Drill Deeper Into Your Goals to Make Sure Your Success Plan Is on Track
I’d like you to join me for dinner.
I’m not going to tell you where. But if you accept my invitation, I expect you to be there at 7:00 p.m. next Thursday.
We’re going to have a fabulous meal at one of my favorite restaurants.
You can order anything you want … and don’t plan on looking at the prices, because it’s my treat.
Would you like to join me?
Humor me …
On Thursday at around 6:30, you get into your car. You pull out of your driveway onto the street. Which way will you go?
You know you want to drive there. And you know you want to meet me for dinner.
But, since I didn’t tell you where to meet me, how will you know which way to go?
Now I’d like to invite you to achieve your three-year goals. Wherever you want to be in three years, I’ll help you make that happen.
However, if you don’t know where you want to be in three years, how can we be certain you’re going the right way? Or making decisions that are leading you in the right direction?
Last Wednesday, I spent an hour with a mentor that I hired a couple of months back to coach me on my professional life.
We planned to take a step back and evaluate everything I was working on, to make sure I was still headed toward the goals I set at the beginning.
But when he asked me some specific details about those goals, I didn’t have the answers.
Sure, I had set income goals and established a timeline and plan for getting there.
But I had failed to dig deeper. I never thought about the life I wanted … in addition to the money I want to make.
I’m hoping by now you’ve set goals for yourself and your web writing. If not, first take a minute to do that right now.
And then I’d like to get you one step closer to truly reaching those goals.
Picture yourself in three years. What does your life look like?
How many hours each week do you want to work?
Are you hoping to replace one 40-hour work week, with another 40-hour work week? Would you like to cut back to 20 hours … or even 10 hours a week? Or are you a real workaholic with great ambition who is able to work 60 or even 80 hours a week?
There are no wrong answers to any of these questions. Their purpose is to give you some boundaries and guidelines when exploring your options.
For example, if you only want to work from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. each morning, you won’t want to run a business that requires customer service unless you plan to outsource.
If you’re married or committed, what will your partner be doing?
When you have one entrepreneur in a couple, it can be challenging for the stable job party to understand the entrepreneur’s dreams and ambitions.
Are they willing to accept your desire to go after your dreams? Are they able to support you financially as you grow your business? Are you hoping to support them?
Will they keep their stable job when your business takes off? Will they be working with you in your business?
What kind of money will you need/want to make?
It’s not enough to say you want to make a lot of money. Even saying you want to make enough money to cover your bills won’t do.
You first need to actually take a look at your monthly expenses, and see where you stand on a monthly basis. How much do you need to cover your monthly bills?
How much more money would you like to make over that amount?
How will you spend your money?
What expenses do you see in your future? New car, new house, new boat? Will you be starting a family? Or saving for retirement? Maybe all of the above!
I personally would like to buy a summer vacation home that my family can visit year after year. What would you like?
What will you be doing?
Do you enjoy writing? Or do you like the creative outlet graphic design gives you?
Or maybe you prefer the game of trying to climb the search engine ranks by optimizing web pages. Or you have a hobby that you’d like to continue to learn more about.
Do you love dealing with clients and working with new people? Or would you prefer to be on your own?
Where do you want to live?
Do you see yourself staying in your current home? Or maybe upgrading to something bigger?
Will you stay in your same location? Or maybe move to a new city … state … or even country.
Remember, you really want to drill down here and be very specific about where you’d like to be in three years …
How will your lifestyle change?
Are you looking to enjoy life more and work less enough to scale back your lifestyle? Or do you want to grow your lifestyle and start enjoying the finer things in life.
Again, there are no wrong answers here. Be honest with yourself so that you can plan accordingly to reach those goals.
So, where do you see yourself in three years?
Now that you know exactly where you want to be, you can successfully develop a plan for getting there.
You can look for business models that fit your preferred lifestyle. And start acquiring the skills you need to learn to earn the amount of money you want.
We’ll fine tune this process and explore your options in upcoming issues of Wealthy Web Writer. This is just the beginning!
And, if this seems like a lot to think about, trust me, it’s actually fun. Don’t think of it as a chore but more of a game.
My husband and I did this exercise together on the plane Monday on our way back from visiting family over the holiday weekend.
One thing he added to our three-year plan is the flexibility to spend two months of the year in his hometown in the future, especially if we decide to expand our family.
And now that I know where we want to be in three years, later today I’ll work with my mentor to adjust my plan to make sure we get there.
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This was a very helpful post. I've found myself at a crossroads in my life - do I continue doing what I am doing, or try something new? The questions in your post seem like a good beginning to find the best path forward.
Scott Rarden – May 28, 2009 at 12:29 pm