At this time of year we hear a lot of talk about resolutions, life changes and of course, setting goals. My personal feeling is that any time of the year is the right time to give yourself a fresh start and set goals. If you need to make a change, you don’t need to wait for the calendar year to tick over to do it. But, because planning ahead and goal setting is a process, this time of year seems to be a natural time for reflection and forward planning, especially if you have some down time, or life is a little quieter for you after the festive season.
At the end of each year, I use the break to reflect on the year that was and consider what is working well, what I want to change moving forward and what I want to achieve in the coming 12 months. This year I have 3 BIG goals, that fall into the catergories of; professional/business, family, lifestyle. When I say BIG goals I mean big statements that reflect my overall goals in those areas of my life, for the year. This year I have listed these statements on a whiteboard and at the very top I have written a daily reminder for myself; start the way you intend to finish! I have done this because I want to be reminded everyday, that to finish in the way I intend, I have to take daily actions and push myself. Yes you do have to do more than write some positive statements on a whiteboard to achieve your goals and this is where monthly and weekly goal setting is useful, along with writing daily to-do-lists.
Over the weekend, I took the time to plan this month out and write out my goals for this week, along with a to-do-list for today. Remember this all started with my BIG goals and that power statement, or mantra which have guided me towards a plan for the coming 4 months (I will do the same at the end of this quarter). The quarterly plan is what has enabled me to work out what my goals for this week should be and I have broken those down even further, to give myself daily tasks, which are on the to-do-list. At the end of today, I will write a new to-do-list for tomorrow and so on for the rest of the week. At some point over the weekend, I will do it all again for the next week and at the end of the month, I will start again.
This works for me. What works for you may be something different. My message however is the same, whatever strategy you adopt; you have to have a plan.
To help you find your plan, our CEO Kylie Carlson has dived even further into the topic of goal setting in our very first edition of Academy TV for 2016; Setting Goals as a Wedding Planner. If you need to spend some time setting goals for this year, I encourage you to watch the video and if you have any comments or feedback, please share it with us here. If you are a student or graduate member of our private Facebook group, Academy Live, please join us there for more discussions on the topic of Setting Goals for 2016.
Have a fantastic week and let’s all start the way we intend to finish a fabulous year!