Well, it’s that time of year… you know when you make resolutions and goals. Have you even started thinking about what you want to leap over in the 2012 leap year?
Not everyone has goals… but personally, I think everyone should. I don’t feel you can really drive yourself and your business without them. Ever heard of a little thing called a budget? Well that’s nothing but financial goals.
Just a little while ago in both Finish Strong and my newsletter, I wrote about SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-Based). I’m going to go beyond those and actually take you on my goal setting journey…
- Step 1: Big Picture – Write a Book
- Step 2: Break it down –
- Specific: Write a book about what? Building A Virtual Accounting Business
- Measurable: How long is the book? 150-250 pages
- Attainable: Is this realistically attainable in the time frame? Yes
- Relevant: How does this relate to who I am as a person and/or my business? Fits in with the training/coaching side of Common Cents; answers a question that I get all the time – “how do you do that?”
- Time-Based: What is my self-imposed deadline? September 30, 2012
- Step 3: Break it down further – into action goals (we can break it down further from quarters to 30 days to weekly but for the purpose of this post, I’m going to stop at quarters)
- Quarter 1 (Jan – Mar): research, testing and documentation – what works & what doesn’t work
- Quarter 2 (Apr – Jun): interview accountants & service providers
- Quarter 3 (Jul – Sept): finish strong
- Step 4: Share it – share your goals with your team, your coach, your mastermind group. Share your goal(s) with someone. You’d be surprised how motivating just declaring a goal to “the world” can be…
Now that last quarter’s breakdown (finish strong), I know doesn’t seem all that S.M.A.R.T. and it may not mean much of anything to you but I wanted to put it in there to illustrate a point to you. The point is this… that to set a goal you don’t necessarily need to know all the steps necessary to achieve that goal… you just have to set the goal as your destination and trust that things will fall into place as inch your way closer to achievement every day!
“Faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase.” ~ Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
So what are you waiting for? Ready to take the leap year literally… and take a huge leap for you and your business?! Share some of your goals with me in the comments.
