How to achieve your ambitious goals in 2021?

How to achieve your ambitious goals and make 2021 the year of transformation, turning things around, pivoting your way on the success late. YOU NEED TO PLAN. May it be personal or business goals. In this article; I am laying out my quick process to plan without overwhelm.

By the end of this article, you will have an outline plan for 2021 and clarity on creating more supporting plans. So, proper planning drives you to achieve your ambitions goals; just like any sportsperson or anyone, you admire

Happy New Year 2021 and May all your wishes and dreams come true.

The year 2020 has left a mark on many businesses esp. small businesses. It also showed us how resilient we entrepreneurs are. One of my mentors said that as long as you are failing forward, you are making progress. The year 2020 is the year of Fail Forward!!! Take the lessons learnt from 2020 and move forward. Success is built on many failed attempts. I, for one, am hoping for Successful 2021.

Five ways of achieving your goals

I always say these are the ways to go about achieving your goals, they are.

Planning, more planning and even more planning

1. Have a mindset that you are worthy and deserving to achieve your goals
2. Create & Execute the Plan
3. Manage your time
4. Don’t overindulge in activities which are not serving you well such as attending parties, going out with friends etc. in the name of self-care. Self-care is important but not overindulgence.
5. Set boundaries if someone or something is impinging on your plan to achieving your goals.

Quotes on achieving your goals which involve planning

Failing to plan is planning to fail. However, many business owners dread this process. You plan your dinner, plan your holiday, plan on killing that internet so that your kids will come down when you call them for dinner.

A dream with a deadline is a goal, achieving that goal need strategy, executing that Strategy needs a plan, when you implement that plan you become Successful and realise your dreams to your success.

There are more quotes on achieving your goals here https://www.ellevatenetwork.com/articles/8602-quotes-about-reaching-your-goals

What, when and how to plan

The planning doesn’t have to be complicated nor overwhelming. We do plan in our heads all the time. So, you ask why am I not achieving much? Because, unless you write something down, your mind cannot help you or gain clarity. It will be jumping from one plan to another, getting lost every time it tries to get you somewhere. It is in your hands how you help your mind help you; otherwise, it will take you where you don’t want to go.

Today, I am giving away a process where you can plan your whole year in one hour.

No, I am not joking—my 5-year plan to take about 2 hrs.

I usually start planning in October for next year. Yes, I have three + two plans;

1. Personal Growth Plan,
2. Business Plan WITHOUT financial goals WITH marketing goals and
3. Financial Projections.

Further, I also tweak my

4. three year- and
5. five year- plan.

I know, I know, what you are thinking. Let us move forwards, shall we?

If you have not started planning; I would urge you to do that right away.

How to achieve your ambitious goals: The process

Following is the simple yet effective process to tackle the big elephant;

1. Write down where you are right now—just bullet points. Don’t spend too much time on this.
2. Where do you want to go; if you can think of 6 months from now, 12 months from now then write that down. Yes, again as bullet points.
3. Do the above for Personal Growth and Business Growth.
4. These are your goals; Now we have to turn your dreams into plans.
   1. For example; if you have “Get a few or 2-5 clients” under business goals. Then, I want you to expand that to a precise number. i.e. What does a few mean? Or Do you want 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 clients?
   2. Write down what your expenses are non-negotiable one. You need them if not, you will not be in business those types.
   3. Then add buffer or surplus you would like to have over and above the monthly expenses. Remember to add your salary in that as well. Yes, I am telling you ADD that; even if it is just a bare minimum wage. You do need to eat, fuel, pay rent and utilities.
   4. Write down your financial goals (3-months, 6-months, 12-months)
   5. We have to link your business goals to financial goals. Now we will devise Strategy to create a plan.

1. Now, come up with how many clients you need or how many products you need to sell to achieve that financial goal monthly? It is easier when we start on a monthly granular level.
2. How will you get those clients, what your lead generation strategy is going to be? Are you going to go online or follow Word-of-Mouth or go on forums where your target audience hangs around?
3. Once you have narrowed down the Strategy, get to work.
4. Do the above steps for all your goals (personal and financial). If it overwhelms you, start with a 3-month plan.

You may be thinking, how long should the above process take? 1-2 hrs maximum. Once, you have a 3-month or 6-month plan and yearly plan outlines; then you can transfer this into a proper plan on excel or google sheets or write it down neatly on another sheet and keep this piece of paper for future reference. If you are vision board kind of person, then please do transfer these into a vision board. It works wonders.I transfer them into my journal (digital of course) and save this scribble. Have 5-10 affirmations to go with top 3 financial, business and personal goals.

Of course, I don’t end here.  The mind is funny. Once you trigger it in the right direction, it takes you further.  There are marketing one-pager (one for each channel), financial one-pager, personal growth one-pager, website one-pager, Yearly Launches one pager etc. You get the picture. If you want me to help you with this, then I have an offer for you. 2hr planning session where you will walk away with a one-year business plan with marketing and financial projections along with Strategy.

I will talk about that tomorrow in my three words & intentions of the year.