1) FOCUS ON FIXED RATHER THAN VARIABLE GOALS

When I use to plan for a new month I would always start with the outcome or the goal I wanted to achieve and then I would just make a list of all the things that I could do in order to reach that goal. 

The issue with this is that I was putting too much emphasis on the outcome or the goal itself. 

The goals that I was setting were things like “I want to make 50,000$ this month” or “I want to lose 2 kilos this month” and while these goals are fine, they are what I like to call variable goals. Meaning that even if you put in as much effort as you possibly could, there is always going to be a small percentage that is out of your control. 

For example, when it comes to making money, you are relying on others to buy your products. So, even though you can hustle and implement all of the strategies, it still comes down to someone else’s purchasing decisions. 

The issue with these goals was that I would feel like a failure on the months I didn’t achieve them and it was really hard to evaluate what went wrong (because there was a percentage of the outcome that was out of my control). 

So, instead of focusing on variable goals, I have been focusing on fixed goals. Or, what I like to call projects. 

So, rather than setting the goal to “lose 2 kilos”, set yourself a Health Project to move your body every day for at least 30 mins.  Or, rather than “Increase my YouTube subscribers by ____ amount”, you could set a YouTube project where you commit to posting 2 videos a week for the entire month, or sticking to a well-thought-out editorial calendar. 

You are 100% in control of all of those things. So when you get to the end of the month and you are doing your monthly evaluation, you will be able to say “Did I upload 2 videos a month?” 

Yes, celebrate. 

If not, what happened? 

Maybe I didn’t plan enough. 

Or, maybe I didn’t plan my time well. 

That data will help you get better moving forward. 

So, what’s going to come from this is, of course, results. If you upload 2 videos a week consistently on YouTube, you’re going to see growth. And, that is so much more motivating than pursuing your variable goals.

2) SLOW DOWN THE PROCESS

The habit of slowing down my goal setting and planning has changed so much for me. You know, taking more time, effort, and energy for the actual planning process itself. 

Not only does it prompt me to be more creative, but it also makes me feel a lot more connected to the projects I’m setting. Personally, I feel like I’ve already put so much effort into them that I don’t want to not do them because I’m going to feel like I wasted my time. 

And, actually, what that’s looked like for me, is being creative. 

Take the effort to create a mind map, write it out, use highlighters, make it look all pretty, and then with each goal, take the time to put love, intention, and attention into planning them out. Because the time spent here means you won’t actually want to not follow through. 

(Now, if you are someone who is prone to stay stuck in the planning phase, this is not for you.)

Say for your content calendar, take the time to plan all of your content in advance, colour code the different types of content, and then input it into a content workflow. 

The extra attention and energy you put into the process of actually doing this, will not only allow you to be more productive throughout the entire month because you won’t have to think about what you’re going to create, BUT it will also make it so much easier to just stick to your plan and to just make your projects happen.

3) PLAN IT IN A DIGITAL CALENDAR

It’s really important that you don’t just put all this love, time, and attention into planning your projects and laying all of it out beautifully if you’re not going to take it any further than that. You need to create the space to actually take action.

So once you craft your plans, make space to implement them. 

Set time aside to schedule out the posts that you have planned or designate a day towards filming your YouTube videos.

Honestly, this tiny little change in the way you structure your goals and taking that little bit of extra love and attention into being a little bit more creative with your plans will leave you feeling so inspired, so creative, so invested in them.