Transcript

Hi, I’m Carmen Sognonvi.

It’s the start of a new year, which means it’s a great time to set new goals for yourself.

But how can you create goals that actually excite you, and how can you make sure you that follow through with them?

That’s what this video is all about.

Even though I’m a classic Type A personality who’s good at getting things done, goal-setting itself has never been a strength of mine.

In other words, I’m not going to pretend that I’m an expert in this area.

What I am going to do though, is share with you a new approach that my husband Serge and I are trying out this year, in case you’d like to give it a shot too.

By the way, for more useful tips on running a local business, check out my blog.

1. Write a 3-Year Vision

The last time I made new year’s resolutions, I wasn’t very excited because they seemed like small, timid goals.

So this year Serge and I decided to try something I heard about from Fabienne Frederickson at ClientAttraction.com.

She recommends writing out a 3-year vision.

The idea is that you imagine what your ideal life would be like three years from now.

You date the document January three years from now, and you write it out in the present tense.

You describe in detail all the things you’ve accomplished in your business, in your relationships, in your health, in your spirituality.

All the major areas of your life that are most important to you.

When we did this exercise, we found ourselves really stretching, really thinking big.

Especially because we know from experience that a lot can happen in a 3-year span.

In February 2008 Serge and I were hustling hard with no real end in sight.

We both worked dead-end office jobs and spent our nights and weekends working part-time jobs in the restaurant industry to make extra money.

But three years later in February 2011 our lives were completely different.

We were married, had a 2-year-old daughter, and owned a thriving martial arts school that allowed us to live comfortably while working much fewer hours!

The transformation was pretty remarkable.

So having lived through that, I can’t wait to see the way our lives will be transformed again three years from now!

2. Plan Your 1-Year Goals

Once you have your 3-year vision written out, figure out where you should be a third of the way through that journey.

In other words, what will you need to have accomplished by the end of next year in order to make your 3-year vision come true?

For example, if part of your 3-year vision is to do a lot more traveling, you’ll need to be able to spend time away from your business.

So figure out what you need to do over the next three years to make that happen.

Which responsibilities can you eliminate, streamline, or delegate to others?

What kind of additional training do your staff members need?

Do you need to hire more people?

Out of all the things you’ll need to do, figure out what will have to get done within the next 12 months to move you towards your vision.

3. Schedule Your Planning Days

This is the part I’m most excited to share with you.

After we wrote out our 3-year vision, we actually scheduled an entire day to plan out our 1-year goals in detail.

We rented an office for the day because we wanted a distraction-free zone, plus it was important that we got out of our usual environment.

It was such a great feeling to be able to dedicate an entire day to working on our business, and not in our business.

We enjoyed the process so much that next year, we’re going to devote one full day each quarter to revisit our goals, assess our progress, and course-correct if necessary.

I hope that by scheduling in these check-up days, we’ll able to hold ourselves accountable and really make our vision come true.

As the year goes on I’ll keep you posted on how this new strategy is working for us in my email newsletter, so if you’re not already subscribed, you should sign up!

You’ll get more great tips on how to run a successful local business, along with occasional special offers from me.

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Thanks for watching.

What’s your favorite technique for setting goals for your business and your life?

I’d love to hear your tips, so leave a comment below!

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