Setting Goals

You can’t help it. The end of December signifies not only the end of a calendar year, but the opportunity for a new beginning. It’s a time for both reflection and projection. You ask yourself: What did I accomplish this year and what do I want to work on or change for next year?

Think of goal setting as an extension of your business plan. You wouldn’t drive from California to New York without a road map, would you? You might eventually get there, but why waste valuable time, money, and energy blindly navigating. Make a plan, it’s your roadmap to success.

Goal setting is important for setting the tone and path to life and business. Think of it as future vision. Stating your goal and/or vision will keep you on track and keep the distractions at bay as you navigate through the jungle of life.

Carve out time and space to set your goals. Today, tonight, tomorrow, or this week. Do it all at once or in several short sessions. Some need a quiet place with ambient music whereas others are perfectly content goal setting in the middle of a wild party with Dance Dance Revolution and Beyonce blasting in the background. Whatever floats your boat, just do it and don’t wait.

Before looking to the future, it’s important to reflect on the past. Goals met should be celebrated in a big way while failures need to be examined. If you don’t assess what you’ve accomplished and what you’ve put on the back burner this past year, you’ll waste your energy in the upcoming year when old patterns repeat.

If you have goals or visions from this time last year, pull them out and examine what you wrote. If you didn’t write anything down, start brainstorming and thinking about what you did or didn’t do over the past year.

Write, write, write. We’re so glad the Egyptians wrote on pyramid walls because we have a record of what their lives were like and how they lived. Same goes for you. Write down your goals/vision so you have something to look back on, celebrate, or change. You don’t know for sure unless you have a record.

Look to the future and dream, but keep it realistic (I know, The Secret followers will have my neck at this one). I say this because I care and don’t want you to be disappointed. Think big, but more importantly think in manageable baby steps.

Put your mind to it and believe in yourself. It’s one thing to write it down and say that’s what you want or should do. It’s a completely different thing altogether to actually believe in your power to accomplish your goals (which is another reason why you should keep them realistic).

Take action. Each day is another moment of living your vision or stepping toward your goals. Without action, nothing happens. That’s the real secret and it works for me.

Photo Credit: blogs.zdnet.com

Every woman entrepreneur needs a business plan. At Entrepreneur Goddess, I’m dedicated to bringing you the best of everything you need to succeed.

As part of this mission, we discussed igniting your passion and building a business plan during our Lunch Hour Series: The Path to Self-Employment. In addition, Melani Gordon from gWave Consulting recently discussed the difference between planning and taking action. Without taking action, your plan or idea is no more than a plan or idea in your mind or on paper. It will not get you anywhere.

New business owners need to find a balance somewhere in the middle. If you have already taken action on your idea, the planning phase should be started sooner, rather than later.

To give you a nudge in the right direction, I highly recommend the templates SCORE has provided on their website. They have starter business plans, cash flow, and sales forecast sheets galore. Everything you need is online and free.

Recommendation: Print out your business plan and bring it on the go! While you’re waiting for your next appointment to show at Starbucks, you can whip it out and knock-out a question or two. This will not only save you time, but make the process less daunting.

Katie Skow
Entrepreneur Goddess
www.entrepreneurgoddess.com