This time of year you hear a lot of talk about
- September is the new January.
- Finish off the year strong.
- Have you hit all your goals for 2016 yet?
- Start planning now for 2017!
- Back to School. Back to Work.
The whole Back to School Back to Your Business theme has hit all of us pretty over the last 3 weeks.
Are people simply jumping on the common tried and true theme for September or is there something more to it?
Your response might be:
How can I possibly finish the year strong when the whole year has been rather Bleh.
How can I plan out the next 3 months when I’m overwhelmed with just this week’s to-dos
I already blew 2016! I think I’ll just ride the year out and start again next year.
Holidays are coming up so why bother.
2017 planning? Are you kidding?
You can either be annoyed or you can realize that perhaps all these emails that you’ve opened (or ignored) over the last 3 weeks are a sign.
:: A sign that perhaps it really is time to do some serious intentional planning
:: A sign that sitting down and plotting out the next three months might actually be a great idea … for you.
:: A sign that it’s time to pull up your big girl panties and be the CEO of your life and biz.
You don’t have to spend 2 weeks drawing up a business plan or create busy work for yourself. You just need to make a date with yourself and purposefully plan for the near future.
It isn’t easy to admit you need to take a pause and think ahead. But it is totally utterly do-able.
3 steps to help get you where you need (and want!) to go:
Not rocket science just good ol fashion simple business tips.
Where to start?
1 | Time to Get Real
Determine where you are currently. Get real with where you’re at. If that means you’re drowning in debt or you’re enslaved to your to-do list or you have no clients in your pipeline – that’s OK.
It’s important not to sugarcoat things. Be honest with yourself so you can take the empowered steps needed to move forward. Pull out your numbers. Face them. Shine a light on the stuff in the shadows that you’ve been avoiding.
2 | Where Do You Want to Be?
In 3 months, 9 months, 1 year. Don’t bother with longer.
Too much changes in a year and it can be way too overwhelming to look further out than a year.
Where do you want to be in your business this time next year. Will you have finally taken the steps you’ve been dreaming of to start/grow your business? Will you have doubled your revenue? Will you have a more freedom in your schedule? Whatever it may be – write it down. Put specifics around them. Dollar figures. Numbers. Feelings too! It’s important to really ascertain how you want to feel as you go after and achieve those goals.
3 | Mind the Gap
How will you get from here to there? Now is the time for planning.
So if in 3 month you want to have the first draft of your book done – that’s great. Now work backward to figure out exactly how many pages you need to write every day to make it to 250 pages! If you want to grow your client base by 10, how many follow up phone calls/emails do you need to make daily to make that happen? Plot and plan.
Have fun with this. You can sketch it out, draw a map, color, use a vision board. Buy a huge wall calendar and pull out some colorful pens and Post-it notes. However you best plan, get to it and don’t forget to have some fun too.
Bonus | Feel Into it Now
Close your eyes. Feel into where you WILL be in 3 months or 9 or even in a year. How does it feel to accomplish exactly what you wrote down. How does it look? Who’s there cheering you on? How does it taste, smell and feel at a deep level.
Now, take those feelings into your everyday actions toward your goal. In your mind know that it has already happened… your actions and the Universe (if you’re into that!) will do everything to align with what you’re thinking! If the Universe isn’t your thing.. than your mirror neurons in your brain will want to ensure that things are matching up
.
So even if the End-The-Year-Strong messaging is driving you to drink, please note that the message has some solid legs.
It just may be too comforting right now and stirring some stuff up for you.
Let’s face it – every quarter you should be starting and ending strong.
Instead of tackling your biggest dreams and ambitions on an annual basis or simply having it vaguely and ambiguously in your mind, it is much more powerful and do-able to break it down to 90 day/3 month sprints to make s**t happen!
So take a breath.
Take yourself out on a date.
Take out a piece of paper or a gorgeous journal
Then, dream and scheme
The post Intentional Business Planning {September edition} appeared first on LearnSavvy.