Put your Goals to Action – Day Seven

“Things may come to those who wait but only the things left by those who hustle.”

Getting your goals into action

The most difficult and most important part of goal setting is to actually put your goals into action. Many people go through goal-setting exercises, just to never even get started. Once you’ve set a goal you simply MUST get out there and do it! You need to go from goal setting to goal getting. If a goal was exciting when you decided to go after it, but now just seems too overwhelming, a really good trick is to break it down.

This means that, if you want to launch an online store, it’s a good idea to break that project down. Needing to set-up a website, develop more products, get shipping supplies and credit processing might just end-up seeming like a big, insurmountable hassle. But, if you break it down, and start with, say, picking the shopping cart for the website, then the overall task becomes much easier. Later, after you’ve dealt with getting yourself a shopping cart, you can then continue with the next part of the project, figuring out credit card processing.

I like to break my big goals down into what’s called ‘the rule of five’. This means, you break your big goals down into five easy things that you can do every day. While those things are small, and you simply do five of them each day, over time, they move you closer to the goal, without seeming so overwhelming.

This year, Bramble Berry is working on a High End (Type) Perfume Line with all the top names for fragrance types (Chanel No. 5, Cashmere Mist, Happy etc…). All in all, the testing to start with 35 high end duplications means working with over 280 initial fragrances and then going back and refining the best of those fragrances. The time to do all the testing, all the refining and all the sourcing is daunting. Even though it’s easy to get overwhlemed, I’m using ‘the rule of five’ to break it down. Each day, I test five fragrances and make an action choice about the five. And I’ve been doing this for over a month. There are more months of testing before we finalize the line but by breaking it down like this, I am able to do a little bit each day, and after several months, I will hit the goal.

Your homework for today is to look at one of your goals (just one!) and break it down into the first five steps that need to happen. Then, do the first one today. The second one Tuesday. The third step Wednesday until you’ve completed all five steps by Friday. Bonus points if you do this for five of your goals so you’re making five small steps on all your goals, every single day. But, trying this idea out on just one goal for this week might be more than enough for you so start where it’s comfortable for you.

Looking for another part in the “Kickstart Your Business” series?

Part 1 – Defining Your Business

Part 2 –  A Simple Plan

Part 3 – A SWOT

Part 4 – Defining Values

Part 5 –  Using Your Vision To Inspire 

Part 6 –  Breaking Down Goals 

Part 8 – Surround Yourself Well 

Part 9 – Endless Possibilities

Tomorrow’s segment will talk about additional support mechanisms to make sure you can accomplish your goals.