Goal setting… my way!

by on January 15, 2014

goal setting business

I know, I know. New Year’s resolutions are cliché. But there’s something about the New Year that personally gets me going and gets me excited about setting goals for the year.

Usually, I think about some goals, perhaps write some of them down and then proceed to go about my life and my business as per usual. By the end of the year, I’m usually not in a place to comment on my progress. What were those goals again, by the way??

I’ve decided this year to focus the goal setting process more and really take action on what I want to accomplish. I feel a buzz for 2014, like a real shift is taking place, both for me and for those around me. Anyone else feeling it too?

Defining your goals

When it comes to goal setting, whether for business purposes or for your personal life, gurus and experts alike generally tout S.M.A.R.T. goals – specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, timely.

Business examples could be goals like increase email subscribers by 20% or boost sales of product x by 15% by Dec 31st, 2014.

I have a confession to make, though. I kinda hate setting goals like this. Being SMART about my goals zaps the joy out of goal setting and just doesn’t resonate with me. I don’t like being so rigid.

(If you’re big on SMART goals, I’d really love to hear from you in the comments – how you apply them, why they work for you. I’m more of a go with the flow of the universe type person, but I’m sure that a lot of you are oriented differently 🙂 )

Regardless of how you decide to specially frame your goals, I feel like first and foremost, you need to look at the overarching intentions behind your goals. Have these be your guide as you work towards making things happen and use them as a measuring stick for success. That’s the route I’ve decided to take.

My intentions for 2014

My intentions for the year are about achieving feelings and a state of being, so I’ve framed things for myself around empowering words, an idea inspired by my friend Ekaterina from EnergyMatch (check out her post here on the power of setting the intention behind your goals). This gets me really, really jazzed so I’m rolling with it. I will use the following intentions to guide my goals for the year, what I want to accomplish and how I go about taking action to make things happen.

JOY

Not fixating on the negatives in life and business and seeing the bright side.

EFFECTIVE ACTION

Boosting my productivity and efficiency, getting more done. One thing I really struggle with is being so busy marketing for my own clients that I never seem to have the time to do my own marketing. I want to address this pattern I’ve had going for the last few years.

VITALITY

This is health related for me personally, to bring back energy, improve my sleep and just generally feel better physically. I know my biz will benefit!

TRUST

Trust in myself, in the process, in Source and in the perfection of things as they are. Shifting from worry and resistance to flow. Including nipping this nasty habit in the bud (if possible, haha!) – comparing myself to others.

PERSEVERANCE

Tackling overwhelm and pushing through and actually getting stuff done!

ABUNDANCE

Being of service. Not focusing on money so much and instead shifting to being as helpful as I can as the ultimate measure of success and prosperity.

Making it happen

As I mentioned above, I’ve never really dedicated myself to goal setting in a purposeful way. Here is how I intend to go about it…

  • Writing it all down – I’ve got a notebook handy where I’m jotting down my ideas for accomplishing my intentions and what I will actually do. You can do this digitally if that’s more your thing, but my thing is plain, old fashioned paper and pen.
  • Journaling about the process – what’s working, what’s not, how I’m feeling etc. so that it will be easy to look back and track my progress. It’s also so helpful to just get all those thoughts swirling around my mind out of my system and onto paper. I know there’s going to be internal resistance to the changes I’m intending to make!
  • Accountability – I plan to write a follow up post about how I did with my goals and intentions and what tactics worked for me, so that I’m holding myself accountable.
  • Visual reminders – I’ve been wanting to play more with having visuals around to help motivate me and keep me on the right track. I’ve started with printing out my words for constant inspiration and keeping them above my desk, as you can see in the pic for this post.
  • Small actions each week – I will be breaking up my goals into small, specific, totally doable steps I will take (new ones each week) so that I don’t feel too overwhelmed and so that I have a purposeful course of action. I’m current reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin and I’m inspired by how she tackled her goals. Telling yourself you want to be happier is all well and good, but how will you actually get there? Gretchen broke up being happier into themes and each month chose actions to focus on. So for example, I want to boost vitality and the new action I will incorporate into my life this week is drinking a lemon juice tonic each morning. I want to form new habits with my little actions, making lifelong shifts in how I tackle both my personal life and my business.

“It’s the little things you do that can make a big difference. What are you attempting to accomplish? What little thing can you do today that will make you more effective? You are probably only one step away from greatness.”

~ Bob Proctor

Awesome resource alert! My friend Karen at build a little biz offers her tips for goal setting (that I’m totally aligned with) – check out her post here and be sure to scroll down and grab your free goal planning sheet!

On to you… have you set goals for yourself and your small business this year? What is your action plan for making them happen? Would love to hear from you in the comments!

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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }

Ekaterina Ramirez January 16, 2014 at 1:30 pm

Martina,

So happy to inspire you to set intentions for 2014. I resonate with all of them but the word “vitality” took my special attention. Since I spend quite a bit of time on computer, I strongly feel the need to re-organize my working habits.

SMART goals! Are they really smart?! I use SMART approach to set numeric goals but then humanize it with intentions like joy and ease because I want to achieve those numbers feeling energized rather than drained at the end of the day.

As per accountability, I just set up 3 tweets on Hootsuite to remind you about your intentions for 2014 – one in March, one in August and then in December. =) Excited to hear about your progress throughout the year.

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Martina January 17, 2014 at 6:16 pm

Yes, I feel the same way about computer time! Sometimes I think it’s unhealthy for me to spend as much time in front of the screen as I do. Something to consider… I also love your choice of the word humanize, exactly what I was getting at. And thank you for helping to hold me accountable. You really are just awesome 🙂

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Stephanie Iring January 19, 2014 at 11:21 pm

You wrote:

“I feel a buzz for 2014, like a real shift is taking place, both for me and for those around me. Anyone else feeling it too?”

Yes, totally feeling it. Had lots of big ideas for 2014 floating around in my head, but didn’t really now how to get organized…until I read your post. Thanks, as always, for the inspiration, Martina.

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Martina January 20, 2014 at 10:49 am

So glad you resonated with the post Steph! Here’s to an awesome year sis!! xo

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Amanda January 25, 2014 at 1:34 pm

Hello Martina:)

I love what you have to say about realistic and FEELING the goal setting. We can’t just be thinkers, we need to follow our gut, our intuition, and I appreciate reading this, it’s a great confirmation of what I am trying to do to!
One more great tip: Today I attended a women’s Entrepreneurial meeting, and being in a room with others, socializing our businesses, getting out of business and home to connect with others, boosted me so much:) Sometimes standing up and having to introduce yourself and your business in 30 seconds reminds you your ultimate goals and how much you wish to say! Alot of us work from home or only visit our own businesses, so I say make plans to get out sometimes, the benefits are great!
Thank you M for the Facebook updates too. very very helpful.
oh P.S.
Since I have hired you as my social media help, and because my business is my vision but supported with the help of many, you should know I was nominated for Woman Entrepreneur of the Year, and you are a part of that nomination for sure!!

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Martina January 26, 2014 at 11:26 am

Beloved Amanada, thank you for sharing and for your kind words! Would you believe that just yesterday I was chatting with your brother about corporate yoga studios versus studios like yours that put the yoga and the healing first and foremost – I was saying how different a response you would get if you asked the owners what the ultimate goal and purpose of the business would be. Very different intentions indeed. And super congrats about the nomination, that is absolutely amazing!! We’ll have to share that in your next newsletter 🙂 The purpose and passion behind how you run your studio makes my job easy! xoxo

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