When you think about goals and goal-setting, what comes to first comes to mind:

1. Yass! I love setting goals!
2. Not yet. I’d like to but I don’t know how.
3. Ummm, that’s like a resolution, right? I used to set those but they don’t work.
4. Goals? What do I need those for?

There are many people who are goal-setting marvels and would answer with response 1 above.

However, most people would answer any variation of responses 2 – 4. 

In fact, many people know they should set goals but avoid doing so for many reasons:

• They don’t know how: We’re not taught how to set goals. Setting a goal is more than just writing down what you’d like to achieve; it’s being specific about the task, the timeframe, the process, etc.
• They tried it once, but it didn’t work: Many people try something once and then quit if it doesn’t work out. They may not stop to think about why it didn’t work out. Perhaps the goal was too ambitious for where they were at the time. For example, a person may set a goal to run a marathon this year, but if they struggle to run to the mailbox, they may struggle to achieve their goal this year.
• They don’t know they need to: Everyone should set goals, but not everyone does. They may not think it’s necessary. Or they feel that goal-setting is for high-achieving or super competitive people. In reality, the only way to live the life of your dreams is to do the work during your waking hours and that takes goals.
• They don’t feel like it. Put simply, they just don’t see the point. Often, if you dig a bit deeper, you’ll learn that these folks may fall into any of the three bullets above.

So, if you answered 2-4, what can you do?

If you’re intimidated about goal setting or aren’t sure where to start, here’s how to set goals once and for all in just three steps.

How to set goals

Before you begin, it helps to have a pen and paper handy so you can write down your responses to each question.

You may want to revisit what you’ve written down as you’re creating your goals or next year when you think about setting brand new goals.

Also, find a quiet spot in your home so you can think clearly.

If that’s nearly impossible, which it often is if you have little ones, consider working on this over the course of a week within the quiet moments that you can spare, even if it means hiding out in the laundry room.

Step 1: Define what you want to achieve

Close your eyes for a moment and picture your perfect life.

What does it look like? 

What do you feel?

Does it involve a larger house, a newer car or more vacations?

Do you want to pay off debt or have more money to invest?

Write it all down, every single detail.

Now, think of your business and what you achieve this year. (Hint: Refer to your Teamzy Dashboard to get a more accurate picture of your progress this year!)

Of course, you’d like to improve your sales numbers as well as the number of prospects, and distributors in your network; that goes without saying.

However, what else would you like to achieve?

Would you like to win accolades from your product or service’s parent company?

Write down everything you’d like to achieve in 2019.

If something seems too ambitious to achieve in a year, make it a longer-term goal.

Step 2: Outline the details

Once you have the basics, it’s time to deep dive into the details.

This is the part where you’ll hammer out all of the details, the more specific, the better, to create SMART goals.

What are SMART goals?

You’ve likely heard the term ‘SMART goals’ before, but wondered what it meant.

SMART is an acronym to intended to help create better goals.

SMART stands for:

You’ll take each into consideration as you’re creating your goals.

What would you like to achieve?

So, you’d like to increase your sales for 2019, right? This is where you put these SMART strategies into action.

First, think about how much you would like to increase your sales by?

Your number of prospects?

Your number of distributors?

Use a specific number or percentage.

For example: In 2019, I’d like to increase my sales by 10%; the number of prospects by 25% and the number of distributors by 20%.

Next, consider whether or not these percentages are possible.

There’s nothing wrong with being ambitious; however, it’s important to also be realistic about what you can achieve in a year’s time.

Save those big, juicy goals for the long-term, such as five-year goals.

On the other hand, don’t make the goals so easy to achieve that you don’t have to put in much work.

Save those slam dunks for your daily to-do list (you know, where you put in one or two tasks that you’ve already done or could do in, like, five minutes so that you have the satisfaction of crossing two things off your list.

Honey, we all do it and if you’re not, you should. Hello, insta-boost of motivation!)

Then, figure out how long it’ll take you to achieve that goal.

Will it take you all year or are you thinking of making it a five-year goal?

Setting a deadline will keep you focused on achieving your goal.

Is it relevant to your why?

Setting goals that are relevant to you why will provide a huge boost of motivation when you need it most, like in February or March when your momentum is starting to wane.

Remember why you went into business: who or what are you doing it all for?

Now, if you looked at this question and thought

“What the heck is a ‘why’?” then it’s time to define what yours is.

Luckily, there’s a blog about this very topic!

Read it over and then define your “Why.”

Then, keep it in mind as you’re creating your 2019 goals.

Step 3: Create a plan

You’re almost there! It’s not enough to create a goal; you have to create a plan to achieve it.

Now, this may seem super tedious; however, it’s one of those things that you’ll be glad you got out of the way now.

That way, you can start the year, ready to get achieving!

Pretend you’ve achieved your goal. Now work backward.

This will help you “see” the process.

Start at the end and think about all the steps it took to get there.

It could mean reaching out to more customers, prospects and distributors each time you generate leads or upping your lead generation to four days a week instead of three.

Write down all the steps you’ll have to take to achieve your goal.

Set milestones.

Once you have your list, add deadlines to each item.

These are your milestones. Every time you reach one, you’re that much closer to achieving your goal.

Since each item on the list can be broken down into smaller pieces, consider doing so.

Yes, this sounds even more tedious.

However, the benefit of this step is it takes all the guesswork out of achieving your goals.

By breaking it down further, you’re making your goals even easier to achieve.

You don’t have to think; you just have to do!

Don’t limit goal-setting to just your business

Goal setting is super helpful in all areas of your life.

In fact, if you’re feeling super motivated to achieve your business goals, that motivation will for sure spill over into other areas of your life as well.

• Do you want to improve your health in 2019? Set a health goal using the steps above. Make it even more fun by getting your spouse, siblings, neighbors, and everyone you know involved. Set milestones and be specific about what you want to achieve, whether you just want to lose weight, deadlift a certain amount or run that marathon (or perhaps a 5K if it’s your first go at running).

• If you want to get on track financially this year, set goals to eliminate debt, invest a certain amount per month, etc. Be specific about the amount and definitely break it down to a by month amount. Then commit to checking off those milestones throughout the year.

These are just examples.

If you’ve always wanted to take a dream vacation to a tropical locale with your family, then why not make it happen in 2019?

Research how much a trip would cost and factor in the flights, accommodations, food, and fun money.

Then, set a goal to earn that much by a certain date in 2019 – let’s say the end of October.

Then, if you accomplish the goal, give yourself a huge round of applause and reserve that trip!

Once you get back, set an even more ambitious goal for the future.