Hi friends!
So glad to have you back for another chat about all things business goals, how grey areas can be good and oh, Mondays!
Let’s talk about goals first. I know, where to start right? I mean, you are sitting there in your girl boss chair, probably wearing slippers (like me) and probably one to three of the business hats we have to juggle at the same time. You have a business, therefore you almost definitely have a firm set of goals in mind. You know where you want your business to go and probably have four hundred ideas a minute about how you want it to get there.
There are many many many different systems and structures for goal setting and dream-mapping and business planning, I’ll dive into some of the options some time. But for today, I’ve got 5 things I do I’m learning to do, to keep my goals in focus, to be intentional and to grow a business and a life that works for me and that I love.
1. THREE FOCAL POINTS FOR THE MONTH
So we spoke last week about how I plan out my month. One factor of this planning takes place in the “notes’ space on my monthly planners, where I write down my three focal goals for the month. These goals depend on the overall deadlines/projects I have on the go but always have a business focus. For example, my goals for this month are:
1. CONNECTION: Social media with intention & focus on networking
2. ABUNDANCE: Daily intentions & being open to opportunities that are everywhere.
3. ACTION: Take action IN and ON my business
Your goals may look different or have a different focus but try to come up with three clear intentions/goals for the month ahead. When you find yourself drifting or overwhelmed or stressed, ask yourself if what you are doing is in line with these three things. If it is, keep working towards them. If it’s not, refocus (by having a dance off/hitting your yoga mat/taking a break/going for a walk) and move forward in a new direction.
2. WAKE UP & DANCE/DO YOGA/DREAM
To say I am not a morning person is putting things lightly. I’m WAY more productive at night (she says as she types this at 8.55pm) But I’ve read time and time and time again how I should be up at 6am (Or if Robin Sharma has his way, 5am – yeah, that’ll be the day!) Really though, this message crosses my path more often than I like to admit so I’m really trying to wake up at 6am, set my intentions for the day in my journal (I’ve started keeping track of my often vivid dreams too), roll out my mat (or crazy dance/do a 20 min fitness routine) and take the first hour of the day for myself.
P.S. Over the weekend I downloaded the Yoga Girl lessons that I’m going to play daily via dropbox on my phone. My first foot-of-my-bed session was this morning and it was glorious!
3. MEDIA – LESS MONDAYS
As much as I’m not for mornings, I am for social media, I mean hello, my business pretty much pivots on being able to connect. BUT, and it’s a big BUT! I’ve realised I needed some new boundaries. You know what it’s like. Every day brings a new launch, an exciting & sparkly announcement, some other business doing some other amazing thing. And you sit there wondering what on earth you can do to match that/get your business to that height/be super amazing and sparkly too.
It can get overwhelming can’t it? You have it all visual and worked out on Sunday evening and by 10am on Monday you have 54 tabs open, 15 half finished photoshop files, 43 emails in your inbox still and a whirling head full of things to do…almost none of which line up with your three focal goals. Because I’ve gone through a change or two (no kidding!) in the last year, I was finding myself particularly overwhelmed mostly on Mondays.
And so came Media-less Mondays this year. From 9am – 3pm, I’m trying to get off social media. I spend one hour in the morning checking my scheduled posts and emails and then turn off my wifi. Monday’s in wedding season are my day off anyway, so I’m trying to get into a habit of using Mondays for three things:
1. Laundry (the struggle is real friends!)
2. My “frog.” (the one thing that I have to do that week that I don’t really wanna do!)
3. Fun stuff (blog drafting/inspiration gathering/personal errands)
4. BE OK WITH THE GREY AREAS
Grey areas. They are not often the most comfortable. We have these big visions and goals mapped out in black and white, but most of the time a lot of grey “stuff” happens in the in between. It can be hard to move and shift with your goals. It’s sometimes scary when they change and we can often feel a sense of unease when things pause. But it’s ok. At least, that’s what I’m learning to tell myself. It’s ok to pause. It’s ok for goals to change and dreams to develop and businesses to take their own path. If you need reminding of this, click here to download the printable above & repeat after me:
It’s ok to pause!
5. FOCUS ON THE CHECKS
I’m a big fan of to-do lists, that’s no secret. But even more so, I love me a “done” list. I do a weekly check in with myself, on a post-it note, on the notes app on my phone, anywhere that works. At the end of the day I review my checked off list in my diary, then at the end of the week, I make a quick note of the things, in line with my focal goals, that I have achieved. A biggie for me last week was finalizing my new wedding packaging (post coming this week, but above is a sneak peek of my brand new flash drives that I’m kinda in love with!)
It’s important to celebrate the checks, dance party when it’s needed, pop the bubbly, spoil yourself with a bubble bath & a book. Whatever works for you to acknowledge that you are moving forward. Each and every little step takes you closer to the life you map out for yourself.It’s easy to get weighed down by how much there is constantly to do. The minute you get on top of one thing, or finally learn how to do the next, a new something is out and someone is running a workshop that you feel the need to save for. It can all be a bit too much sometimes. But it’s what we signed up for!
I’m learning to look for the little things, celebrate the small stuff, focus on the checks.
With love & light, business buddies! You’ve got this!
xx
2 Comments
Comments are closed.