Goals are for Soccer!

November tends to be a month of practicing gratitude. And who would argue that? Gratitude is never a bad idea. Gratitude, however, is a concept that is applied to the past and the present, typically. But what about the future?

Personally, at this time of year, I’m preparing for the holiday season – time with friends and family, expressing gratitude, love, charitable giving, and my not-so-warm feelings about cold weather.

Professionally, however, I’m thinking about my business and how I’d like it to perform next year. Not just how it will perform, but what types of projects I want to work on and who I want to work with.

I hesitate to call it goal setting because that just seems so cliché. And I refuse to think of my goals as being SMART (if you haven’t heard that one yet, Google it). Plus, goals are for sports. I’d rather set a whole plan in motion.

This is a time of year to be intentional. But more than that; it’s a time of year to be real with yourself. There’s a brand spankin’ new year right around the corner. How do YOU want to spend the next 12 months of your work life?

For me, I want to spend next year loving every single minute. I want to have new challenges and projects. I want my existing programs to reach new levels of success. I want to have more opportunities to present seminars, give keynote speeches and facilitate in-depth business and organizational development discussions.

But how?

THAT’S what I use November for. It’s super easy to set goals. It’s the development of the methods for accomplishing those goals that takes a bit more time, more thought, more strategy.

Each year I create a strategic plan for myself. I start by reviewing the plan I made for this year... and then I completely scrap it! I don’t want to sit back and feel badly about the things I didn’t do, or what didn’t happen according to the standards I set for myself last year. And I’ve already celebrated the wins (which I highly recommend for everyone – if you aren’t celebrating yourself when you accomplish greatness then who will??).

Once I’ve cleared the decks, so to speak, I free my mind to think ahead and dream about what I want in the coming months. Then I drill down to determine the best course of action to make it happen.

Here's an example of one of my goals for next year and how I will document and plan for it:

    Goal: Be the Keynote Speaker for at least 3 business/organizational events

    Step 1: Select 2 relevant topics to speak about, approximate length for each, and set a minimum             

    speaker’s fee

    Step 2: Create cover/title slide for each speech (image, title and tag line, name, short bio, headshot)

    Step 3: Create the outline for each speech

    Step 4: Seek opportunities – create calendar of annual conferences in my network, reach out to 

    conference coordinators, look for “Call for Speakers”, go through procurement sites, post to social 

    media and put out mass email with appropriate messaging about what I’m looking for. Then apply for 

    opportunities identified.

    Step 5: Tell my friends what I’m trying to do – “putting it out into the universe” works more times than 

    it doesn’t!

    Step 6: Develop the full speech and practice! Set up a Zoom call with friends for a dry-run and get 

    feedback. Edit, as needed.

Will it work? Maybe. Maybe not. But my chances of getting what I want, I believe, are significantly higher when I make a plan, dream a dream, and make it known to others.

One last step; be sure to set aside some time in your schedule on a weekly basis to work on your goals. It isn’t enough to write all of this down, without action, it’s just a nice journal entry. Also, be sure to identify who may be able to help you with your goals. I didn’t name anyone specifically in the part of the plan I shared with you here, but in my offline version I’ll be listing people and organizations to reach out to in Step 4.

If I can help you with your goals, please reach out.

Oh, and if you need a keynote speaker in 2023 you know where to find me!