Okay, you guys know I am HUGE on goal setting, having written goals with you right now! But what if you don't know what your goals should be? Today's post is all about finding your passion and living your Fabulous Life!!!
The now
- You are sitting at your desk, thinking, "if I have to do this one more time I am going to scream". Whatever "this" is is OBVIOUSLY not a part of your fabulous life. OR
- You are doing EXACTLY what you LOVE to do and feeling horrendously guilty that you are not doing "real work" because something that feels this good can NOT be what you should be doing in the moment!
Sometimes we can get all caught up in needing to change EVERYTHING to live our fabulous lives when all that is needed is a little pivot to get there.
What is a fabulous life
This post is a read and then write post so go fetch a tablet...I will wait for you!
A fabulous life is where your work life is filled with amazing opportunities, wonderful people you enjoy working with and you hop out of bed on Monday thinking, "thank god the weekend is over and I can get back to work!" I have to say that the number of people I see singing praises to the weekend is staggering (and sad). Obviously they are NOT living their fabulous life at work.
Now it is time to figure out your fabulous life bits. Draw three squares on your tablet and in those you are going to do put three things that you would enjoy doing. Now, this is not to combine work and play so no knitting (unless you own a yarn shop)...these should all be things that you would be happy to do, all day, everyday for the rest of your life.
Example...my three things are speaking, writing and selling things. I LOVE to have the opportunity to talk with people and help them improve their lives in big groups. I also am a prolific writer who HAS to put words on the page and tell you things that matter, like this post. Lastly, I love selling on Etsy and Ebay! It is such a rush when someone buys something and selling physical products is amazingly easy for me to do!
Another example is my Besty, a realtor. She LOVES to help teach new agents, speaking and problem solving. Her team is being built on a training philosophy, she has gotten better at not throwing up before speeches and her whole job is how to solve problems (with agents AND homeowners).
TODO: Write down three things you would do work-wise, all day, everyday, for the rest of your life if you had the chance.
How to figure out WHAT to do in your fabulous life
By now you are probably all fired up thinking, "damn, doing just that would be AWE-SOME!!!" But how do you get from where you are now to your fabulous life? Let's start small (and you probably don't want to censor yourself at this point), just put 10 things on the page that could help you get to your fabulous life and you can figure them out later.
Example...I want to be a writer. I could
1) have a blog
2) write ebooks
3) guest post on other blogs
4) write articles for money
5) partner with someone who is selling something but who is not a writer themselves
6) take writing courses
7) teach writing for the internet at a local college
8) write for a local offline paper
9) offer writing on fiverr.com
10) write courses for online offers
11) write great sales copy
12) take a copywriting course to get even better at writing sales copy
13) interview people who are successful writers now and find out what they do
14) watch videos on youtube about successful writers
As you can see, once I got going I had way more than 10 things that I could do and you might too!
TODO: Make a list of (at least) 10 things that you could do to make your fabulous life a reality.
Cutting the BS and getting something done!
Okay, now you are rock-solid sure that this is the direction that you want to go (if you came up with 10 things, you are probably pretty passionate about what you are wanting to do!). Now is where the rubber hits the road. You need to DO SOMETHING on that list...and not just something, ACTIVITIES that will make those things happen.
Example...Because I want to be a writer I need to do things that are, well, writer-y. Here are my activities for the next three months (three months is great because it is not so long that you can't stand it and not so short that you get nothing accomplished!!!)
1) Pubish a newsletter to one of my email lists each week that will help my peeps!
2) Write on each of the blogs that I deem important at least one time per week...this will get me blog traffic AND will help spark creative juices that I can use in upcoming books
3) Make a point of having great sales copy on each sales page I do...I will NOT just slap something together as this is important for my future
As you can see, I have SPECIFIC goals. One newsletter a week is going to be glorious sometimes (I have some already written so they should go fast-ish) and heinous sometimes BUT the whole point is to not cut myself any slack. I WILL have a newsletter posted every week for the rest of the year.
How can I guarantee that? Simple, I will NOT wait until the 11th hour when everything can get screwed up. From Wednesday on, the ONLY thing I am going to work on is making sure I have something interesting to write about. Everything else will have to wait until I am done. If this is my fabulous life then I am only hurting myself by doing client work or playing on social media instead of doing what I said I was going to do.
TODO: Pick three of your "could dos and make activities for them".
Shooting yourself in the foot
So I will guarantee that you will not be comfortable with this.
It will feel like doing what you love cannot possibly fit into your schedule. You will tell yourself that this is just another case of try and fail miserably. You will have a million excuses...just tell yourself to shut up and do it. I know, that is really harsh but "yourself" has a vested interest in keeping everything exactly the way it is. Humans hate change and you are going to make things change.
Just remember that you did this goal setting exercise "for" yourself (not "to" yourself). If you can catch a grip and simply do the activities that you figured out for the next 90 days I guarantee that your life WILL change in ways that you never imagined.
Color Coding Your Perfect Week
Have you ever thought, "there is NO way I can ever get everything done!" Or felt like you are constantly behind the eight ball work-wise?
There is probably a reason for that! Most small business owners and entrepreneurs are trying to cram 20 hours of work into an 8 hour day and failing miserably!
>> Get help! Color Coding Your Perfect Week Worksheet
Harry @ GoalsOnTrack says
Great advice on goal settng!