If you are ready to set BIG audacious goals for 2021, this post will give you all the step by step tips and ideas you need to set, accomplish and make your goal setting dreams a reality!
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My Goal For 2021
I am going to talk about my goal for 2021 A LOT because goal setting theory says sharing your goal with other people will help increase the chances of you accomplishing it!
So my goal is to get 1,000,000 hit a month on my websites.
Now for some people that might seem wimpy, and for some that might seem insurmountable, but for me that seems super hard, but possible with enough work (the right work that is!)
The rest of this post will set out the goal setting process, how to achieve effective goal setting and the types of goals you should set!
Need a little inspiration…. check out these goals quotes!
Step Back And Think About The WHY Of Your Goal
My why of my goal is to make money. I have ads on my websites and getting more traffic will help me make more money.
Now, this may seem weird to you, but I don't care all that much about money so setting a money goal like “Making $10K a month from my blog” or “Selling $20K a month in courses” will not motivate me which is an important aspect of goal setting – what will motivate you.
Instead, tracking the number of hits my websites get WILL motivate me and the money will tag on for the ride! This is my defined goal… website hits.
So this is a 2-parter for you to do…
>> Why are you setting a big goal for 2021?
>> What can you track to achieve that goal?
This doesn't just work for business goals, it can also apply to personal goals… you could set a goal to eat 10 vegetables a day for 2021 which will inadvertently lead you to lose weight(your why). Or you could set a goal to gather 1,000 backpacks which will lead people to donate to your charity (your why).
You need a WHY you are setting the goal and then the WHAT are you going to track to make that goal a reality!
How Big Is Your Goal?
There is a crazy man I follow, Grant Cardone, who has a book called the 10X Rule. I have listened to this book about 10 times and each time I think about what a nut he is… but he is a motivating nut!
Functionally what Grant says is that we don't set our goals high enough to make progress… stupid attainable goals. For example…
My original goal for next year was 100,000 hits a month on my websites. One currently gets about 75K and the other one gets about 50K so that seemed okay. Double one and get some more on the other one.
But as Grant says, the EFFORT I would have to expend to meet that goal would be tiny. I would have to do a post more a week, or do a little more SEO, or up my efforts a little bit.
But ONE MILLION hits a month (10 X 100,000)… that is a “gulp” moment.
I will have to do A LOT more to get there!
>> What is your 10X goal for this year?
What Actions Are You Going To Take To Reach Your Goal?
So you have done the why you want a goal, how you are going to track it and then what your goal is… now we have to put some actions behind this goal! This is our ACTION PLAN!
For me the actions are two-fold:
- A video a day for 2021 on YouTube
- A blog post a day for March, June, September and December
Now that may sound crazy pants to you, but I do a blog post a day a couple of times a year already so doubling that isn't scary for me (hard, but not scary). And I have done lots of videos already so adding a daily component is again hard, but not impossible!
These are your performance goals… they usually start with how many or how much of something you are going to do!
Daily Goals
Now, I am a daily goals kind of gal. I can't remember to do something M-W-F or on the first and third week of the month so I just set daily goals.
That way I get up, do the specific goal and then move on with my day.
You may want to do this if you have had trouble in the past keeping up with your goals. Try doing a short term goal for a week and see if that makes it easier to accomplish! Then you can move on to more long term goals!
>> What ACTIONS are you going to take to reach your 2021 goal?
Things You Won't Be Able To Do
Okay, now you have your goals and the actions you are going to take to make that goal a reality.
Now comes the hard part! (especially for us entrepreneurs!)
There are a million things I won't be able to do this year because I have this goal. I won't be able to go on a bunch of podcasts (I have found they don't drive website traffic), I won't be able to teach in person (again, no website hits).
Committing to a BIG goal means that you have to say no to a whole bunch of other things!
>> Write down the things that distract you and that you won't be able to do while you go for your goal
Incremental Versus Exponential Goals
I have thought a lot about why BIG goals are so much more motivating and productive than “normal” goals.
For example, if I set my wimpy 100K goal I might do 2 blog posts a week. I might make some more videos. I might have to update some of my popular posts… but there is really no momentum there.
Those are incremental actions to achieve an incremental goal.
BUT… when I have a BIG goal, something that makes me a lot nervous I have to take BIG actions!!!
To do a video a day I have to make lots of crafts > which leads to lots of pictures to share too > which leads to more Pinterest posts.
To do a blog post a day on some months I can use my videos to put on my posts, optimize them for Google, check keywords and write more complimentary posts, which will get me more keywords, etc.
The BIG goals make big, exponential changes happen!
>> What are some exponential results you might have from your big goals?
You Will Need Help and Accountability
If your goal is BIG, you are probably going to need help and support from the people around you.
Think about JFK's plan to put a man on the moon. He came up with a way to rally the entire United States to his goal just by announcing on May 25, 1961 we would send a man safely to the moon by the end of the decade.
Whether you need actual help or just moral support, think about getting a team of people who will help you move towards your goal.
Make It Public
This one is maybe the scariest part of all. If you are an entrepreneur you have probably tried things before and failed. A lot. And maybe you have even made pronouncements or promises before that were not as solid as this goal is.
But if you tell the world what your goal is, you CAN make it come true. This accomplishes two things, first that you are now “on the hook” because you said it publicly.
Second, because people around you know about your big goal, you can use it as a legitimate excuse for not doing things that you might have in the past.
Have Some Accountability
Most people talk about accountability like it is checking in daily to tell your “boss” that you have achieved what you said you would do.
For me it looks more like telling my monthly mastermind peeps my goals and then reporting in how the results are going.
I fulfill promises to myself first, so my goal action gets done everyday before everything else!
Note: In case you are thinking that you are too busy… yesterday I got braces off my daughter at 9:30, took my mother in law for blood work at 11, went to sign papers with my dad at 2 and had to pick up some things for my other daughters birthday. So “done first” meant that it got done at about 8PM, but it was still what I did for my business yesterday before anything else got done.
Somebody Will Tell You Your Goal Is Stupid
Probably one of the first things that will happen when you set a big goal is that people will come out of the woodwork to tell you all the reasons why it will not work or it is the wrong thing to do or how you are going to fail.
I am not sure why they feel the need to do this, but it is an actual phenomenon that trips many people up! Don't let the nay-sayers and doubting Thomas' get you down, just smile and carry on.
Give Your BIG Goal A Name!
When you name something you give it an identity. If you are just sitting around thinking that you might want to get “this thing” done in 2021, then that is tough. But if you say you are going to accomplish your Golden Parachute or The Big Business Plan, it is much more likely to occur.
My plan is named 1,000,000 Views. I made a graphic to put on my computer desktop and will be tracking my numbers monthly so I can see it every time I open my computer!
Accomplishing Your BIG Goal Wrapup
I know that we mostly can't just drop everything we are doing right now and start working on our BIG goal. But the start of a year is a great time for setting and achievement of a time bound goal… you have all year to do it!
But I know… life gets in the way. Families, kids, current work and everything else is there to slow you down, but with your commitment to a goal, you will get there I promise!
Next year seems like the perfect time to get out from under the cloud and start really driving ahead to get your goal done!