How To Set And Achieve Your Goals Without Burning Out

You may have heard the phrase a goal without a plan is just a wish, and while that may be directionally true, it does not provide any pointers on how to actually create and take action on your goals. We're going to solve that problem today, and if you follow these steps, you'll be able to create actionable, meaningful goals that allow you to live in the vision you have for yourself and your business.

This is the Launch your Business podcast, because we know starting a business is challenging, but it doesn't have to be confusing. Each week we'll give you the tactical advice and the necessary tools to scale your business without feeling burnt out. I'm Terry Rice, business development consultant and staff writer here at Entrepreneur Magazine. Let's dive in.

Today we'll cover how to determine the most important goals you can take to grow your business, the measurable steps you should take to achieve those goals, and how to plan your workday while also avoiding distractions. So let's go ahead and get started here. The first step is to establish your business goals, and I discovered a simple but effective way to do so while reading the book the One Thing by Gary Keller. To create an impactful goal, you're going to ask yourself what he calls the focusing question. And here it is. What is the one thing I can do? Such by doing it, everything else will become easier or unnecessary. And remember, we're thinking about this from the lens of your business. I'll read it again so it sinks in. What's the one thing I can do? Such by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary. And your answer is going to vary based on where you're at in your business. It could be to make $100,000 next quarter or start selling a new service. It could even be just to have a successful launch for your business. Either way, accomplishing that one thing should make everything else easier or unnecessary. And when I think about my one thing for the upcoming quarter, it's to book more speaking gigs. And I'll explain why in case it helps you discover the one thing for you as well. First of all, speaking gigs can pay pretty well. In one hour, I can make more than I might make in one month. Working with an individual client speaking also allows me to help more people at scale, since there are several people listening to my content at once and I always stick around to answer questions because questions create content. Lastly, some of the people listening may end up hiring me to help them on an individual level as well. So I get to make money, help people learn something new, and land more clients. That's a pretty good way to make everything else easier or unnecessary. Now it's your turn. Jot down your one thing I recommend focusing on something you can accomplish in about 90 days. Next, let's put more structure around your goals. And to do that we're going to use okrs, which stands for Objectives and Key Results. This is a goal setting methodology used by teams and individuals to set challenging, ambitious goals with measurable results. These goals must also be defined by a time period, which is usually 1/4. This is the approach that I use for my business and I help all my clients develop as well. I'll walk through the framework now, but I'm going to add a link to the show notes so you can visualize it as well. So you normally start with one objective. This can be the one thing that you came up with earlier and in this case we'll just say it's to have a successful launch for your business. But how do you measure a successful launch? What does that even mean? That's why you need key results, the steps that measure progress toward your objective. So one key result could be booking three clients. This is easy to measure and clearly aligns with your objective, which is to start a successful business. Another key result could be generating 10 inbound leads. I'm adding this one because it shows you have a process for attracting prospects which is vital to your long term success. And the last one I'll add is establishing your business workflow, the tools, apps and routines you use to generate revenue without burning out. So in this case, if our objective is to launch a successful business, these are our key results that measure that book 3 clients generate 10 inbound leads establish our business workflow. From there you can have specific actions that are required to accomplish your key results. And we'll use generating 10 inbound leads as an example. What will you do to generate these leads? These are your actions and there are a few ways to do it, but let's get specific. The first initiative or action will be posting on LinkedIn four times a week. This will give you an opportunity to show your perspective and personality. And after you write a helpful post, encourage people to message you if they have any questions. This is how you generate leads from posting Another initiative and one of my favorites. Book three speaking gigs and it does not matter how big the audience is. Your goal is to get in front of people and share your knowledge. And similar to posting on social media, you'll make it clear they can reach out to you with any questions. This is one of the easiest way to generate leads, and you can eventually get paid for it. So essentially you're getting paid to do lead generation. And that's the OKR framework, a simple way to plan and achieve meaningful goals. But don't stop there. Once you develop your okrs, ask yourself a very important what am I missing? Based on what you want to accomplish? What's missing? Where are you stuck given your current tools, knowledge or time constraints? For example, if your goal was to book three speaking gigs and you don't have a speaking topic ready, well, that's what you're missing. You might also discover you're missing a script to pitch your topic and a list of organizations to contact as well. Or maybe you have no clue how to do any of this stuff, which means you're missing the guidance and structure needed to make it happen. Either way, you now have a clear understanding of the resources you need to achieve your objectives and can go about creating or acquiring them Just Get Started if you've ever looked for tips on.

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That's Terryrice Co Fast. So now you've identified your objectives and the critical missing pieces needed to implement them. The next step Ask for help. If you know people in your network who can either help you or recommend a resource, start there. If not, consider sharing your request as a social media post. This will allow you to passively promote your business and potentially get some assistance at the same time. For example, you could say something like this can you help me out? As you may know, I've recently launched my own business. In short, I help e commerce companies grow and monetize their email list One of my goals for this quarter is to land three speaking gigs, and I'm looking for someone to help me write pitches. Does anyone have any recommendations? I appreciate your help. Now, of course you can tweak that however you see fit, but the main goal here is to save time and reduce uncertainty by asking your network for help. And as an added benefit, you might attract some leads and referrals from people who are unaware of your services. So let's do a quick recap here before moving forward. First you want to plan your okrs, then identify what's missing. And after that, ask your network for help. And here's the last part which is probably the most important t taking action on your goals. And that all starts with planning how you spend your time in the most effective way possible. And again, that focusing question that we talked about earlier comes in handy here. So as you're planning your quarter, I want you to think to yourself, what's the one thing I can do this quarter? Such by doing it, everything else will become easier or unnecessary. Then break it down on a monthly level based on my goal this quarter. What's the one thing I can do this month? Then break it down on a weekly level based on my monthly goal, what's the one thing I can do this week? And you'll continue what's the one thing I can do today? Even to the point of you saying to yourself, what's the one thing I can do right now? And whenever you find yourself not doing that one thing, stop and get back on track. I use this process all the time, and I'll actually stop in the middle of a task if I realize it's not the most important thing for me to be doing. It takes discipline, but it'll give you the clarity, confidence and commitment needed to achieve your goals. So, final recap here. First of all, plan your okrs. Identify what's missing, ask your network for help, and when you're going throughout your day, focus on the one thing so I challenge you to block off one hour to complete these steps, and I also recommend getting an accountability partner. That way, you'll have the clarity and support that you need to meet and exceed your goals. Thanks for listening, and I'll catch up with you next time. Apply what you've learned on today's show.

You'll find the show notes and more resources at. Terryrice Co. Podcast Again, that's Terryrice Co Podcast, and the best way to support this podcast is by subscribing, telling a friend and and leaving a review. Also, you can get more tips by following me on Instagram terryrice or follow me on LinkedIn.

This episode was produced by Josh Wilcox.

Of Brooklyn Podcasting Studio and edited by Dan Lardy. Special thanks to my wife, Dominique, for keeping our kids relatively quiet as I recorded. Thanks again for listening. I'll see you next time.

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