Are you big on goals? I am.
I love working out my big goals for the year and then breaking them down into actionable tasks. I’ve always set lots of big goals and this year, I have goals listed under 9 areas of my life (taken from Karen Gunton’s awesome bizplantastic workbook) – so 9 major goals – and each of these goals is broken down into specific tasks that I have to complete in order to achieve that goal.
Here is a sample I did for you. While doubling my income is a goal for my year, these are not necessarily the tasks – I just wanted to put some ideas in there to help you start thinking about how to break major goals into minor tasks.
Remember, when you set a financial goal, you have to be careful not to skimp on the necessary. So when I write down “Reduce Costs” as a heading, I know that I can’t be cutting away things like my bookkeeper or my graphic designer, because these people make my life better and contribute to other goals – like staying sane!
If one of your tasks for a goal is to create a new product or service (such as listed above), you’ll need to break that new product or service down into another set of tasks. It will become it’s own goal – or mini goal – the achievement of which contributes to the major goal.
I’m told that nine major goals is far too many and that we should stick to between three and five. However, I find that when you break your goals down into areas of your life, as Karen’s workbook helped me do, it really isn’t overwhelming, but actually fun. And it helps to create a more balanced outlook, when you know that you are working towards goals across the entire spectrum and not just one of two business-only goals.
How do YOU stay on track with your goals? I’d love you to share with me in the comments.
