Everybody knows that you cannot design a great spac e without doing good planning at the beginning of the project. The space plans, lighting plans, furniture layouts and finish specifications all keep us on the proper and most efficient path to creating a fabulous space.
Setting goals and planning your year is the important first step to having a great business that pays off in the ways that you want it to. My business was pretty successful in the past but it didn’t really take off until I started setting goals and figuring out the steps I needed to take to achieve those goals.
Here is how you get started. Schedule an appointment with yourself to have a planning morning or day. I find it helps to get out of the office… the local coffee shop will do. I recommend coming up with just four goals that, once achieved, will impact your life in an amazing, positive way. Yes, just four… you are not allowed to turn this into a gigantic “to do” list. And here is another part. At least one of these goals must be personal.
When you are thinking about your goals I want to challenge you to use “what if” to move your thinking out your usual place.
“What if” you knew you could not fail…What would you go after?
“What if” what you did last year doesn’t matter…Yesterday’s junk has nothing to do with today and what you can do tomorrow.
You know, courage is not the absence of fear. Courage happens when something else becomes more important than fear.
So, “what if” there is something in your life that is more important? What is it?
With “what if” in mind here are three steps to setting goals and planning a great year.
Step #1 – When you choose a target to aim for, be sure to make yourself stretch a bit. For instance, setting the same income goal as last year’s is not a stretch. On the other side, you want to choose goals that are attainable. So don’t get crazy with numbers you do not believe possible.
Step #2 – Your goals should have a definitive outcome attached to them. In other words, why is this goal important to you, and what difference will it make in your life? For example, “I want to make $80,000 this year so that I can afford to treat my family to a really nice vacation.” Or “I want to lose 15 pounds so my jeans fit and I feel good about myself when I get dressed in the morning.”
Step #3 – Create milestones for each of your four goals. Write down what each will look like in three months, six months and nine months so that you can measure and enjoy your progress. Adding some steps to those milestones could to bring you closer to that goal. For instance, in three months I will have lost five pounds and I will be enjoying and looking forward to my morning walks.
Most of all, have fun dreaming and planning. I believe that this year your star is going to shine, and you are going to have an outrageous 2013.