How to Create Your Own Goal Setting Worksheet

I like to keep things simple. So today I’d like to share my very low-tech way of creating goal-setting worksheets.

But first, let me explain why I prefer this route…

I’ve never been one much for gadgets – mostly because I lack the patience to actually read a technical instruction manual – and I have a huge tendency to drop things. (This is why I love my two-year old – but now discontinued – Juke cell phone.  After sending it flying across the room on countless occasions – the little trouper is still going strong.  My Blackberry? Not so much…).

Beyond my penchant for breaking all things technical, the MAJOR reason I prefer to work with hard-copy goal-setting worksheets  is because they allow me to jot down ideas whenever they strike. As a writer, I have spiral notebooks just about everywhere – on my desk (6 of them!), on my nightstand, in my car – and beside the chair in my great room where I am writing at this very moment.  I find that having a means to capture random thoughts as they appear is critical to both long-range planning and developing fresh content ideas.

Plus, dropping a spiral-bound notebook has never caused the contents inside to disappear.

Yet.

Another reason I use hard-copy goal-setting worksheets is because things seem to “click” better when I write them out (vs. typing them). In addition, writing your thoughts and goals out by hand is a great way to clarify exactly what you are trying to accomplish. There is something about the physical process of transferring thoughts and ideas from your brain to paper – and then actually seeing the results of that effort in concrete form – that seems to kick the sub-conscious mind into over-drive.

As a reminder, here is the thought process behind my own Goal-Setting Worksheets:

I recently explained how I divide goal-setting into 3 steps: Brainstorm, Refine and Define.  The first two steps (in relation to my online businesses, anyway) is where I establish my editorial calendar and publishing schedule (by clarifying exactly what I plan to cover and when) – the third step (Define), is where the true goal-setting takes place.  If you think about it, this makes sense because it is much easier to figure out a game plan to accomplish something once you’ve established all the variables you want to cover along the way.

Here are the milestones I use to complete this process:

• 5 Year Plan. This is where you establish your personal “Big Picture” or long-range plans. Where do you see your business and your life in 5 years? How much are you earning? How do you spend time? As you can see – this part is all about “What does my ideal life look like in the future?” Don’t be afraid to DREAM BIG at this stage! (Tomorrow, I’ll share a personal story about how powerful being very clear in this area can be).

• 1 Year Plan. What do you want to accomplish by Jan. 1, 2011? You’ll want to be very specific and come up with objective criteria to measure your success in this area.  For example, let’s say you want to earn $10,000/month consistently in your online business. Great. That is a very specific, challenging and reachable objective.  To accomplish that, you will probably need more traffic and better conversions than you are getting now – which leads us to…

• Quarterly Goals. I like quarterly goals because they allow you to pick bigger topics and really focus on them for a finite period of time.  What are 4 major things you could do for your business over the next 12 months that would help you accomplish your 1 year and 5 year goals? Perhaps you could develop a top-notch autoresponder series that automatically delivers 6 months of great content and value to your readers.  That would be a great thing to accomplish in Q1 – because this is truly a “set and forget” endeavor that would provide ongoing value to both your readers and your business.

• Monthly. Once you have your 4 large quarterly projects for the year defined – how can you further divide them into monthly increments? Using the autoresponder example, what do you need to accomplish in January, February and March to have that completely set up and ready to go?  In addition, consider what else you need to accomplish in order to reach your 1 year plan. Maybe you can commit to writing one special report per month as either a free give-away to build your list or as a revenue generator.  For these larger projects, again, try to pick something that once its done – it will yield results for you indefinitely into the future.

• Weekly. By now, you have a clear idea of where you are headed in the long and mid-term. Once you have monthly goals in place, you can then further divide those bigger pieces into what you need to do each week. Further, this is where smaller, less time consuming objectives fall into place. For example, you could commit to writing and distributing 2 articles per week to various article directories or finding one guest blog opportunity within your niche. I try to shoot for “off-site” promotional opportunities with my weekly objectives – this helps keep it in front and center without becoming too overwhelming.

• Daily. This is where the rubber really meets the road. What ACTION will you take every single day to advance all of the goals and objectives you’ve established? It’s so easy to put things off til the last minute – so setting and sticking to a DAILY ACTION PLAN is the key to accomplishing everything you want to in life.  By time you reach this stage – you should have a very clear idea of what you want to accomplish in the year ahead. You’ve got an idea of what you need to do each week, month and quarter to advance your plan – so now it comes down to having the discipline to DO SOMETHING to make it happen. Update your blog every day. Write one piece of off-site content every day. Spend 15 minutes working on your monthly and quarterly objectives.  You get the idea!

Tomorrow, I’ll share with you what happened when I committed my own five-year plan to paper. (Hint: it didn’t take 5 years to happen! )

Til Next Time,

PS Is 2010 the year you are going to make it happen??  Want to get your online business up and running, but just aren’t sure where to start?  If so, treat yourself (or someone you love) this holiday season to a gift that will continue to repay you for years to come.  Beginner 2 Blogger in 4 Weeks is a GREAT way to get your blog set up and online in no time. In fact, if you upgrade to the DVD version – you can have your blog online and ready to go by January 1st!