, how can you expect to achieve – or attract – anything if you’re not doing something to bring it about?
But if you’ve gone through the other steps – figuring out what you want, making a decision, uncovering any mental blocks – taking action should be something you’re ready for and excited about.
Take the next logical Step
There are two types of action you can take. The first is to take the next logical step. If your goal is large or long term, you’ll have many steps to take.
Look at your goal and where you are now. Then create a list of steps you need to take to get from here to your goal. If it’s a long term goal, this list may be long. Put due dates beside each step to keep yourself on track. In business, we call this a plan. Learn how to create a 90-day plan in my post How to Create Your 90-Day Goals.
If you’ve set a goal but have no idea how to achieve it, your first step should be to gather information or ask for help. Read books, go online or look around for someone who has already achieved your goal. Look to see what they’ve done.
Just one word of warning: if you’re gathering information, set a time limit for yourself. Otherwise you can spend forever gathering information and never actually take any steps towards the goal.
Inspired action
The other type of action you can take is what Jack Canfield calls inspired action. These are ideas that come to you out of the blue – while in the shower, driving your car, in your sleep. Often these ideas will leap you past many of the steps in your plan and get you to your goal much faster.
In Jack Canfield’s Key to Living the Law of Attraction: A Simple Guide to Creating the Life of Your Dreams
I don’t know if the universe is sending you this help. Maybe. Sometimes I suspect that help is always there, but we usually don’t see it. We expect things to be hard, we don’t expect to get great ideas and we don’t expect others to help us.
But I know that when I’m committed to a goal and I’m actively working towards it, unexpected things happen. All kinds of help falls into my lap.
Recently my sister asked for my help with a new project. While we were on the phone I pulled out a business card of someone with information that could point us in the right direction. I told my sister I’d make the call on Monday. Later that day I ran into this woman at Staples. She was able to give me the information I needed while we were in the pens row.
Now, I live in a small town. It’s possible I run into this person all the time but haven’t really noticed because she’s only a casual acquaintance. Or it could be that the universe put us together because I expressed an intention to talk to her so it decided to help me along. It doesn’t really matter. What matters is that when I saw her I recognized the opportunity and took action.
And that’s the real trick to this step. When you have an inspired idea or an opportunity drops into your lap you need to recognize it and take action. You can’t say “but it’s not on my action plan”. If you come across something that will leap you forward faster, you need to take it.
Negative intentions may rear their ugly head
When it comes time to take action, you may find yourself having trouble getting going. You may procrastinate, get mired in “research” or keeping busy doing tasks that look like work but are really unnecessary.
If you catch yourself doing these things and not taking action towards a goal you’re committed to, consider whether you have some unresolved negative intentions. If that’s the case, go back to the exercise from yesterday and work through the process.
If you have some deeply hidden negative intentions, you may need help just identifying them – from a coach, a therapist or a trusted friend.
I recently discovered that my overall negative thought was that everything I did had to be perfect and nothing I ever do is good enough – probably because I’m human and not perfect. It was then pointed out that my tendency for procrastination was probably a result of these negative thoughts – why bother starting something, it won’t be good enough anyway.
Uncovering this particular block has been a big help in moving forward to achieve my bigger goals.
So, if you want to use the Law of Attraction to achieve your goals, take action. Take the next logical step, take advantage of inspired ideas when they appear and ask for help.
One thing I’ve discovered from interviewing success entrepreneurs is that no one does it alone. They all have a coach, a mentor, a mastermind group – sometimes all of the above – to help them move on to bigger and better things.
Tomorrow I’ll talk about receiving and give a final wrap up – my personal thoughts on the Law of Attraction.
Andrea J. Stenberg
How to Turn Your 90-Day Goals into a Weekly Plan
Posted by: | CommentsOnce you’ve created your 90-day goals, you can’t just put them in a drawer and hope they’ll materialize in 3 months. You need to put them into action.
I’ve experimented with a number of systems for implementing my goals. What works best for me – and many other entrepreneurs I’ve spoken to – is to us
e the 90-day goals to create a weekly plan.
Every Sunday evening I pull out my 90-day goals and review what I’d planned to accomplish this week towards those goals. Next I review other obligations I have for the week: work for clients, meetings, personal appointments. I take them all and prioritize them. I have two systems I’ve been alternating between. I haven’t settled on one. In fact one seems to work for me for a while and then stops so I switch to the other.
Use A File Card
The first system is simply using a file card to record all my actions for the week. I write out each item from most important to least. If a task needs to be completed on a certain day I write that next to the task. I keep the card in front of my computer and check off each item as I complete it. Since I like lists, and more importantly, I like checking off completed tasks, this is an easy planning system for me to use.
Try Time Blocking
Occasionally I need more structure to keep on track. That’s when I switch to time blocking. This involves a one page chart with each day of the week divided into half hour segments. I write down my tasks in specific time blocks. For example, I may have checking email from 8 to 8:30, writing my blog post from 8:30 to 10, marketing from 10:30 to12 and finishing a project for a client from 1 to 3.
The key to time blocking, is to be sure to include personal items as well as business related tasks. For example, your weekly Pilates class or going bowling with your kids should be blocked in as well. This helps you keep more balance in your life. It also means if a client asks to meet when you’d planned to go bowling you won’t forget your kids. You can simply say you already have an appointment at that time and suggest an alternative.
Another thing to consider when using the time blocking system is to make sure you don’t over-plan each day. Leave some unscheduled time to allow for unexpected interruptions, tasks that take longer than expected and breaks. Some people suggest leaving as much as 25 to 50 percent of your day unplanned.
If you get all your required tasks done in the appointed time and nothing unexpected comes up you have some choices: you could start on the next day’s tasks, do some additional marketing, or take some time to smell the roses.
When to Switch Planning Methods
When I’m really focused, efficient and on a roll, the file card method of planning seems to work well. I don’t need a lot of structure to keep myself getting things done. I can just look at the list and get moving.
Other times I’m not quite so focused. I need to be “told” when to do certain tasks. That’s when I need to use the time blocking. I don’t need to think about when to do things, I just look at my schedule and get started.
Whatever method you use to create a weekly plan, make sure you’re using your 90-day goals as a starting point. It’s easy to fill your week with busywork – tasks that fill your day but don’t move you forward to your goals. If you stay focused on your bigger goals and make sure you take actions each week towards these goals, you’ll achieve them sooner than you think.
Andrea J. Stenberg
How to Create Your 90-Day Goals
Posted by: | CommentsIn my post about planning for 2008 I mentioned creating 90 day goals and action plans. This planning method was introduced to me by my coach and has worked very well. I’ve also discovered that many other entrepreneurs use this planning method – probably because it works.
How do you set an effective goal?
What’s the difference between setting a goal that moves you forward and one that never gets done? First, it needs to be believable to you. If you set a goal that is so big, in the back of your mind you’re thinking, “no way, this will never happen.” If you don’t believe you can do it, trust me, you won’t.
On the other hand, your goal must be big enough to be worth your time and effort. I don’t know if it’s a lack of confidence or a misguided idea that we must be ‘sensible’ but too many small business owners set their sights too low. I’ve been there. If you focus on the minimum you need to get by, that’s what you’ll get.
So you need to find a balance between too big and too little. Trust your instincts. You know whether you’re aiming to low or biting off more than you can chew.
The goal you set also needs to be specific. It’s not enough to say you want more business – how much more? Do you want to attract a certain number of new clients? Increase your sales by a specific dollar amount? It’s not a goal if you can’t tell whether you’ve achieved it.
Why 90 day goals?
Why 90 days? I think it’s because 90 days – 3 months, 12 weeks – is a small enough period of time to wrap your mind around. One year seems far off, so we can easily procrastinate. But 90 days – that’s soon. You really need to get moving NOW.
Also, a goal without a deadline is really just a wish or a dream. By setting a 90-day goal you have a concrete deadline. A deadline can really be motivational.
Don’t try to do too much
One of my biggest road blocks is having unrealistic expectations of myself. I once looked at my ‘to do’ list for the day and wrote down an estimated time for each action item. I’d have needed about 31 hours in the day – without sleep – to get everything do
ne.
I do the same with 90 day goals if I’m not careful – I try to cram a year’s worth of work into 12 weeks. This leaves me frustrated when I fall behind. To prevent this, I limit my 90 day goals to two or three items.
I’ve set my two or three goals. Now what?
Now that you’ve set your goals, create an action plan – steps you need to take in order to achieve your goal over the next 12 weeks. Write down each action and set a deadline next to it. Look at your calendar and write these deadlines down.
But remember, you still have to run your business – meet with clients, do administrative work – and have a life. Don’t fill each day. Leave time for other tasks. Consider having only one or two major actions per week on each goal.
If you find you’re filling entire weeks with actions for your goals, perhaps they’re too big to be achieved in 90 days. Consider making your goal smaller so it can be achieved in the next 12 weeks without taking over your life.
Staying on track
Once you’ve set your goals and created your action plan, you need to take action. But how do you stay on track? It’s much easier to have good intentions in theory, but now you need to get to work.
First, you need to be committed to your goals. Make a decision that you will do what ever it takes to get it done. This is a very important part of the process. Perhaps the most important part. When you are truly committed to your goals, it’s easier to take the actions you need to take.
Second, get some outside help. If you have a coach, it’s easy. He or she will help you stay on track. But what if you don’t have a coach – or can’t afford one? Find someone you trust to help. Someone you can tell about your goals.
I have an accountability partner. She’s another business person who I ‘meet’ with twice a week by phone. On our calls we announce what actions we will take before the next call. I’m really embarrassed if I don’t get it done before we speak, so I really try to do what I say I will. If for some reason I’m having trouble getting my tasks done, we can brainstorm ideas to get past the problem. And of course, I do the same for her.
You don’t have to meet as often as we do: once a week or twice a month might work as well. The key is to have another person who helps you stay accountable. After all, as entrepreneurs we don’t have a boss holding our feet to the fire. We have to find ways to do it for ourselves.
Today is December 28th. If you haven’t created your plan for the next quarter, get started now. Decide on one to three goals you want to achieve by March 31st, 2008. Create an action plan. Take action.
Andrea J. Stenberg
If you’ve created a 90 day goal for the first quarter of 2008, tell us about it. There’s nothing like announcing to the world you intentions for staying motivated.
