Behind The Scenes: How To Plan For Your Next Season In Life & Business
2024 is going to look very different for me.
I am going to have a baby at the end of December 2023, and my husband and I will be moving back to the States.
So, there are a lot of logistics for us to figure out, juggling all that alongside running my business whilst also continuing with my consulting role.
Needless to say, my goals this year weren’t just a list of numbers, but I still want to share the strategy I used to create a plan for myself and goals that are exciting and motivating without being overwhelming.
Why set goals?
Talking about planning for the next season of your life and business, the goal of having goals is to give you direction and purpose.
They help you prioritize your actions and make efficient use of your time and resources.
Remember, my definition of productivity is working on the right thing at the right time to help you reach your goals. It's centered around knowing what you want the end result to be.
The decisions I want you to make as a business owner, as a busy mom, and as a busy person in this world are to recognize what you want your end result to be and to look at the tasks through that lens. Is this going to help me reach my goal?
What I considered
I didn't totally discount the importance of having number goals because, ultimately, they will help me make decisions throughout the year for my life and business.
But I also really wanted to consider how I wanted my year to feel. How did I want my maternity leave to feel and to look like? How do I want my business to make me feel when we're in so much of a transition? Do I want it to be a burden? Do I want it to be inspiring? Do I want it to be a support for me, an outlet for myself?
My 3-step framework for goal setting
1. Reflection
Take time to review what worked for you and what didn't in the past year. Celebrate your successes and learn from your challenges because this reflection is crucial for growth. It can be as simple as journaling about your experiences, or you can create a good old-fashioned SWOT analysis, which looks at your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Really ask yourself questions like, what accomplishments am I proud of this year? What could I have done differently? This self-awareness will help you inform your goals for the upcoming year. Go through your calendar, go through your books for how much money you've made throughout the year, go through some of your emails, what you've sent out, and what you've received; that's where you can start gathering this information for this reflection process and what, what could have done differently.
Note >>
Okay, we're not looking at this from a lens of judgment. We're looking at this as just the facts, So there's no judgment, just the facts.
2. Goal parameters.
You may have heard of SMART goals. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
Personally, I'm a little over this framework, but I do agree that goals should be time-bound. The reality is that we have little control over our outcomes. What I mean by that is making 100,000 is a very classic entrepreneur goal. But frankly, making 90,000 is still a win, even if you didn't meet the goal.
So, I prefer to set performance and process goals.
If your outcome goal is 100,000, then a performance goal would be to make more money this year than I did last year. A process goal would be to send five emails a week or sell every weekday in the DMs.
Performance goals are the end product of a performance, usually in terms of personal achievement. A process goal is the process you want to engage in to perform in a satisfactory manner.
We need to take out some of the pressure from the outcome and really look at the process and the performance of what we can control.
3. Create a strategic plan
This involves breaking down your goals into really small, actionable steps. This is also a critical way that we can overcome procrastination as we're reaching our goals. These steps need to be bite-sized, actionable, and clear steps to take to move to the next level.
With all of these steps, you can develop a road map for how you'll be able to achieve your goals and be prepared to adapt as needed.
Additional thoughts
It's important to map out the important dates so that we can work backward. The more strict you are with planning, the more time you're going to waste rescheduling when life gets in the way.
Prepare your goals in a way that is intuitive for you. So that might be with pens and paper, a project management tool like Asana, Monday, or ClickUp. You can brainstorm in a Google Doc or a bunch of post-it notes on a poster board. Do what feels right for you, and then keep it somewhere handy. You need to actively engage with your goals on a regular basis.
That accountability piece. Accountability is really, really important. Partners or mentors can provide valuable guidance and support.
Consistency is key. Small, consistent efforts can lead to significant results.
Conclusion
Stay flexible and adaptable as you work towards your objectives. And remember, you don't have to go from feeling overwhelmed to under control all at once.
Free Resources For You
Grab Chelsey’s free guide on Understanding Procrastination.
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Connect with Chelsey Newmyer
Website: https://chelseynewmyer.com/
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