How To Create A Plan For Your Goals – So You Achieve Them Every Time

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No matter what time of year it is that you’re reading this, i’m sure you can think back to a time where there was a goal you set and you didn’t accomplish it. Did you ever take the time to really sit down and think about WHY it didn’t get done? You know, actually analyze what went wrong so you can either try again and get it right, or just look back to have that knowledge on what didn’t work so it doesn’t interfere with your future goals?

While I totally understand not wanting to look back on things we’re not proud of because they “make us feel bad” the only way to learn and get better is by reviewing what went wrong.

And also, reviewing what went RIGHT! When a goal does get accomplished you should look back at the process and action steps you took to make it happen so that you know how to repeat it!

So now that you know why you should review your goals, I want to give you a quick exercise you can do at the end of every month, quarter, and year, to review both the goals you accomplished and the ones you didn’t.

FIRST

Write down all the goals you wanted to accomplish in the amount of time you’re reviewing. So if you’re reviewing one month write down all the goals you set that month, if you’re reviewing a quarter  – write down all the goals you set for the quarter, etc.

Can’t remember what your goals were? Well hopefully you wrote them down somewhere, look back into your planner, your PowerSheets, your Trello Board or Asana list.

(If you didn’t write your goals down, they probably didn’t get done, so from here on out make sure you’re writing your goals down in one place – so that you can refer back to them.)

Now let’s get started on the review process, open up a google doc, your notebook, or download the free worksheet I already created for you here.

This exercise consist of 4 questions broken down into two separate categories.

Category 1: Unaccomplished goals
Category 2: Accomplished goals

Four Questions:

1. What was your goal?
2. Did your goal happen?
3. Why did/didn’t it happen?
4. Is there any way you could’ve made this better?/How could you have changed this?

Here’s an example of the exercise in action!

Example of Unaccomplished Goal:

Goal

• Grow email list to 10,000

Did it happen?

• No

Why didn’t it happen?

• Didn’t update my optin
• Embarrassed to share it
• Confused on what my ideal client wanted
• Didn’t pitch podcasts
• Didn’t write guest posts

How could you have changed this?

• Hired a strategist give me feedback on the optin and help me improve it
• Schedule time into my calendar to brainstorm, outline, edit, or create a new optin
• Write out every step in asana and give it a due date
• Set a monthly goal for 5 new audiences I can share it with via podcasting and guest posting
• Plan those goals out with scheduled time to execute in my calendar
• Hire PR expert to do this for me

Example of Accomplished Goal:

Goal

• Get invited to conferences as a speaker

Did it happen?

• Yes

Why did it happen?

• I hired a speaking coach
• Came up with my signature talks
• Created a speaking page on my website
• Pitched myself to my favorite conferences

Is there anyway you could’ve made this better?

• Need to collect testimonials from conference hosts
• Want to have a promo video made of myself speaking

As you can see, by just taking a few minutes or maybe just an hour to go through this review process for all of your goals, you can have major clarity on the plan that should have been created and the action steps that should’ve been taken to reach your goals.

So now that you have this information, now what?

USE IT! Look at what did happen, what didn’t, and what could’ve been done better and actually map out your plan to make these goals happen this time around. Write down what has to be done, when it has to get done, and how it will get done, in your project manager (like Asana or Trello) or at least in your calendar! This way you’re building into your time everything you need to do to accomplish your goals.

While The above exercise is great it’s reactive, you’re only doing it after you did/didn’t accomplish your goals. What if you want to be proactive, and create a strong plan that will prevent any possible pitfalls before it’s too late?

Well then, use this same exercise, but this time do it when you’re setting the goals you want to accomplish. Pretend as if you’re in the future and all of the goals you wanted to accomplish, didn’t happen. Why didn’t they happen?

Example of questions to ask

Unaccomplished Future Goal

Goal

• Get featured on 2 podcasts a month

Did it happen?

• No

Why didn’t it happen?

• Didn’t create a system beforehand to make reaching out every month easy
• Wasn’t confident about sending out my pitch email
• Couldn’t find enough podcasts to pitch that my ideal client listens to

How could you have changed this?

• Work with a Public Relations expert to help me create a media kit, research relevant podcasts, and write a pitch template I’m confident in
• Create a schedule and workflow for reaching out to podcasts every single week

When you pre-think about a goal in this way you’ll be able to create a well thought out plan that has already thought of the possible pitfalls and built in action steps to avoid them beforehand.

How to get the most out of this exercise:

1. Create an event in your calendar called “Goal Reviewing”
   1. Schedule 1 hour the first week of every month in your calendar
   2. Schedule 1 hour the last week of every month in your calendar
      1. This way you’re making time in advance to get it done!
2. Create a google folder called “*insert year* goals”
3. Create a google doc in that folder titled “*insert year* goals”
4. Have the first page in the doc for reviewing why your “future goals” didn’t happen
   1. You’ll fill this out the first week of every month
   2. Take all the action steps you came up with in this process and enter them into your project manager with due dates
5. Have the second and third page in the doc for reviewing what goals did and didn’t get done this month
   1. You’ll fill this out the last week of every month
   2. Take all the action steps you came up with in this process and enter them into your project manager with due dates
6. Every month continue the same process keeping all of your goals in one document so that you can do quarterly and yearly reviews to see how successful you were!

Now go out there and crush your big goals!