September 15, 2017
How Are You Choosing to End Your Year?
The countdown is on, before you know it we will be bringing in the new year in some celebratory fashion. As a mother of three, I will probably be asleep by 9:00 pm while my children do their best to stay up to watch the ball drop. As a fellow woman business owner, I will be busy getting my business ready for the new year and reviewing my yearly goals.
What’s a little different, however, is I have structured my year in a way that gives me four “years” in one 12 month period. I have found by shortening the expectation for how long I have to accomplish something it creates a bigger sense of urgency for me. Have you ever noticed that it seems many companies’ results are better before the end of a fiscal or calendar year-end than any other quarter end? Why do you think that is? I believe most of us have some procrastination tendencies and decide it’s time to get to work when the deadline is looming.
When it comes to setting your yearly goals, instead of only imposing one deadline per year, you can choose to work with four deadlines!
In creating these four smaller components to the 12 month year it enables you to take an annual goal and break it down into smaller pieces. Have you ever heard the saying “How do you eat an elephant”? We all know the answer is one bite at a time. Well, this is what you are doing. You are taking that larger goal and breaking it down so it won’t feel as overwhelming.
Then, take it even a step farther and break it down more. What are those weekly activities you will need to complete in order to achieve the monthly goal? Can you break it down more? What are those daily activities you need to complete to achieve the weekly goal?
Goals are often the outcome we want to accomplish. The goal is the end result.
Well, what does it take to get that outcome or end result? It’s the activity that’s important, it’s those day-to-day actions that you take that will determine whether or not you will achieve your yearly goals.
As so often happens in annual planning, we write our goals and then set them aside and forget about them until the fourth quarter. An important piece of creating the shorter-term goals and daily action items is reviewing them regularly too. Set time aside for a regular review of your plan so adjustments can be made as needed.
I actually take the last week of each quarter off from client meetings and focus more on the strategic aspect of my business. This is the time I set aside to write my goals for the upcoming quarter and work out the tactics that need to be completed daily. It also gives me the space to review what went well over the past quarter and what areas I want to work on to improve in the next quarter. It’s the breather I need from working in my business to working on my business.
Dear Reader, here is your yearly goal challenge…
As you are looking at the upcoming fourth quarter and maybe pulling out the goals you created at the beginning of the calendar year, what smaller goals can you create and tactics (day-to-day actions) can you employ that will help you achieve these goals? Did you give yourself the opportunity to work on your business instead of just in your business this quarter?
Remember, focus on the activity and the goal will happen!
In my recently released book titled From Start-Up to Success: Navigating the Journey to Becoming (and Staying) a Successful Entrepreneur there are many other helpful ideas to becoming the best entrepreneur you can be. Make sure you check it out and watch for more to come. You’ll be happy you did!
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