Goal Digger | 90 Day Plans

I feel like January has had me running nonstop and to be honest, I haven’t had much of a chance to look up and gather my thoughts. Work is going great, the launch of The B Werd has been more successful than I could’ve imagined thanks to all of you and my birthday has come and gone. While I never make New Years Resolutions, normally by this time I’m well into tackling my first quarter goals. Over the past 30 days I’ve made some major schedule adjustments in order to stay on top of the promises that I’ve made to myself but I’m ashamed to say, I have yet to physically jot down what I plan to achieve in 2016.

I don’t believe in New Years Resolutions, never have. Not to knock anyone who does, because anyone setting a goal to attain anything is taking the first step in the right direction. They’re just not my thing. If I want to make a change on any given day, then I’m going to use that day to start. I don’t have time to wait for a year to pass to finally get going on the things that I said I would do. And since I don’t have time to wait for a new year to begin in order to achieve the things I want, I set quarterly goals instead.

I started getting serious about goal setting a year before I graduated college. I’ve always had “goals” aka things I wanted to do but up until then, I was just rolling with what I knew I was supposed to be doing. Once I started reaching crunch-time, I realized.. ‘I have a lot of shit to do!’ Take graduation photos, apply for internships, update my resume, get two new tires, travel to three new places. Yes, the last part was necessary. So instead of the typical “what I want to achieve” list, I set my goals up as more of a “to-do” list. I quickly realized that I was much more effective at getting things done when I made it a task that required action and not some fantasy I was hoping to live in.

Write your goals down – and I mean this literally. Use a pen on a piece of paper and write down the things you want to have started on or taken care of in the next 90 days. Write them down in multiple places or somewhere you’re going to see it often, so these things continuously stay on your mind.

Make them short-term – Let’s not focus on what you can accomplish in year, let’s focus on what you can accomplish now that will contribute to what you want to have done at the end of the year. It’s great to dream, but we need goals that we can see the end result on. Instead of a long-term goal like “graduate in the fall”, I list all the things I need to do up until that point. If graduation is the goal, what are the action items? Those are the things you list.

Share them with one person you trust – I say one person because your plans aren’t meant to be shared with everyone. Choose one person you trust, who believes in you and you know will hold you accountable. You want the person you pick to follow-up out of the blue with “did you get that letter of recommendation?”. The last thing you need is the negativity and discouragement that comes from sharing your dreams with the wrong person.

Focus on them – Once I have my items listed, that’s what I focus on for the next 3 months. As I complete them, I cross them off my list. But if something new comes up that you want to tackle, I wait for the current quarter to close then include it into my next quarterly list, unless it’s incredibly pressing. This helps me commit a necessary amount of time to what I know I need to have done, without throwing a wrench in my plans.

Revisit them – Again and again, and again. Didn’t get it done? Carry it over. Only have a week left before the quarter ends? Take it as a personal challenge to see whether or not you can push past your limits to take care of it.

Now knock ’em out! xx