If you’ve read my blog How To Set Goals For The Life You Actually Want, it’s now time to create an effective strategy so you can make those goals become a reality. If you haven’t read it you can check it out here.
To build a successful business and create a lifestyle you love, you need to have:
Intention – having a clear intention behind your Intentional Success Picture and 12 Month / 90 Day Goals.
Strategy – developing a strategy on how you’re going to accomplish your goals to make your Intentional Success Picture a reality.
Execution – executing your daily action tasks to ensure each day you are moving closer to accomplishing your strategy, goals and Intentional Success Picture.
As important as creating your vision and goals are, they will remain as dreams if you don’t create an effective strategy and take daily action to execute them.
If you haven’t set your Intentional Success Picture, 12 Month and 90 Day goals yet, you can download my Goal Setting Workbook here.
I recommend you do this first. If you don’t know where you’re going, you won’t have any direction and you will find yourself running around in circles getting nowhere!
Okay, so hopefully by now you have your Intentional Success Picture, your 12 Month Goals and your 90 Day Goals.
Now that you’ve done the intention and planning part, it’s time to take action and make your dreams become a reality. It’s time to get to work!
5 Steps To Create An Effective Strategy So You Can Reach Your Goals
1. Strategy Design
One step that people tend to skip is working out the strategy design. This is the plan you need to have in place to reach your goals.
If you don’t envision the steps you need to do to reach your goals, you’ll just be setting yourself up for failure before you even begin. Without a strategy, execution is aimless.
The first part is working out what 3-5 projects you will do in the next 90 Day period. That once completed, will move you closer to reaching your goals.
I suggest writing down 10 different project ideas that you could implement in the next 90 Days and which will help you reach those goals.
Projects are things you get to control whether they get done or not. They may include:
- Creating an ebook
- Developing a new training series
- Creating a new coaching program
- Launching a YouTube channel with 5 videos
- Building an operations manual
- Developing a website
- Creating a sales funnel
- Setting up social media platforms
- Creating a lead magnet
When choosing the 3-5 projects that you will focus on for the 90 Day Period you want to consider:
- What projects will have the greatest ROI?
- What resources will you need:
- Financial – how much will it cost to implement the project?
- Time – how much time do you need to contribute to each project?
- Energy – what are the mental/emotional energy costs in doing this the project?
- On a scale of 1-5 (5 being highest) how much does the project excite you?
In some cases you may find that despite a project generating the greatest ROI it doesn’t rate highly on the ‘excite you’ scale.
Or maybe it is expensive to implement the project and you aren’t in a financial position to do so. Or if you do, you will be placing the business under severe financial stress.
That’s why it’s really important to consider all these points when deciding on which projects to choose.
If it has the highest ROI, but you’re going to dread doing the project each day for the next 90 Day period then you’ll find excuses not to do it despite whatever the ROI is.
So be very selective when choosing your 3-5 projects. You want to make sure that they are projects you will want to do long term.
That you also have the financial, time and energy resources to implement them and that they will generate a sufficient ROI so you can reach your goals.
2. Make An Action List
Once you know the 3-5 projects you’ll be working on for each of your three 90 Day Goals, you want to create a step by step action plan for what you need to do to accomplish each of those projects.
For each project, write down a detailed action list of each task that you need to do to complete that project. You will likely have around 10-15 individual tasks you will need to do so make sure you write each one down. The more detailed your action list is the easier it will be for you.
3. Take Focused & Consistent Action
Now you want to schedule in time for your action list tasks. Each day you want to have time blocked out to work on those action lists tasks you figured out in the above step.
I recommend scheduling in time for at least 3 action list tasks each day with 1 of those being the priority for the day. This is the task that is most important and meaningful to you out of the 3 action list tasks you have set for yourself to do that day.
Make sure that the priority action list task is done each day regardless of how much you have on. So if that is all you get to that day, you will still feel like you are making headway and incremental progress. Which, will help you keep motivated and moving forward on your action list tasks each and every day.
So often you can find yourself getting to the end of the day and realising you’ve spent all your time working on the important/urgent tasks and no time on the non-urgent/important task. Remember, it is those tasks that will move you closer to your goals.
4. Regular Check Ins
There is no certainty in the results once you embark on implementing your strategy. So you need to be prepared to adjust when necessary.
When it comes to your strategy you want to view it in a way that encourages openness, innovation and a preparedness to change.
Each week choose a day – usually a Friday or Sunday afternoon seems to work well for most people – and review how your week went.
How many action list tasks were you able to complete for each of your projects? Did you get through them all? Are you meeting your set KPIs you have in place? If not why?
Maybe you’re not scheduling enough time? Or perhaps you have not broken down the action list tasks down enough (ie. the task involves more than one step)? Do you need to delegate some tasks? Do you need to adjust the type of project you’re working on?
Once you’ve done your review if you need to make any changes then do that. Remember nothing is set in stone.
You need to be willing to adapt when necessary. Otherwise if things aren’t working, at the end of the 90 Day period you’re going to find yourself in the same place you were at the start of that 90 Day period.
5. Have Fun
Most of all enjoy the process and have fun! You went into business to make a positive impact in the world, to have fun, create a lifestyle you love and the freedom to live life on your terms.
There will be struggles, challenges, obstacles, good times and not so good…but if you stay present and aware and embrace all parts of the journey it will be so worth it! And remember, learn from any lessons and don’t become stuck on them.
Take the lessons and move on. To succeed in business you need to move quickly. You need to have the courage and belief in yourself to get back up again and keep going.
I can assure you that you will get knocked down again. Take it in your stride and come back better than ever. Never ever give up on you or your dreams!
3 Actions To Create An Effective Strategy
- Work out what your 3-5 projects are for each of your three 90 Day Goals.
- For each project sit down and work out all of the individual steps that you need to do in order to accomplish each project. Once done, assign a person to complete each task along with the due date. If you’re using a program like Asana you can enter these in there so everyone is aware of the project and its current status.
- Once you know which action list tasks you need to be working on, schedule in time each day to get them done. Make that time a non negotiable every day! Then each week schedule in time to review how you went that week. If you have a team make sure they’re all involved so everyone is aware of what everyone is up to. It’s also a great chance to discuss what is and isn’t working and any obstacles that anyone is coming up against. That way you can deal with them there and then so everyone is right to go the following week.
Head over to the comments section and let me know:
What projects will you be working on for the next 90 Day period? Let us know in the comments section so we can support each other on our way to reaching our Goals!
Can’t wait to read your comments!
Thank you, as always, for reading and allowing me to be part of your world.
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