At the beginning of this month I finished teaching the live version of my course on entrepreneurship and creating your own career. Teaching things has a funny way of making you think a little differently, even about things that you have know forwards and backwards for years. The big thing that stuck out to me as I created the content and taught the course was just how important goal setting is to accomplishing what can seem like daunting and overwhelming tasks.
If there is only ONE thing that I could attribute to my current success, it is setting date-defined, attainable goals.
Now, everybody knows you should be setting goals, but I'm sure we are also all very familiar with the daunting feeling that can sometimes come with them (broken New Year's resolutions, anyone?). The reason I have been so successful in such a relatively short amount of time is largely thanks to how I set my goals. Are you ready to learn the secrets to setting and ACHIEVING your goals?! (mini-Beyonce dance party break)
BREAK DOWN LARGE GOALS INTO SMALLER STEPS
So let's say one of my goals is to be 100% self-employed (and in fact it was!). I think we can agree that seems a tad overwhelming. Where do you even begin?!
But that's just the thing you need to ask yourself....because once you know where you can begin, you can then break that big oh-my-god-can-that-ever-actually-happen goal into a step-by-step I-can-totally-do-this! goal.
Using myself as an example (working as a flute teacher and social media consultant), this is how I broke it down for myself:
1. Get a job as a music teacher at a music academy (or two)
2. Find a flexible part-time job so I have time to try to build up my own things on the side (because let's be real here, you still have bills to pay amiright?)
3. Begin marketing myself as a social media consultant
4. Try to land some interviews/get articles published to get my name out there
5. Start pitching myself and land at least one client (by a specific date)
6. Pitch some more and land another client (by another specific date)
7. Try to transition from teaching at music schools to gaining private students (because teaching privately = more $)
8. Set a specific income goal for you to bring in monthly through your teaching and consulting and once that is reached give your notice at your part-time job and VOILA! 100% self-employed.
Those steps seem a lot more doable, yes? And if you are still unsure on any of those steps, you can break them down even further as well! So if you are not sure how you might go about marketing yourself, you could break that down into smaller steps:
1. Build a fire website
2. Make sure all social media is professional and/or set to private
3. Begin reaching out to local schools to offer free masterclasses or workshops
4. Put up flyers at local coffee houses, music stores, neighborhood, etc.
5. Ask any and all local contacts you have for leads
etc.
And if you still are having trouble coming up with steps to help you reach a specific goal, ask your friends and mentors! Honestly every time I have done that, I have walked away feeling inspired, motivated, and with many new ideas and steps to act on! Wins all around.
PUT DATES ON YOUR GOALS
Now that we have all of these awesome action steps, put some dates on those bad boys! Make sure you keep everything realistic, though. If you know you have ten performance in one week, probably don't give yourself a goal deadline that week. Cut yourself some slack, y'all.
Add the dates into your calendar and add reminders for yourself! For my goal of pitch to and land one new client, say I give myself one month to do this. So for each week that month, I might put into my planner pitch to 2 potential clients this week. Make sure you put timelines and specific dates on all of your goals. This will make it much easier to keep things on track! Since I am a very visual person, and also have the tendency of forgetting things (😬), I also have a large monthly desk calendar that I write everything on so I can visually see it every single time I sit down to work, and I also add alerts into my phone calendar so it will pop-up and remind me. I usually set a reminder for the beginning of each month and each week.
And one final thing I want to throw in here is my new favorite secret weapon....
Not only does this guy have an entire section at the beginning dedicated to setting goals (including putting dates, breaking it down to actionable steps, and setting accountability partners!), it ALSO gives you space to write in your monthly and weekly goals and tasks directly into your weekly planner view to make sure you are staying on track! I am so freaking excited to use this planner this year I may or may not have shed a few actual tears when I opened the package. 10/10, would recommend.
On the eve of yet another New Year, I hope you walk away feeling inspired and ready to crush those goals, and know that I'm on the other side of this screen cheering you on!
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Thank you for reading!