Preparing for success: Goal Setting

I'm going to be honest here, this series was *supposed* to start in January.  But, life happened and things didn't quite work out the way I had intended them to.  And if that isn't a perfect set up for a series on how to set and achieve goals, then I don't know what else could be.   🤣

Most people have heard of the SMART goals method, and that is still the foundation that we will use, but as the past year has shown, we need to be a bit more flexible and come at things from a slightly different angle to manage the changes and uncertainty that are part of our new normal.  

So how do you start?  Honestly, by taking a break.  Schedule it on your calendar if you need to, but give yourself an uninterrupted period of time that you can sit and think.  Or, if you are like me and do your best problem solving while your body is focused on something else, then give yourself time to do some knitting or housework; or maybe take that long walk that you said you would every day as part of your New Years resolutions.   Whatever your choice, make sure you have at least 30 minutes set aside and use that time to think about what it is that you want to do.  

(And just to get it out of the way, all my examples are going to be of personal goals, mostly because I don't have a small business to run.  But, these methods and suggestions work no matter what kind of goal you are setting, so don't let that turn you away.)  

It can start out with something more general, a problem you need to solve or an issue that you have been putting off for a while but know is going to pop up again.   As an example, I just moved into a house last fall, and I have a laundry list of things I need to do.   So my generic goals started out like this: 

• start a backyard garden
• dishwasher??
• new AC unit
• make it pretty 

Once you have a few goals in mind, pick the one that is most important to you at this moment, and spend some time thinking about what it really means to achieve that goal.  Why the one that is most important?  Because you will be more likely to stick to a goal that means something to you.  It could mean more financial freedom, or it could mean expanding your business in some way, but it has to matter to you for you to keep up with it.  (And don't forget to write the other goals down, we'll talk about this more in another post so just make sure you don't lose them.)  

Now, using my example above, I live in the desert, and we have over 100 days a year that we hit 100 degrees or higher.  Which means it's really important to me to have a good air conditioning unit that not only cools my house down, but doesn't end up making my electric bills in the summer too high to afford.   I am highly invested in this goal from the start, and that means I'm going to stay the course.  

One thing to keep in mind while you are thinking about your goal, the more specific you make it at first, the easier the planning will be.   So while I was deciding on my new AC unit as my goal, I came up with some reasons why that goal is important to me.   And as I have already stated, the obvious answer is the summer heat.   That made me think that I should get it done before we start hitting 100 degrees, which means April is about the latest that I want to push it.  I also know that realistically there is no way I can come up with the full amount by April, so I decided to go with a down payment as the goal instead, knowing that I can finance the rest.  All of this took just a few minutes, but that deeper dive into why this is important to me helped me create a pretty solid goal.  

But a goal of "new AC unit" isn't really helpful, right?  I can think about it every day, but no matter how hard I visualize it, no one is going to accidentally install a new air conditioning unit on my house. However, I've already done the extra work so now I know that I want to save up enough money to put a down payment on a new AC unit by the end of April, and that becomes a specific goal to work towards.   

And just like that, I now have a goal, a time frame to complete it in, and at least a rough idea of what I need to do to accomplish it.  And I have checked off all of the boxes in SMART -

Specific - a new air conditioning unit is about as specific as I can get without going into make and model number 

Measurable - I know I will have accomplished my goal if I have put a down payment on a new AC unit

Attainable - air conditioning units are plentiful here and I can go to any number of places to buy one, so we are good there 

Relevant - cooler summers are highly relevant to my interests

Time bound - summer in the desert starts early, so choosing April as my deadline is a great way to make sure this goal is timely and will have an end date

Not bad for 30 minutes, right? 

We have more posts to come, and they are all about what to do after you set your goals to achieve them, so make sure to come back for the next installment.  And if you want to get notified when each installment comes out, go ahead and click on the "Preparing for Success" label and subscribe to it and you will get an email when the next post is published. 

In the meantime, let me know what your goals are in the comments below - they can be personal or business or a mix of both!    Accountability is a big part of this whole process, and writing things down, even if it's just on a post on the internet, can help keep you on track.