How To Set And Achieve Your Goals Without Burning Out

You may have heard the phrase “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” And while that may be directionally true, it doesn’t provide any pointers on how to actually create a plan around your goals. I’m here to help. And if you follow these steps you’ll be able to create actionable, meaningful goals that allow you to live in the vision you have for yourself and your business.

Step 1: Get clear on your business goals

Sounds simple, right? Not so simple when you are thinking about the million things you need to do over the next five years to grow your business. 

Terry shares a helpful framework he’s used over the years from The One Thing by Gary Keller. To create an impactful goal you’re going to ask yourself what he calls the focusing question. Here it is “What's the ONE Thing I can do, such that by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary?” 

Action item: Write down your one thing. Terry recommends something you can accomplish in 90 days. 

Step 2: Add structure to your goals

You’re going to get crystal clear on your OKRs (objectives and key results – this lays out exactly what you’d like to accomplish, and the timeframe, usually a quarter of a year). 

Once you have your objectives and key results clarified, you can work backwards. What actions do you need to take to accomplish your desired results? What can you do to start working towards it today? 

Image source: Intuit

Step 3: Ask, “What am I missing?”

Based on what you need to accomplish, what’s missing? Where are you stuck given your current tools, knowledge or time constraints?

You need to make sure you understand the resources needed to accomplish your objectives, and slowing down to ask these questions will help you have realistic expectations of yourself and your team. 

Step 4: Ask for help. 

If you know of specific people in your network who can either help you directly or perhaps recommend a resource, start there.

​If not, consider sharing your request as a social media post. This will allow you to passively promote your business and potentially get some assistance at the same time.

Terry shares a script for asking your network for help. 

Conclusion

You need to get clear on the big picture, and then break it down by months, weeks, days, and moments. It takes discipline, but it will provide you with the clarity, confidence and commitment needed to achieve your goals. 

Your challenge: Block off an hour to complete these exercises. 

This episode is brought to you by The Solopreneur's Fast Track, a self-paced video course hosted by Terry Rice. The course was created to help you start a business with the skills you already have in less than 30 days without a fancy website or complicated marketing tactics.