from the Blog

Like most people, for many years I found it difficult to have a meaningful goal setting process that had any chance of success.  I am a prolific reader of business development and personal growth books, blogs, and newsletters.  I am pretty smart and got the message — ‘goals will dramatically enhance your success’ — and I certainly played around with it a lot. 

Something was still missing. You may identify with these quick thoughts.

• I wasn’t being consistent

• I did not write my goals down

• I did not look back and evaluate

• I was doing it halfway — cheating the system because I was so smart

• I did not have SMART Goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and with a Time Element)

• Many of my goals were not actionable

• I did not have coach or mentor in place to help me be accountable

What am I doing now?

In my journal (oh, starting a journal has been a game changer for me) I have written the following questions:

• What did I accomplish last year? (and take some time to celebrate these successes)

• What were my biggest disappointments last year? (be honest, there were some)

• What did I learn?

• How do I limit myself?

2 Bonus Questions:

• In what areas of my life am I not accomplishing what I want?

• What would I like to accomplish just because it seems fun or inspiring?

I start these questions in the first part of November and reflect on them and write answers through mid-December.  Sure these can be ‘soft ball’ questions, or they can have a lot of depth — your choice.  The answers to these questions provide some real insights into where my life has been heading and where I want it to go in the next year.  This is still a work in process for me – each year I try to be more attentive to my goal process.

Many thanks to Chris Guillebeau – The Art of Non-Conformity, for introducing me to this process through his blog in 2010.

Next Steps for Goal Setting

Doing a Year End Review can be a first step in developing strong and effective goals for you and your business. It has certainly become an important part of the goal setting process for me. Stay tuned as we share details about the next steps to goal setting in a follow up post.

This week . . . . consider conducting your own year end review.

• Set aside a few hours of ‘me’ time

• Reflect on the questions presented

. . . . go have an Awesome Week!

Tom Trabue

theNextStep