You all know I love me some goal-setting! At the beginning of last year, I chose to do more goal-setting around the quarters, rather than either just yearly or monthly. Perhaps as a business owner quarterly goal-setting fits in well with financial planning and forecasts, but I find it to be useful for goals that have nothing to do with my business too.
Of course, we are coming up to the end of the first quarter for 2021. I don’t know about you, but it’s flown by for me. I’m setting my goals for the next quarter and thought you might find it useful to see my process.
Firstly, I review two main things. My yearly goals and my goals for the previous quarter. Are those goals still in alignment with my purpose? Am I still inspired by my yearly goals and will they bring joy, contentment and success to my life? I measure where I got to with my previous goals. If they’re met, were they met earlier than I had planned? What can I learn from that? If they’re not met, why is that? Do I want to continue these goals into the next quarter? Do I need to adjust my yearly goals from what has happened in quarter one?
I find connecting with my overall goals (which in turn feed into my five-year goals), helps me keep a longer view and perspective. This is really useful for when things have not gone to plan (something I think we can all agree we’ve all experienced a lot of in the last year!). It also keeps me striving and connected to my purpose. I don’t want goals just for the sake of having goals. I have goals to get me to where I really, truly want to be, to serve the purpose I’ve found in my life.
Next, I figure out if any of my yearly goals are appropriate to just be split into quarters. It’s tempting to work on things like business revenue this way, but if you work in a business where things like Christmas or school holidays create a downturn or upturn in revenue, it’s not necessarily realistic. But other goals such as gaining a greater engagement as measured by newsletter subscribers may be realistic. (And by the way, are you subscribed to mine?)
For the goals that are not about just splitting a yearly goal into four, I write down what they are. If I can’t describe my goal in a single sentence, I work on it and refine it until I can. I usually break my goals down into business, health and family. However, this quarter, I’ve used a totally different system that I just thought would be fun!
This quarter my goals are:
1 New corporate client
2 New long-course clients
3 Times a week running
4 Times a week strength/HIIT/flexibility training
5 Minutes a day stretching
I like the stretch of goals to be achieved across the quarter, in a week or in a day.
Of course, it doesn’t just stop with goal-setting. I then work on my plan for how to achieve those goals, broken down into small steps and scheduled. When I do it like this, my goals for the quarter seem really easy and achievable.
What are your goals for the next quarter?
Photo by Markus Winkler from Pexels