GOODBYE 2020! Have you started planning for the year ahead? It’s always a great idea to do so before you welcome in the new year.
But before we start planning, we need to take a look at how we have gone over in 2020 (yes COVID and all) including what didn’t go so well!
The Review
Get a bit of paper out and start writing down your notes. It’s important to be honest with yourself.
The first question is, did you achieve your goals? If you didn’t, I know you can feel pretty deflated about it. But the review process will help you to see what you did achieve and identify where you fell down.
Ask yourself these:
What was your most significant moment in 2020?
What were your top 5 wins?
What are the 5 things you would do differently?
In what areas of your life did you not show up fully? How did this affect your goals?
What new experiences did you have and what new things did you learn?
What product, service or program was your largest revenue generator the past month?
This can be a bit of an eye-opening exercise and maybe you’ve actually achieved more than you realised?
Looking Forward
Visualise yourself and the business in the coming 12 months. What are you most excited about for 2021? Again, start writing these notes down so it becomes clear on the steps you need to take to get there.
How do you want to feel at the end of 2021?
What is an area of focus going to be in 2021? (personal development etc)
Thinking about what didn’t work so well in 2020 and what’s not working well now, what can you fix?
What do you need to automate, delegate or eliminate?
If you think about your current week, what are the best parts that you want to keep and the worst parts you want to ditch?
If your biggest and boldest “dream” came true, what would it be and who would you be?
Goal Setting
You’ve got the vision for your business…now turn that into a roadmap for success in 2021.
It’s time to set the goals that will represent what you desire to accomplish in 2021. Don’t create too many goals. When we overestimate what we can accomplish in a year we underestimate what we can accomplish in a longer time frame if we were to get more narrowly focused and limit our scope.
The aim is to have the time and resources you need to achieve your goals.
And most importantly make sure the goals you set are achievable!
What are your top 3-5 goals for 2021?
What is your “golden goal”? This is a goal that if you were to achieve would be the catalyst for achieving all of your other goals. This is the first thing to focus on!
What roadblocks do you foresee?
How will you overcome them?
What are other ideas you have that doesn’t fit in with your 2021 vision that you can park for 2022?
The last question is important as generally entrepreneurs have shiny object syndrome and countless ideas that we want to implement now. The key is knowing what our capacity is and being able to put those ideas on the back burner until the time is right.
Why are those goals essential to you?
90 Day Goal Setting
Next, it’s time to look at what you want to happen in the first quarter of 2021 – that is January to March. When we break our goals down into bite sized chunks and limit our priorities, we achieve more.
It’s about creating short term priorities that must be done in the next 90 days.
What will be your main focus or goals over the next 3 months?
Step 1
List everything that you want to accomplish over January – March quarter. On average you’ll have around 10-20 things.
Step 2
Then with the list, determine the most important priorities in the 90 days. Make a decision on each: Keep it, Kill it, Combine it.
Continually go over the list until you get down to 3-7 goals.
Step 3
Once narrowed down, set the date the goals are due. (generally the end of the 90 day period)
And then define each, by making the objectives clear. This is not a to do list, nor are they open ended. The objectives need to be specific and clear so there is no ambiguity at the end of the 90-day period whether it was done or not.
For example. If in the 90 days you want to increase your website traffic. You need to have a specific number you want to increase it to and by what date. Your goal may read like:
Increase website traffic to 5000 visitors per month by 31st March 2021 OR
Increase website traffic by 25% by 31st March 2021
Step 4
If you have team members, assign who is responsible for each goal. Only one person should be accountable.
Tasks for Goals
Now you’re going to break down each goal you want to achieve. Remember bite sized chunks is how we’re going to keep momentum and continually inch closer to achieving the goal.
For your first goal, list all the tasks/actions that are needed to achieve this goal.
When we do this task, we sometimes realise that we have set too many goals as there are more tasks associated with a goal than we originally anticipated. That’s why it’s important to not skip this stage.
With each of the tasks, then assign a priority to them and a due date.
After you’ve done this you will start to see how they can be broken down into smaller monthly and weekly goals.
Ask yourself the following questions:
Is there anything that may get in the way of achieving this goal?
What are the resources needed to help you achieve this goal?
Any there any habits you need to upgrade to achieve this goal?
Now repeat this process for your remaining 90 day/ first quarter goals.
And remember… The fastest way to get there is to do the pre planning. This reduces the mistakes and ensures you do things right.
