Goal setting 101

Welcome to my blog! I deemed it appropriate to begin on this topic considering we are approaching 2022. If you know me, you know that as a coach, the beginning of the new year isn’t my favorite time. I’m always here to encourage those with goals for the new year, but there is a lack knowledge when it comes to actual goal setting. It’s truly a skill that takes time. Most are used to setting more objective goals without actionable items. 

So I’m here to share this method of goal setting to encourage you to take your objective goals and put them into a process that really works as long as you apply it. This method is really from my dearest friend and peer Todd Bumgardner.  

First, let’s look back at 2021 and put pen to paper. Make sure you’re in a good mindset when you do this and have given yourself time to do it. Create four categories: personal, professional, physical, and enrichment. For each category, you’re going to set a ten minute timer and write down all the good things that happened over the course of 2021. The things that you achieved, moments you enjoyed, in each category. Take a breather, read through it and take it in. You will do this a second time and identify the things that didn’t go well in 2021. Things that you don’t want to repeat or take with you in the year of 2022. Make sure you are spending time in each category and be specific as possible. Take a breather, read through it and take it in. 

Feel free to take time in between your writing assignments. You do not have to do this all at once, but again, make sure you’re in a good mindset. 

Now we work our 2022 vision. Back to pen to paper. I want you to write about 2022 as if it’s already happened. Yes, you heard me. We will write for 10 minutes without stopping. No pressure here and don’t worry about editing yourself. What happened year of 2022? Refer to your four life categories to help you. What have you achieved? Where did you travel? Did you find a new hobby? Do you find the job you always wanted? Do not filter yourself here. 

Take a breather, take it in. 

Now, what do you need to do and who do you need to be to make that all happen? Read that again. Get in touch with who you are. What kind of person do I need to be in order to achieve these things? It’s time to get real with ourselves and what we want in order to achieve these goals. 

Let’s break it down. Here are where the goals come into play now that we have reviewed the previous year and identified what we want to happen for the year to come. I emphasize choosing one to two goals at a time that you have an attachment with and you deem to be important to you. Those will be our objective goals. For example, I want to have my own website for my small business. We have to take this goal and make it specific, relevant, measurable, actionable, and give it a time frame. For example, I would like to have a mock of my website done by May 15th and to achieve that I will write one blog per week, book a photoshoot, and will meet with my web designer every Friday. Now that we have a specific goal with actionable items I can now put this into my daily/weekly/monthly planner so I stay on track. 

You will review this every Sunday. I also review this quarterly. Don’t just shove this piece of paper into your everything drawer. How can we possibly achieve anything if you’re not assessing these things on a regular basis? I think it’s also important to review to make sure that these goals still matter. You may start something and later realize that something else is more important to you at the moment and that’s okay. It doesn’t mean you have failed your goal. Maybe you just need to break it down for yourself a little more if you feel you are not meeting the criteria every week. Whatever it is, the point of having your vision in front of you is to have clarity. If we don’t know what we want or don’t want and have no process in place then the goal will merely be just an idea. An idea that will repeat itself every new year.