Goals.

“I don’t care how much power, brilliance or energy you have, if you don’t harness it and focus it on a specific target, and hold it there you’re never going to accomplish as much as your ability warrants.”

~Zig Ziglar

The CEO of Big Deal Branding spoke at Yellow about turning dreams into goals and goals into immediate next steps. The concept is simple:

1. Choose your goal “categories” – Basically think about “what is most important to me in life?”

My “categories” are as follows, but yours may be different…

• Spirituality/Faith
• Family & Friends
• Work/Passion Projects
• Physical Well Being
• Personal Happiness
• Financial
• Giving Back

2. Choose quarterly goals for each category. For example…

• Spirituality – Journal daily
• Family & Friends – Reconnect more often with long distance friends/family
• Work/Passion Projects – Find mentor for food blog
• Physical Well Being – Train for half marathon
• Personal Happiness – Learn to use new camera
• Financial – Save $X amount of money & research smart investments for it
• Giving Back – Volunteer twice a month at homeless shelter

3. Create weekly actions plans. Hint: The habit of writing out the weekly action plan may “stick” if you start an enjoyable ritual (for example, writing out your action plan over a cup of coffee and sweet treat on Sunday mornings).

• Spirituality – Journal 3 times this week
• Family & Friends – Identify friends/family for reconnection
• Work/Passion Projects – Decide type of mentor I’m seeking
• Physical Well Being – Print training plan
• Personal Happiness – Remove camera from packaging
• Financial – Create budget
• Giving Back  – Research homeless shelters in the area

The KEY to all of this is  choosing small, very attainable goals weekly to then accomplish quarterly, yearly and lifelong GOALS WITH SOUL. Fact: Sometimes our biggest obstacles are the easiest…like removing the camera from the packaging. Also, don’t beat yourself up if you don’t achieve them weekly – just MOVE ’em to the next week!

It may all seem like an elementary waste of time, but I can personally testify what a difference it has made since I first started a few weeks ago (yes, on a plane)…

I dare you to just give it a try for one month and then decide for yourself!

“Nothing is as frustrating as arguing with someone who knows what he’s talking about.”

-Sam Ewing

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