If you ask people what they want, many of them will simply say they want to be successful. But if you ask them how they plan to achieve this success, they won’t have feasible goals.

If you don’t set action-oriented goals, how are you supposed to know what to DO to achieve said goals?

Let’s figure this out.

[Tweet “If you don’t set action-oriented goals, how are you supposed to know what to DO?”]

How to Focus on Clear, Actionable Goals

If you have random milestones that are too broad, you won’t be able to reach those goals. For example, let’s say you have typical goals like:

• I want to be successful financially,
• I want my business to grow, and
• This year I am going to level up in my business.

Those goals are so broad, so all over the place, that you won’t be able to reach them.

Goals have to be broken down into actionable steps. They can’t be so broad that they’re one-size-fits all. Those types of goals don’t give you a road map. They’re just contributing to your confusion and overwhelm.

No time to read the full post? Listen to this episode of the podcast:

 

There is a reason why setting S.M.A.R.T. goals works. A key part of setting actionable goals is to use numbers, quantify your goals. When you put a number to a goal, it makes it real, tangible. You can then use that number as the answer, and work your way backwards to figure out the question. Reverse engineer the process.

[Tweet “Tie a number to your goal. It’s easier to achieve success when you can measure progress.”]

Get comfortable with the numbers.

For example, if you say you want to make an extra $40,000 this year, that’s fine. But what are the steps that you’re going to take to get there? You don’t make $40K overnight. You make it by taking the smaller steps that lead you to that goal.

It’s time to define these smaller steps that end up feeding into your larger goal. So instead of having a goal of making more money overall, set a goal of how much money you need to make each day or each week to meet that ultimate goal.

[Tweet “You need to define the smaller steps that will end up feeding into your larger goal.”]

If you want to make an extra $40,000 a year, then you would need to bring in about $3,333 a month. From here, break that down by how much you would need to bring home in a week. You would need to bring in about $833 a week, or about $119 a day.

Numbers can help direct your focus.

Now you have a clear focus. This is the goal to focus on. Why? Because when you make that $119 a day, it feeds into the weekly goal, which feeds into the annual goal. And it’s not so overwhelming. It’s alot easier to think about making $119 a day and actually create a plan to MAKE IT, then it is to figure out how to come up with $40,000.

If you have streams of income that aren’t moving you toward your goal, then you have to come up with a way to increase that income.

Can you offer an information eBook, or set up paid tutorials? Perhaps you can start a members only forum or membership program?

There could be a number of things you can do to start a new stream of income or improve upon an existing revenue stream. What you cannot do is sit down and think about your goal, plan it and then do nothing to move toward it.

Wishful thinking or hoping doesn’t lead to changes or results. When you set actionable goals, it allows you to have a clear focus and helps you have the mindset to reach them.

[Tweet “Wishful thinking or hoping doesn’t lead to changes or results. Taking action fuels success!”]

You need deliberate goals in order to have a sense of direction. It allows you to lead your life rather than be led by random occurrences in your life. Plus, when you have actionable goals, they help you keep track of your success.

If you know that you have to make $119 a day and one day you make twice that, then you’re ahead of the day’s goal. And that will help if you have a shortcoming on another day.

Step One: Figure out exactly what you want.

You can’t set goals until you know what you want. These goals should matter or mean something to you. They should be goals that you’re driven toward.

The most successful people have an underlying motivation to their goals. They want to be successful but many of them have a “because” in there. Such as “I want to be successful because I want to be able to spend more time with my family.”

Some people have an underlying motivation to be successful because they know what it’s like to struggle. They have decided that they don’t want to live the rest of their life that way.

[Tweet “You can’t set goals until you know what you want. These goals should matter or mean something to you.”]

Step Two: Break down the big goal into smaller bites.

Now it’s time to name exactly what you want. Your goals should be narrowed down to specifics.  Break the specifics down further so that you can keep track of the main goal based on achieving smaller, actionable goals. It’s important that you have these goals outlined with a way to track them.

In our earlier example, we broke an extra $40K a year down to $3333 a month, down to $833 a week, down to $119 a day. It doesn’t matter whether your goal is to bring in more money, learn a new skill, or buy something specific. You can break down your goal in this same way.

Look at how you can break down your overarching goal into monthly, weekly and daily tasks. This way, you can achieve success bit by bit, and see progress. Seeing progress is a great motivator to keep you pushing forward!

Step Three: Use deadlines for yourself.

If you know you want to make that $3,333 in a month, then you know you have to sell a product or service to bring that money in. At the very least, you can take a step to launch something out that will work toward bringing in that dollar amount.

These goals should be ones that are within your reach. If one of your goals is to make a billion dollars this year, odds are really high that’s not an achievable goal. That is, unless you made a hella lot of moolah last year LOL. So don’t set yourself up to fail right out of the gate with a goal that you won’t be able to accomplish, because it’s not realistic. Setting such an unrealistic goal will only serve to dampen your spirits and suck the energy right out of your can-do attitude.

[Tweet “When you create your goals, make sure that your mindset is positive. Don’t set self-defeating goals.”]

When you create your goals, make sure that your mindset is positive. Don’t set self-defeating goals. An example of this would be a positive goal of “increase mailing list by 25%.” That sounds doable, right? This is more positive than a goal that has a negative spin such as “find a way to make up for subscribers who are unsubscribing.” That’s not a goal, that’s a complaint. Just sayin.

 

Once you’ve created the goals that are going to move you in the direction that you want to go, you’ll want to reinforce them. Review them once a day. Put them in front of you to remind yourself that even if you don’t see huge changes overnight, these changes are happening as you reach these actionable goals.

Ciao,
Miss Kemya