The POWER of setting goals and having accountability

Welcome to the Author Audience show, the podcast that helps you reach more people with your message. Create a book, connect with your audience, change lives. Here's your host, Shelly Hitz.

There's power in setting goals and having accountability. Hi, my name is Shelly Hitz. I'm the author coach@authoraudienceacademy.com and I'm on a mission to help you reach more people with your message. It's time to let your light shine. Today I'm going to be talking about the power of setting goals and having accountability. I have shared many times the power of setting goals and accountability. But I wanted to talk to you about it again today because it never gets old. The most important things for us, we need to hear them over and over and over again sometimes before they sink in. And this is one that I could talk to you about every week just simply because it is so important. And it has really been what has set me on a path to success in my business the last few years. And I have set up a system in Author Audience Academy for my members to also implement this. We have an entire training on setting goals. It's called Plan It Day and it helps you set your 90 day goals. We're in third quarter now, July 2nd started third quarter. It's time for third quarter goals. And so that's a great place to start. But every Monday in our Facebook group we have a Monday motivator post. And on that post I asked my members to post their take action plans. What are their goals for that week? And I woke up this morning and I'm in my Facebook group every day with my paid members and they were already just posting all their goals for this week. And it really excited me to see see the action and the clarity and the very doable steps they're setting every single week. So congrats you guys. If you're an author Audience Academy, I'm so proud of you and all of you that are taking advantage of that. And what happens is every Monday my members post their goals. And guess what? I do it too. I post my goals too. I don't ask you guys to do something that I'm not doing myself. And so I'm in there, I'm posting my goals every week as well. And then on Fridays I go in and just do like a check in, like, how did you do on your goals? It's an accountability. So we set weekly goals and then I personally will check in with my members and say, how'd it go? What happened? And it is amazing really to See the progress people are making. So I have a system and it's constantly evolving. I don't have the perfect system, and you have to use the system that works best for you. But I've been using a bullet journal and just writing out just lists. So mine is not fancy. I don't do these fancy layouts like some people do in their bullet journals. It's just a simple list for each day, the appointments I have and the tasks I need to get done that day to move forward towards my goals. And last week I had set my goals in the Monday Motivator post Inside Author Audience Academy. And Friday came and I probably only had half of my goals done.

And here I am trying to set an example. And normally I. I reach all my goals. I'm pretty good now at setting realistic goals and moving forward towards my big breakthrough goals. But last week was just a little different, and I ended up having to hire new staff. And I was spent more time in the interview process and the hiring process than I expected. But I still had certain things on there. About half of my list that was not done. And to be honest, it's fine, just pivot and shift. You know, you can just put those things onto your list for the next week. But this is the power of setting goals and having accountability. I knew I was gonna have to answer to all my other members and say whether or not I'd completed those goals. And so I began working through the rest of those goals. And there were just two things that I didn't finish. And I just told them they're in process, I didn't finish it. One of them was June's accounting. Well, I finished that over the weekend, or I finished that by the end of Friday, so I was able to finish that. And then another thing was working on my coloring book page concepts for my upcoming book, as well as journal prompts. And I'm happy to report on Saturday, you know, while we were driving to my husband's race, I was working on my coloring book prompts, and I was able to get that done. So the only thing I really didn't get done was my journaling prompts. And that is okay. But that's the power of having accountability. It's the power of setting goals. I was able to then continue to work towards those goals, and I was able to continue to inch forward. You guys have heard me say this over and over again. It's not just about taking that big leap. It's about continuing to inch forward, continuing to make progress. And every single week towards your goals. When you do that and you are focused, you have clarity, you have an overall strategy, you set your big 90 day goal, you know where you're headed. You're not just following the bright shiny object syndrome. We all can get distracted, right? But when you are doing this, you're going to see results. I was so excited to see one of my members, Sharon, post in the group this morning that she felt finally published her book on Kindle. And you know, she's been just really struggling at times and working through each step, but she did it. She crossed that finish line and she's so excited. It is so exciting. I never get tired of it. Can you tell? I get a little bit excited. I love seeing you guys birth new books into the world and I love it because she just did it little by little by little and crossed that finish line. So what is it that you need to do this week? Write out your goals. Write them out. There is power with writing something out with pen and paper. Write them out. If you're an Author Audience Academy member, go into our group, find the Monday Motivator post for this week and write your goals for this week so I can help keep you accountable. That's part of the value of what you get inside Author Audience Academy. You can also get private accountability partners or something like that. But there's power when you have focus, when you set goals and you have accountability, then once you have your goals then you can just continue to work towards them little by little, inch by inch. And so what I typically do is I typically have a 90 day goal. That's my breakthrough goal, my big goal, the goal that will give me the biggest results. And I teach that like I said in Plan It Day training inside Author Audience Academy. Then I will set, depending on the project, I sometimes will have monthly goals. This quarter I did set monthly goals, but most of the time I then I'm just setting weekly goals. So I see my big goals and I'm like, okay, this is what I'm going to accomplish this week. And I post those in Author Audience Academy under the Monday Motivator post. Then every day I look at what my goals are for that week and I say, okay, what do I need to get done today to ensure that I'm able to reach that finish line for this week? So that's kind of my thought process. You have to find the system that works best for you. Everyone is different and everyone has a different personality and has something different that will work for you. The biggest thing is doing it, setting Those goals, writing them out, write them out on paper, it is so powerful. I remember first quarter of this year, I set an income goal that felt a little bit big for me. And when I did my accounting for the first quarter of this year and I realized that we had met that goal, I was just like, whoa, wow. You know, And I was like, this stuff works. It works because I worked it. I worked the plan, I set a plan, I set a strategy. There were specific reasons that we needed that income for hiring staff and growing our business. But we met the goal. And it was so exciting to see when you write something out and then you start working out that plan every week, every day, how your goals can then come into completion and happen. And so I want you to reach your goals, I want you to cross that finish line. And it really comes down to having strategy, being very clear on where you're headed. Because if you don't know where you're headed, then that's just going to cause confusion like, oh, well, what do I need to work on this week? I don't know, because what am I doing? What is my big goal? I don't know. And then beginning to work towards it with very specific goals each week and each day. Any of you that are Christian women, I am having a writing retreat this week, September. I'm so excited about this. And this is really an opportunity for you to reach your goals because I'm going to be working personally with you. And then we're going to have writing times online. I'm going to meet with the group online before our retreat. We're going to set goals. You're going to come with a project that you're going to work on, and then we're going to write. We're going to be there for four days and three nights in the beautiful Rocky Mountains and we're going to write. And you're going to have access to me. Mean, I charge a lot of money for one on one coaching, but you're gonna have access to me during those days. You're going to have access to other women. We're going to be praying for you. My husband's going to be there as well. We're going to have, you know, just some opportunities to connect and just to be able to pray for you, even, you know, minister to you during that time. And it's just going to be a really, really good time. So if you're able to invest the time and the money into a retreat like that, that's a great way to accomplish your goals. And you can find out more at colorad.

As of right this minute, I have five spots left. I already have people signed up, and I'm excited for that as well. I have seen so many people in Author Audience Academy in the last month or so really start to get clear. It's almost like clearing out the cobwebs. You know, if you ever, like, went into a garage or an attic or somewhere, basement, and there's tons of cobwebs and dust and dirt, and it's just gross, and you don't want to even be there because it's just so, so dirty and cluttered and gross. You need to first clear out those cobwebs, clean it out, get some clarity, and then start organizing. And once your basement or your attic or your garage, it gets clean and it's like, oh, it smells good again, there's not those cobwebs. And I'm not afraid of a spider falling on my head. It's like, okay, I can spend time in here. And then, you know, you start organizing little by little. And over a period of time, all of a sudden, you've cleared out your clutter, you've donated stuff to your local donation center, and you have a organized space that you can use that you're not afraid to go into. And I find that authors, sometimes it just becomes this cluttered, cobweb infested area of trying to really get your book done. And we just need to start with clearing out the cobwebs, you know, cleaning out. And that starts with clarity. It starts with strategy. And that's where plan it day. That training inside Author Audience Academy can help you get that step. And then once you have that, it's the organization of saying, okay, now that I have a clear plan, now that I have a clear strategy, what are the next steps that I need to take? What is the next right thing? What is the next thing I need to do? And it's just simply accomplished by doing that very next thing. Whether you're trying to run a marathon, whether you're trying to create a coloring book, which I'm trying to do right now, and I'm trying to say I'm an artist, because I don't feel like an artist. Some of you may feel like I'm not a writer, but I want you to say, I'm a writer. And just keep improving your skill as a writer every day. You know, whatever your project is, whatever your goal is, maybe it's finishing your book, publishing your book, maybe it's something else. But just continuing to work towards it every single day. All right, I could talk about this forever, but I'm going to go ahead and close with this encouragement to never, never, never give up. You may feel like you are stuck, you may feel like you are in overwhelm. You may feel like you don't know what the next step is to take, but I just encourage you, keep taking that next step. Right step. What is the next step for you? What is it that you need to do next? That's the power in goals and accountability. That's the power in getting clear and having strategy. That's the power in having a coach. I would be honored to serve you as your author coach inside authoraudienceacademy.com but there are tons of other coaches you can work with. Working with a coach can really, really help. But I just encourage you, keep taking that next step step, the next step and the next step and to never, never, never give up again. This is Shelli Hitz. I'm the author coach@authoraudienceacademy.com and I'm on a mission to help you reach more people with your message. It's your time to shine and I will see you next time. Buh. Bye.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Author Audience Show. Connect with us online@authoraudience.com where you'll find all the resources mentioned in today's episode. While you're there, grab Shelley's free video training on how to write and publish your book using her six Step Ascent method. Join us again next week to learn how to reach your audience with your message.