Goal Setting Tools

The first week of the New Year, time to set some goals. In years past I’ve started the New Year inspired by new goals, but rarely have I written them down let alone put a solid plan into place. This year I’m trying something different. Following is the exercise I’m trying this year, it came from Sonia Stringer. Grab a pen and see if it works for you:

ONE: Reflect on the past year:
List the past year’s accomplishments (both business and personal).

List growth or development over the past year. Are there new skills learned, or knowledge gained? Any new habits developed? Leverage insights from lessons learned over the past year rather than beat yourself up over them.

Name people who had a positive impact on your life.

Name people whose lives have been positively impacted by you.

TWO: Dream Big and Design Your Ideal Year Ahead

What does your ideal business look like (income, number of hours a week working)?

How are you spending your time outside of your business (with your kids? Traveling? Favorite hobby?)

What are your MOST important goals and intentions for your business in the coming year?  Why is accomplishing these so important to you now? How will your life be better as a result?

What other areas of your life also need your attention?

Here is a great visual way to see how you spent your time in the past year, and what areas might need attention:

THREE: Goals
The difference between just ‘setting goals’ and actually achieving them comes down to taking action. Actions taken during the first 90 days will set a course for the year ahead.

Pick 3 top business goals (and top 2 personal goals).

What is a realistic “milestone” to accomplish in each of these areas in the first 90 days?

What specific action steps need to be taken (in each area) to accomplish these goals?

FOUR: Accountability and Support

How much support you have can make the difference in accomplishing goals. Even the most successful people need support to help them stay on track and generate results.

Here are some questions that might help to design your ideal support team for the coming year.

Are there challenges or distractions that might get in the way? Who do you know that can help with accountability around these challenges?

Do you need emotional support and encouragement?

Could you use coaching or support from an expert to help you achieve results more easily?

Do you need support around the house (or office) to take care of tasks that eat up your time)?

Congratulations on investing time to prepare for an outstanding year ahead. Here’s to an abundant 2011!

2010 The year I went a little “hippie.”

I am a practical person. I have done the practical things a practical person does. I went to college, then graduate school, and started a career. I got married, had a kid, got divorced, and bought a house. Everything seemed to be going in accordance with the practical world I had created for myself. Then the economy went south. I lost almost all of my clients, who supported my flourishing graphic design business, practically overnight. I suddenly had a lot of extra time on my hands. Most of that time was spent trying to get some paying work in the door. More of that time was spent wondering, is the career I had built for myself what I really wanted to do? Did I even like what I was doing? What if I had a purpose on this planet and I was totally missing the mark? It occurred to my practical side that I was simply entering the expected mid-life stage of life, a time for reflection and reassessment. Thus I found myself starting down a less-than-practical path of exploration.

It started with books. Not the kind of books I typically read, novels, historical fiction and the like, but the kind of books I had never given a first glance. Self help books. Deepok Chopra’s “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: A Practical Guide to the Fulfillment of Your Dreams” and “The Power of Intention” by Dr. Wayne Dyer served as touchstone’s for daily decisions. From there I went further off the beaten path. I talked to an intuitive, had my vedic astrology chart read. I worked with a holistic life coach and spent a couple hours with a shaman. Spiritual quest aside I also tackled the physical. I did a 28-day cleanse, started practicing yoga, and read more self help books like Geneen Roth’s “Women Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything” A friend with whom I would recount my various discoveries and explorations declared one day “man, you really are turning into a hippie!” Thank god I live in Berkeley, or at least the city next door.

So where did all this “hippie” exploration get me at the end of the year? I discovered that outside sources don’t have the answers to deep personal questions, but they did point me toward where to find those answers. They are already within me, I just have to be quiet enough to listen for them. Here are some practical things I do: Everyday I try to take some time, sometimes as little as ten minutes, to be still. I use the ten minutes to listen and honor the spirit within me. I also take time to list all of the things I consider to be my unique talents along with the things I love to do. Finally I ask myself “how can I help?” When I use my talents in order to help, I will create abundance in my life as well as in the lives of those I help. These three tools are directly taken from Deepok Chopra’s chapter “Applying the Law of “Dharma” or Purpose in Life” from his book “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success.” They are so simple, and so effective.

2011 is days away and I am looking forward to taking what I have learned and putting my practical hat back on. I will continue my 20-year practice as a graphic designer, but my client focus will be women entrepreneurs. I will leverage what I have learned personally, with my years of doing marketing strategy, to help other women hone in on their visions of success. I will design the supporting logos, brochures and web sites that will support them in achieving results. This blog will serve as a vehicle to share practical tools I use in my own goal making as I refocus and ramp up my business. I will also recount some of my business challenges and how I address them, in hopes that it will be helpful to someone in a similar situation.