Mindset
Are You Setting the Right Goals for Yourself?
There is a lot more to goal setting than just picking a goal and moving forward. While that is important, you also need to make sure that you are setting the right goals at the right time in order to be successful. To check that you are setting the right goals for yourself, answer the following questions:
Are You Setting Specific and Realistic Goals?
It takes a little research to ensure that a goal is realistic. If you’re not sure if something is actually achievable then you probably haven’t done enough research. Once you’ve set a goal that actually is realistic, then you need to be specific enough in your description of it so that you are able to take the goal, and work backwards to create a plan of action to succeed in reaching your objective.
Are Your Goals Multifaceted?
Focusing on only one part of your life is a bad idea. People live multifaceted lives and need to make goals for all areas of their lives in order to feel successful. If you have a successful business or career but at the cost of your personal life, then no matter how successful you are, you will not feel successful. Something will always feel as if it’s missing if your goals aren’t covering all aspects of your life. Therefore, ensure that your goals include something from all aspects of your life.
Is Your Scheduling Representative of Real Need?
Once you have created your action plan, you need to truly consider how realistic it is. Say your goal is to be healthy and reduce your cholesterol by 10 percent in six months but you haven’t planned in the time needed to exercise and eat right. If you don’t schedule in this time you won’t succeed because something will always be in your way taking time away from you. It will be very frustrating to practice your schedule because it doesn’t represent reality.
For instance, if you are going to exercise 30 minutes per day, setting aside only 30 minutes isn’t going to be realistic. The chances are that you’ll probably need to set aside more like an hour as you will need to get ready and then cool down and get cleaned up before going on with your life.
Do You Learn from Failure?
Many times when setting goals and schedules, instead of learning from failure, people simply give up. Using the example above, once you implement your schedule to reach your goals, if you notice there are things that you’ve forgotten to take into account, don’t give up. Learn from your “failure” and adjust the schedule to be more realistic.
You might find that this means that you have to rewrite all your goals and your schedule, but there is nothing wrong with this! Many people believe failure is something negative, but the truth is, if you don’t fail sometimes you’re not going to learn much and it’s likely your goals are too easy. You must push beyond your comfort zone to grow.
Are Your Goals Yours or Someone Else’s?
Many people set goals that represent what someone else wants instead of what they want. This can cause a lot of bad feelings and resentment which can derail even the best laid plans. As you set your goals for your life, ask yourself if they’re really what you want or what someone else believes is best for you.
It’s okay to do things because of someone else, but you need to be honest about it and make some goals just for yourself that don’t involve anyone else’s needs or wants.
Are You Monitoring Your Progress?
Schedules are very important to ensure the best possible chance of reaching your goals. “To do” lists pale in comparison to a well laid out calendar of tasks and activities that will enable you to get from point “A” to point “B.” Look at your schedule every morning and evening and note when you succeed on sticking to your schedule and where you don’t. If you notice a pattern forming for when you don’t succeed, you can rectify it and keep on track.
Are Your Goals Positively Focused ?
When writing a goal it’s important to write them in the positive, or at least a way that feels positive to you. In the quest to improve your life,write down a goal and then change the words to see if you can make it more positive and see if it isn’t more motivating. For instance, “losing weight” seems like a good goal, but for some people it might signify deprivation due to dieting. In this instance, try making the goal “improve my BMI by 10 points” or “improve my cholesterol by 10 percent.”
Are You Setting Too Many Goals At Once?
Just as setting too few goals can be a problem, so can setting too many. We all have an active personal and career life and many points in between. If you have set goals in too many areas of life at once, you can easily become overwhelmed. Try picking one personal goal and one other type of goal to focus on until you reach them, and then you can add more goals in future. You don’t need to do everything today; remember that life is not a race.
Setting the right goals for yourself takes some thought and consideration and whatever you do don’t try to set all your goals at once; try to set goals in different stages and in different areas of your life and give a lot of thought to why you want to achieve the goal in the first place.
How to Stick to Your Marketing Dream!
Do you remember when you first made the decision to become an internet marketer? Many of you will have felt the heady rush of quitting your boring 9-to-5 job in favor of starting afresh where the success or failure of your business rests squarely on your shoulders and yours alone; you are in control of your own destiny now! And you look at the financial gains which are virtually unlimited and the possibilities seem endless. It’s an exciting moment, to be sure… but are you still excited?
The problem is that far too many marketers end up treading down a road of frustration and drudgery; what happened to the path that was laid in gold?!? This causes them to burn out. They get discouraged as they hit an obstacle, or perhaps they get bored and lose interest; this is a problem with the instant gratification culture we live in today. Whatever the reason, it’s important to know how to get yourself back on track if you see yourself floundering or lacking motivation.
Many of your biggest obstacles will be mental: While you want to be constantly learning and getting smarter from your experiences, you don’t want to lose sight of your original vision and mindset. And don’t learn for learning’s sake; you should be implementing what you learn and not just keep learning more. Learn from your experiences whether they be success or failure and don’t let them make you overly cynical or worse, discourage you. Remember the excitement you felt about being your own boss. And remember how excited you felt about bringing your business/product/vision to the market and having a positive influence in peoples lives. Feel that way again and become that idealistic, go-getter again.
Never underestimate the power of routines to help nurture such mindsets. One of the biggest struggles with working for yourself is actually motivating yourself to do the work as there are so many distractions at home. Having a strict daily schedule in place can help you stay focused on the task at hand. Many productive people use their first few actions of the day as a psychological trigger to set them up for the rest of the day. For example, you might begin each day by walking your dog (or going for a stroll by yourself if you don’t have a pet), then brew your morning cup of tea/coffee before sitting down at your desk and writing your first 500 words of the day. Repeating your process each day can get you in the mood to work and it becomes a habit.
Don’t be afraid to expand or outsource tasks. This may be difficult at first if you have little spare capital but think of it as an investment; if yo. can get someone to do the tasks you hate then you can focus on those you enjoy and bring money into the business. Not long ago, article/content marketing was huge. But do you think that the people making serious money from it were spending every waking hour glued to the keyboard? No, these people quickly hired writers to allow them to capitalize on the opportunity and grow (and profit) quickly. Alternatively they may have started a large writing outfit to cater to the marketers working with content volume. Whatever they were doing, they were running a business and not a self-employment hobby. Remember that a business makes you money whilst a hobby costs you money.
Look at your business and identify which tasks can be quickly outsourced to freelancers to help give you more time to work on your business, not in it. For most entrepreneurs the first task to outsource is content creation as it is cheap and easy to get done and gives you content or products that you can quickly bring to market. For others, it may be SEO tactics to increase the ranking of their website. Outsource the tasks you hate as soon as financially possible and you will be a much happier marketer.
Finally, you need to be able to adapt You may have started your marketing journey two years ago, and a lot can change in two years, especially in the online marketing world. Keep learning, researching, and ensuring that your own methods are still considered best practice today; never mistake comfort with effectiveness. But be careful to implement what you learn or you will be left behind.
The key to making your vision a reality is to set goals – both long and short term – and start working on your highest value tasks first thing in the morning, everyday.
Do Your Actions Support a Strong Mindset?
It’s clear that life doesn’t divide up all good things evenly among all people. Just look around you for the evidence of that; some people are more attractive than others. Then there are people who are richer or more successful than their peers.
There are people who come from a good background. They are well-educated, intelligent and well-liked. And from the outside at least, it appears that the world is their oyster.
Then, there are people who are average in looks. They don’t have a lot of money, let alone all that they want in life! They come from backgrounds full of various struggles. They may not have attended a prestigious college;in fact they may have little or no education at all.
Yet, so many times, it’s this second group of people who end up far more successful and enjoying more personal satisfaction than the first group. The simple reason for this is their mindset.
Just because someone appears to have it all doesn’t always mean that it is true or that it will always stay that way. And what you see on the outside – the nice car, the fancy clothes – doesn’t necessarily reflect inner happiness and fulfillment.
It’s not enough to wake up every day and tell yourself positive things. Don’t get me wrong; positive affirmation is great, but mindset alone isn’t enough to change your life. You need to take an active role in taking action to leverage that mindset into a new existence for you.
Next time, we’ll look at understanding mindset…