Do you know what you need to do in this final quarter to reach your 2019 goals?
What do I mean by final quarter? I mean the last 3 months of the year: October, November and December.
What often happens is that people get excited about the new year. They focus on planning in the 1st quarter and forget about their goals for the rest of the year. And then they panic at the end of the year because they are not as far along in their goals as they want to be.
In January we say, “Oh my goodness, this is so exciting. These are my goals. And so I’m going to do them!”
The trouble is we get started, then we get sidetracked with so many unscheduled and unplanned actions because our game plan isn’t clear, and then our goals fade into the background. Then about halfway through the year we go, “Oh my goodness, the year is passing by so quickly. I’m not where I want to be.” And another push happens or we feel we are so behind it’s pointless to try.
Then we get to the final quarter, which is where we are now. And we say, “Whoops I’m not going to achieve what I want to achieve. Even if I push myself now, and it’s just not gonna happen.” Not the best feeling right?
What do you need to get where you want to be by the end of this year?
So, as we are about to start the final quarter of 2019. I want to give a few tips on how to finish strong.
1: Goal Set
The first thing everyone needs to do set out what you want to achieve by the end of the year. Maybe you have business goals, maybe you have personal goals? Do you have goals in your home? In your finances? Think of all areas of life and where you want to be by New Year’s Eve.
2: Reverse Engineer
Start planning backwards. Know what you need to do each week between now and then.
For example, if you want 15 new clients or 15 new speaking engagements, or you want to write 15 blogs? You can simply do the math for each month remaining in the year. How many do you need each month? 5 per month! Then figure out the actions you need to take to bring you the new clients, or speaking engagements, or the number of blogs you need to write.
3: Mark it Down in your calendar.
When you break that down even further, you can start to think, “Well then if I have three months to do this in, that’s either six two-week periods or 12 weeks, how many do I need to get every week? This way you can start to break it down and add in your actions into your schedule. I like paper calendars, then I put it into my electronic calendar. Either way, write it down when things need to be done.
A really great project management tool that I’ve used is Trello. And it’s free web-based software that’s like a virtual sticky note wall and to-to list. If your goals and tasks need to be communicated between team members, try Slack, which has free and paid versions.
Now that you have your steps and actions set out, what now? We want to boost these goals and tasks by giving them a catalyst to get them charged up. To do that you need motivation and focus
4. Get Motivated
I love what Mel Robbins said about motivation, that it’s basically crap! You just need to do it. She has the Five Second Rule, and says to countdown 5-4-3-2-1 and just do it. Go read her book. I actually liked the audiobook version on Audible because she reads it herself.
However, if you don’t feel motivated about something, there are a few ways you can get motivated.
- Find other people who are doing it and have them inspire you. By reading their stories and seeing what they’re doing you’ll build that belief and get excited about doing it yourself. Get inspired by the success of others.
- Start with one really small thing that you need to do, that you 150% know that you can and will do. And when you do that, you’re going to build more confidence. Take baby steps until you’re ready you dive in.
- Then keep going, do more things. You’ll find yourself feeling like, “I’m really loving this, I want to do more.” Action breeds actual motivation because you start to like the feeling of achieving. With motivation, you’re more motivated to do something when you achieve.
- Also, seek encouragement and accountability. You can get motivated by telling someone else that you’re doing it and having them check in on you (accountability) and having them encourage you and cheer you on (encouragement).
5. Super Sharp Focus
You need to be super focused on what you want to achieve. Now what’s going to happen is you are going forward towards these goals, you’re going, you’re getting closer and you’re feeling motivated, and then…. shiny object, squirrel! You then ask yourself, “Oh my gosh. Is this thing better?”
Instead, take a moment. Stop. Check in. I’m not asking you to be like the racehorses with blinders on so that you can’t see what’s beside you and you only run straight. But what I am asking you to do is notice what’s around you and stay on your path.
But what if it is better than a goal you are already working on? Because let’s be honest that happens. You have to make a tough decision. If you take on one more thing, can you really get everything done?
Take a look at your goals you want to achieve by the end of 2019 and ask yourself,
- “Am I going to swap that new goal out for one of these current goals?” OR
- “Am I going to give up time in some other area of my life to fit this in? Am I going to give up time with my friends? Am I going to give up time at the cottage?” OR
- “Can I delegate something to someone else so I can take this on?”
6. Track Progress
You need to track where you are in the process. I don’t know how many times I ask someone where they are with their goals and they say, “Oh I forget what they are.” Or “I haven’t looked at them in a while.” Or “I’m no further ahead.”
I’ve been guilty of this as well. When I’m not tracking my progress it’s because my goals weren’t front and centre for me. And that means I don’t progress well with them. The solution is to take your pen and your calendar or just go into your online calendar and you can write in, check-in on goals, check in on milestones track progress, but you need a way to track it and the goals must be SMART goals with measurable results.
It also helps to measure goal progress with KPIs= Key Performance Indicators. If you to build your email list, or want to balance your life how will you measure that? For example, two new clients/customers every month, 100 new Facebook likes or 100 new Instagram followers a week.
Make sure you know what that means to you. The numbers need to be there and track it daily or weekly, whatever makes sense. If you’re not seeing progress in these KPIs or no return on investment yet, you have time to make changes. Otherwise, motivation will wain and it’ll get to a point where you don’t achieve what you wanted to achieve by the date you wanted to achieve it. And you only know this if you track things.
To recap, here are the 6 steps to reach your final quarter goals:
- Goal Set
- Reverse Engineer
- Mark it Down
- Motivation
- Super Sharp Focus
- Track Progress
Don’t forget that this process works for 2020 goals too. Do this process for your January to December 2020 goals too and you may find you’re achieving more goals than ever before.
If this has raised a burning question, an opportunity that you want to optimize, or a challenge that you want to know how to get through. Comment below or reach out to me privately [email protected]. With your permission, I may choose your question to answer on the Dynamic Women® Podcast.