The Overthinker’s Guide to Simple Goal Setting
So how do we manage Simple Goal Setting?
Let me start by saying, I am not a perfect person, I have broken every new year’s resolution I have ever made! I can also be an overthinker, which is not always helpful when you are in a new situation and trying to move quickly.
I am however pretty good at planning, planning a project, an event, formulating a compliance plan – that I can do. But when it came to sitting down to formalise my goals for this year, my first full year in business, it all got a bit murky. I decided to consult the interwebs for inspiration, bad move, there are 470 MILLION search results and I found myself down some rabbit holes, trying to find the perfect process that would kick me off and keep me on track. I needed a way to keep Goal Setting Simple.
Turns out the perfect process doesn’t necessarily exist, AND the process doesn’t have to be drawn out and gut wrenching … Goal Setting can be Simple – yay!
After coming across Paige Brunton’s blog, I decided it was time to go back to basics and I thought I would share the processes I ended up using to save you a trip down the rabbit holes.
Firstly I did a reflection process, secondly a fear setting process and lastly set out my goals, in very simple terms, quarter by quarter. I will definitely continue to use these on a quarterly basis as a minimum and have already popped time in my calendar to make sure I do.
Reflection Process
I think it can be true, in order to see where we are going, it helps to see where we have been. By using a set of questions to reflect, it helps to provide some different perspective and prompt further thoughts and interrogation.
I used Paige’s New Year Planning resource for reflecting on what I’ve done so far. The questions are great and I have saved them into a spreadsheet so that I can reflect regularly while my business is in its early stages. Side note – the resource also includes a project narrowing section for assessing whether to take on a project, outside of the dollars and cents which you may also find helpful.
Fear Setting
The Fear Setting exercise I came across last month after someone recommended a Ted Talk by Tim Ferriss. It really stuck with me as something useful to try.
The exercise forced me to name all the things I was scared of, i.e. will anyone respond? can I call myself a consultant? what if people laugh at me?? – all the usual imposter syndrome thoughts. By naming the fears you can work through them rationally.
What I loved about this exercise it is you are looking at a thing you want to do, or a change you want to make, working through all of the things that could go wrong and then putting strategies in place to either prevent or manage the potentially bad outcomes. You also look at the cost of inaction – not doing the thing, and the positives – what benefits might you get if you try, e.g. learning a new skill.
By doing the exercise, it quietened all those little voices in my head, enabling me to focus on what I want to acheive, rather than being stuck in the ‘what ifs?"‘.
Goal Setting
Being a new business I have spent a lot of the last 6 months thinking about what I want my business to look like, so I was already a few steps ahead here.
The first thing I did was to look carefully at my finances. As well as starting a new business I am also renovating my new house, so it was important to be clear on my budget. I worked backwards – what are my expenses? how much do I need to live, thrive and survive? And from there set revenue goals.
With my revenue goals in mind I planned on how I would achieve this – quarter by quarter.
By having SMART goals … Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time Bound (check out Atlassian’s resource for more info) … I have very specific measures to work towards and also to check my progress.
In the end it took me around 3 hours and I have clear goals, a clear head and a one-page plan, which I printed and stuck on my noticeboard so it is there to guide and remind me.
Hopefully you can take some, or all of these exercises as a takeaway. Please let me know if you did, and if it worked for you, feedback is welcome here!
Need some help?
If you need help with business planning, governance, risk or compliance, or just getting your business organised, Elouise from Ellevate Solutions is here to help you.