How to crush it by creating non-Sh*tty Goals (Pt. 4 of 6)
Intro & Overview
We’re back with part 4 of this 6-part series around the theme of “Your ‘23 Plan of Attack—A Year of Explosive Growth”.
This will be an ongoing theme building off itself each week as I progress into the ‘23 Q1 Boot Camp which opens for enrollment Wednesday, Jan. 4th, 9 AM CT.
This 3-week group coaching workshop is all about getting clear on WHAT you want, WHY you want it, and HOW you'll make it happen.
In the meantime, soak up all the face-melting value leading up to the Q1 Boot Camp (1/14 - 2/3).
Note: Click the image to watch the replay. Continue below to read the blog.
Click to watch the Instagram Live Training Replay
Create Goals That Don’t Suck
If you couldn’t tell, I’ve been setting you up each week for today’s session.
Not only to help you navigate the holidays to ride momentum into the New Year…
But to teach you how to leverage these biz building fundamentals to set you up for long-term success.
In Pt. 1, I broke down the power of focusing on one thing at a time to avoid distractions (read here).
In Pt. 2, I shared how to reduce overwhelm and see results by setting realistic expectations (read here).
In Pt. 3, I showed how to set intentional targets to shoot at like a professional (read here).
In Pt. 4 today, we’re going to talk shop on how to create non-shitty goals for yourself.
Not showing up with intention means draggin’ ass in the mornings and stumbling into my top priority for the day.
Most creatives I talk to set goals—and New Year’s Resolutions—up like this:
"My goal is to crush my creative biz in 2023"
I hate to say it, but that’s not going to cut it…
How is this measurable, objective, and actionable?
How do you know if you “crushed” it when December 31st, 2023 comes around?
It’s an extremely vague, empty wish that has no defined result, plan, or structure baked into it.
It reminds me of the quote: “A goal without a plan is just a dream.”
But it goes even deeper with this quote from James Clear of ‘Atomic Habits’: “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”
Just having a goal with a loose plan isn’t enough—habits, structure, systems, and routines are what help you crush it...but that’s for a future discussion in the Q2 3-Week Boot Camp.
Simplify Your Approach
While I’m not cut from a corporate cloth, the 5 years I spent grinding in a corporate cubicle as a branding/UIUX designer had its perks.
I admit many of the trainings and tasks I was required to do were hella boring and gross at the time…
However, they ended up being incredibly helpful in my own creative biz while also teaching others how to make intentional moves.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been nudging you to simplify your approach…
But I’ve also been challenging you to get clear about WHAT you want and WHY you want it in 2023.
(Something I get very tactical and actionable with in my upcoming Q1 3-Week Boot Camp).
Now let’s get into a high-level overview of HOW you’re going to make this happen.
One of the cheesiest but most important things I learned during my corporate days was the ability to create SMART goals.
Let’s break down what these are while giving you examples of how to put them into action.
What is a SMART Goal?
When you have some clarity on the path you want to pursue…
It’s time to craft a foundation + plan to go and get it.
Creating SMART goals around what you WANT helps guide you toward a clear target that’s hard but within reach.
Here’s how we get SMART…
Specific
Intentional goals at a high level ideally should be clear and concise.
Being vague and ambiguous only clouds the path resulting in guesswork and excuses.
For example, instead of saying “I want to get in better shape,” you’d say
“I want to shed 10 pounds this spring to be a shredded beast this summer.”
(However, there’s room to make this high-level goal even SMARTer.)
Measurable
Tracking the progress of your goals keeps you accountable and motivated to keep showing up.
It prevents you from being distracted and discouraged when things don’t go your way because you can create measurable checkpoints along the way to reveal progress.
It also gives you opportunities to re-evaluate your process/routine in case you’re not seeing the progress you expected or want to speed things up.
Achievable
Yes, your goals should be so big they scare you/make you uncomfortable.
However, setting up an impossible goal right from the jump can easily set you up for defeat.
There’s a balance between ambitious and realistic as I talked about back in the last episode (Pt. 2).
Instead, make one that’s still challenging yet achievable where you can actually envision yourself executing it—even if it feels ridiculously out of reach.
Relevant
Everything can’t be a priority and all wants aren’t equal—that’s why I get extremely clear with my students helping them reveal what their top priority and focus is going into a new season.
The goal should align with that current vision and every action inches closer to the target.
The clearer the priority, the easier it is to distinguish HELL YES opportunities (and relationships) along the path from distractions that deter you.
Your time is your most valuable asset, so don’t waste it on chasing something that doesn’t get you one step closer to where you want to be.
Time-Bound
It’s hella important to bake in elements of time around your goal(s).
More specifically, you’d ideally have:
A start date.
A finish line end date.
Dates in between for tasks, deliverables, checkpoints, etc.
Otherwise, it’s too easy to fall into the trap of tomorrow where you keep kicking the can down the road with good intentions of starting…
For example, I said I was going to start the podcast in April 2016 but never had a start date set.
July rolled around, and I had made zero progress.
Finally, I set a fire under my ass and committed to having four episodes recorded and pushed live on August 19, 2016...
I now have an archive of over 250 episodes.
SMART Goal in Action
Here’s an example of a SMART goal my recent student, MacKenzie Twardus of Balanced Letters, and I have put together and implemented over the past 12-week Fall Coaching Program.
Value Proposition:
She’s a busy mom grinding outside her 9-5 helping women chase their passions,in a healthy and fulfilling way, instead of feeling trapped in the daily grind.
Specific:
MacKenzie will publish bi-weekly blogs every other Monday morning on her website.
The themes focus on wellness, vulnerability, and making power moves based on her experiences building her creative business as a busy mom
Measurable:
There are multiple moving pieces to this bi-weekly approach so she’s created a 3-part measurable process.
Writing: She has specific days set aside in the morning as well as 1-2 lunches she blocks off at work to jump on the writing process.
She also has an editorial calendar and ideas-based page within Notion to plan ahead with her posts.Art: In the evenings she sets aside little chunks of time to work on the featured artwork she hand illustrates leveraging constraints like medium, brushes, color palettes, etc.
Promo: She has a system for creating specific micro-based posts for Instagram that drive her audience to the macro main blog post.
She creates a minimum of 3 promo pieces ranging from still artworks, reels, carousels, etc.In 21 days, you’ll put yourself in a position to have an explosive year of measurable growth…
Bi-Weekly Blog + Illustration + Content Process
Achievable:
We kept it challenging yet doable by spreading this to bi-weekly so she can focus on mastering the 3 processes around her hectic lifestyle.
It also allows time for self-care and margin for life’s curveballs like heavy day job workloads and sickness in the household.
Relevant:
Her goal is to one day have her own community, coaching services, and offerings that allow her to scale this vision of providing support to hungry women looking to bet big on themselves.
It also puts her in a position to scale for opportunities like speaking gigs, blog + podcast interviews, publishing her own book, etc.
Time-Bound:
She set a specific start date back in my Q3 3-Week Boot Camp in August 2023 before she went deeper down the rabbit hole in joining my Fall 12-Week program.
We’ve built off this setting a short-term game plan of keeping this bi-weekly format of Monday morning posts through the end of 2023.
Note: A specifical time-bound goal she set during the Fall 12-Week program was to have 9 posts completed and posted before the final Dec. 18th program finish date—which she hit.
Some additional time-bound methods she leverages are having specific dates for:
Writing the first draft of the blog post.
Revising and proofing the blog post.
Formatting into a post on her website.
Illustrating the varying stages of her artwork.
Final editing of art and optimizing it for different image sizes.
Uploading the art to the blog post.
Polishing up all SEO and Alt Text needs.
Scheduling the post.
Creating a minimum of 3 pieces of promo to share on Instagram driving to the full post on her site.
Scheduling these ~3 posts on Instagram
We’ve also baked in ways that she can scale this current process (like adding Instagram lives to go with the blog posts)...
As well as bake in the next element to serve her audience and grow the biz (like creating a community and offering 1:1 calls).
This is a powerful example of an ambitious yet realistic SMART goal that has a foundation built on structure, systems, habits, and routines…
That more importantly is built to mold around her busy lifestyle or day job, family responsibilities, and self-care.
Bi-Weekly simple content calendar for blog posts
What’s Your SMART Goal?
Are you keeping things vague yet frustrated by your lack of growth?
If so, most likely you haven’t:
1. Simplified your approach.
2. Focused on one priority.
3. Set an intentional target.
4. Set a SMART goal to get the ball rolling.
5. Surrounded yourself with a coach and community to provide accountability + support.
If you’re looking for that next level of growth and guidance…
Want to work together? 🤝
Consider learning more below about how to join an upcoming 3-Week Boot Camp. 👇🏻
Because the goal should be at the end of each year and look back on measurable growth.
LET’S WORK TOGETHER 🤝
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