Happy New Year!! it’s time to chew the fats and mull over New Year Resolution!

(Too soon? Sorry to spring this on you today but I figure today is the best day for any kind of goal setting because technically the year hasn’t started yet until you get back to work and the grind.)

Call it what you want – resolution, goal and intention setting is really helpful for most people. Over the years, I’ve learned that things just won’t happen by wishful thinking. As much as I’d like to wing things, most of my goals are accomplished by having a clear plan.

“Look back to where you have been, for a clue to where you are going”

Before we launched into what we like to accomplish this year, it’s important to look back and see where we’ve been. What was last year, 2016 like? What happened? What worked? What didn’t work?

What were your wins?
Did you accomplish the work/life balance that you were hoping for?
Did you do something new that you’d never done before? What were the results?
Did you get past some major mindset blocks?
Did you generate more income or revenue?

Now, where could you make some improvement?
What did you miss out on because of bad or no planning? What could you have done instead?
What are you going to do in 2017 to really change things in a meaningful and huge way?

Here are the 7 steps to achieve your goals in 2017:

1. Envision what you want 2017 to look like

• How many days a week to you want to work?
• How many vacations do you want to take? (We all want as many holidays as possible but let’s be realistic, ok?)
• What is the family/work balance you want this year?
• Do you want to develop a new product? Or a new collaboration?
• Do you need to rebrand or relaunch?
• What do you want your work environment to be like?

2. Plan your WHOLE year

Say what?! I know at times we aren’t even sure what we are doing on the weekend, let alone trying to plan a whole year. I struggle with this one too, but as a working mother, it’s easy to miss out on doing things strategically because we are drowning in the stress of daily chores. So let’s change that in 2017 and work with a plan.

• What do you want to happen by the end of the year?
• What needs to happen to get to your year-end goals?
• What do you want to happen in the first quarter? Second quarter and so on?

Put things into your calendar now. Set your end goals, reverse engineer and plot your whole year. This can be very fun! Oh, don’t forget to think BIG 🙂

3. Have a CLEAR financial goal

Many mothers don’t have very strong and clear financial goal. Most of us leave money issues to our husbands. On one hand, it’s a blessing but what happens when circumstances change? Haha.. I’m beginning to sound like an insurance agent (or financial consultant as they are called these days), but it’s imperative that we know how much we’re worth financially and how much you’ll need to live the lifestyle you want when you stop working. And if you’re in business, this is even more important.

• So let’s start with stating how much money you WANT to generate – not how much money you are currently earning.
• Set a money goal that is a stretch. Even if it doesn’t happen, setting your goal high gets you closer to your goal than if you undercut yourself at the starting gate.
• Be specific. Get real with yourself and find that number.
• What do you have to do to get to your financial goal? Are you PREPARED to go the miles?

4. Get clear on the skills/training you need to acquire to make an impactful difference this year

• How can you be better at your job/craft/business this year?
• Do you need to master social media to build your brand/following?
• Do you need to learn how to network way more effectively?
• Do you need to finally get trained on parenting, business accounting or public speaking?

5. Get more support

Do you have a support group? Sure, having understanding family and friends are important. But do you know someone who has been through or is currently going through the same journey as you? Are you constantly in touch with the people who inspire you? Are they willing to be your mentor or be each others’ accountability buddy?

Have you consider hiring a coach? The people who are at the top of their game have coaches. Top athletes and business people have coaches. If you want to realise your full potential, you need help. Personally, having a coach/mentor is the reason my business influence and earning power have more than doubled this year.

Where else could you get support to get you to your goals in 2017?

• Could you hire someone to clean your home?
• Could you get childcare help?
• Could you get a virtual assistant to handle menial tasks that are eating up your precious time?
• Are there programs or products that will help you achieve your goals faster and easier?
• Could you hire someone to handle your social media accounts?

Take a good, hard look at the support you need to help you achieve your goals. A team moves faster than a lone wolf. We can’t do everything ourselves and multi-tasking have proven to be not as productive as we thought. Very little can be achieved if we are continually pulled in too many directions.

By the way, I’m in the market for another virtual assistant this year. Any referrals would be much appreciated 🙂

6. ALL of the above in writing

Turn your vision into a poster, a screensaver or in written form in a journal – you can record your goals any way you want but make sure you can refer to it easily, so it doesn’t get forgotten. It also allows us to return to it when we lose track and to remind ourselves as regularly as we can.

Here’s my vision board, set as my desktop background. With a newborn baby, I’ve set the bar pretty low this year 🙂

7. Create your 90 days plan

Now it’s time to turn your goals into bite-size actions. If you don’t, it’s just a bunch of overwhelming notes.

• What needs to happen by end of March, to get you to your year-end goals? Which 3 things would you like to start working on?
• Of the list of things to-do, what can you jump on immediately the very first week of January?
• What will that lead you to for the second week?
• Then write down what needs to happen each day of each week. This makes it immediate and urgent.
• Keep doing this for 12 weeks. When you break it down, you’ll start to see your BIG goals aren’t that big after all. It is very achievable if you work on it every day. And you will see how time and action all fit together in your master plan. It’s a very grassroots strategy. Once you have the first 90-day plan, you can see how that fits into your WHOLE year plan.
• Rinse and repeat for the next 3 quarters.

This breaking down of time and tasks is the most effective way to keep your bearings straight and to not get overwhelmed or over-stressed. It’s my anchor and keeps me grounded.

It is amazing how quickly a year passes. If you don’t do this, it flies by and you miss out on conscious progress. Don’t leave your precious 2017 up to chance.

What’s the one goal you would like to achieve this year? Share it with me in comments below and let’s start a mini accountability group right here!