Start of a new year and we are all thinking about goal setting, I hear the words SMART.
A cold shiver shoots up my spine and I’m galloping for those hills. My thoughts are dragged back to the traditional textbook learning and if you could see my face now it would tell you a lot!
We set ourselves goals every day without knowing it. “I’m going to run 5K this weekend” or “I’m going to clear that garage today”, “time to clear my inbox before the end of the week”. Naturally and without us noticing we are setting ourselves smaller goals to prepare for that bigger goal, but when we think of being successful in business we put ourselves under pressure to write reams of notes with pie charts in slide format so by the time we have set the font, colour and margins we could have forgotten what it is we originally wanted to aim for. Don’t get me wrong planning is up there as the most important in business but finding your way to execute this is just as important.
Everyone has different talents in order to record and achieve these goals, maybe you will work SMART and breakdown each goal followed by a milestone or perhaps mentally and physically planning the desired results in the form of action energises you more? Whichever way you choose be flexible, adapt if you feel it needs to be and don’t beat yourself up if it’s not reached, it’s all part of the rich tapestry of life and discovery. Being honest with yourself and appreciating your learning style will help you focus and motivate you.
I know my preferred style is kinesthetic, I need to get real with a goal or have some hands-on experience to measure the importance. I’m at my happiest when I’m physically achieving goals that I’m ticking off already in my head. Beginning of 2020 has seen my goals increase and I needed some method of structure to remind me of the path I want to follow, so I was so relieved when I attended a recent VACT webinar with my coach and rediscovered the goal pyramid. Simple and practical suddenly I’m feeling less over-whelmed.
It’s nothing fancy, not 3D sliced into segments, multi coloured or with clever complicated arrows but clear boxes to hand write my short-term goals leading into a 3-month big goal. Hooray, I’m looking forward to this, might get those multi coloured pens out for a bit of fun!!
For the first time I was having fun. It was energising and motivating, I can’t wait for morning to start so I can continue to build my future and business. Wow it’s a revelation and with this productivity comes confidence, love it. How will I reward and acknowledge each goal I achieve? ummm costa coffee with vanilla, yeap good start. Gloves on, secateurs in hand, right off to massacre the garden, good for the soul or some retail therapy, well no one else is going to do it, I’m self-employed!
Further researching into goal setting and I’m reminded that I should be breaking these goals down into manageable steps, yuk more writing less doing. I prefer to jump in and get started, see where it takes me. Not for everyone but I wasn’t labelled ‘Katy Nowaitee’ by my father-in-law for nothing. Forward thinking/action often surpasses mistakes, nothing is perfect and making a mistake is a powerful learning tool.
I spent many years chastising myself for not doing it the ‘proper’ way in my corporate career and feeling that I was lacking a degree of intelligence to those who record and regularly track their goals, daily, weekly, monthly on paper or electronically. Now I have the freedom to do it my way and there is nothing wrong with it. We all need to find the way that works for us. I want to be flexible, if I haven’t met that goal that’s OK, I can refresh, move it or adjust it slightly I’m not going to be ridged about my goals, I want to enjoy what I do.
Some of my goals I will need to out-source some help, something that will take an accountant 2 hours will probably take me 2 days. I know when to admit where my strengths are and it’s not tax returns! So, don’t feel defeated if you can’t wear all of those business hats. You need to focus on what makes you great in your business. Outsourcing administrative tasks to a virtual assistant will make you more efficient and help achieve those goals.
I’m more than happy to take any admin task off your plate, please contact me to discuss further. I can help you reach your goals!