Woohoo! It’s Officially 2011!!
The festivities have come and gone and the kids are now back in school! You’ve put everything off until the New Year, and now it’s here so where do you start?
Do you have a plan in place for yourself and your business stating what you want to accomplish this Year?
Have you written down your Annual, Quarterly and Monthly Goals?
What about that work out routine that you said you would start for the New Year? Are you ready to hop out of bed, put on your workout clothes and hit the gym (or your living room) and press play??
We are all guilty for shutting down during the month of December, allowing our minds to go into “holiday” mode and gain some downtime. And honestly.. you should!!
I used to think that we should be working every second of the day, 365 days a year, and that taking a break was for suckers, but not these days! I’ve learned to indulge in downtime and give this brain of mine a break. However, I’ve also learned that when it’s time to do what you said you would, then go full force 150% with No Excuses!!
Now that the New Year is here, it’s time to get serious about your goals beyond just talking about them. Instead of pushing them off into the back of your brain as you fill your head up with empty promises of what your going to do, it’s time to write them down on paper and actually create milestones that will hold you accountable to ensure that you actually see them through!
My BFF’s and Accountability Partners (far left) Melissa McDowell, (2nd on left) My Cousin Brejiek, (baby) My little cousin.. The Beautiful “Ocean Sky”, (bride) My Cousin Tyra and Myself at Tyra’s Wedding in August in L
Throughout the 4th quarter of last year, I found the need to get some downtime, pull back from it all and go on a soul searching quest to figure out where I was, at that current stage in my life and where I wanted to go next.
During that time, I spent a lot of time writing down my visions, allowing myself to elaborate on goals and ideas that I’ve had within me, but was too busy or occupied to journal or jot down. I also felt a bit lonely as I struggled with myself back and forth, questioning if I’m “good enough” for the ideas that I have and wondering if I’ll succeed at them.
A random “check in call” with one of my BFF’s, Melissa, would alter my focus from “wondering” to becoming “pro-active”. What we discussed was a plan to help one another with our goals by turning in our written plans for the year to one another and holding each other accountable monthly via phone, to ensure that we are actually working towards them.
This was such a brilliant idea because not only will I write down my goals (which I do annually anyway), but now I had someone looking at them with me and holding me accountable while helping me talk them out and execute them to completion! I loved this idea;) We loved it so much that my cousin, the 3rd diva of us 3 Amigos, Tyra Joined us as well for the 3-Fold Cord that will support each others success this year!
So here’s what I want to share with you to help you succeed:
Find a really good friend that is “like-minded”, but knows you very well, and exchange your goals with a plan to talk once a month about them to hold one another accountable.
Write down your goals based on annually, quarterly and monthly being very descriptive on what you want to accomplish
Walk through each detail of your major goals. I will share with you how I mapped my year out and give you a format to follow so you can do the same!
Get it done by FRIDAY 1/7/10! Find your accountability partner and both of you need to have your goals mapped out by Friday. The longer you wait, the more distracted you’ll become and it will never get done!
I admit that I was late in turning my form in, and it’s because I struggled with the gazillion ideas in my head and which ones to really focus on first. Thanks to a long conversation about my goals with the hubby last night, he steered me back on track and removed the cobwebs of confusion from my brain to enforce that I STAY FOCUSED.
So I will share with you a sample of my 2011 goal sheet, and my personal process of mapping out my goals.
Step #1: Write Freely without structure FIRST!!
Because I’ve learned that trying to “edit” your writing initially can put a damper on the creative process, I chose not to structure my goals up front. Instead, I jotted down everything that was jumbled up in my head, no matter how random they were. Here’s a little snippet:
Increase Twitter followers
Increase Blog Subscribers
Attend 2 Internet Marketing Conventions (1 Affiliate Marketing / 1 Blogging)
Start volunteering with middle & high school aged girls
Work with church maybe 1-2 a month
Start p90x and complete it
Do a detox
Start raw food diet
Join extra-curricular class like kickboxing or sewing for an outlet
Start Toastmasters
Start Speaking with the goal of booking 4-6 Speaking
Events this year
Get speaking site complete and up and running
This is just random things in my head that I jot down first.
Step #2: Get specific on goals You want to accomplish:
I know that there are specific areas that I want to grow and measure it’s growth, so what I’ll do is jot down the numbers like this:
Internet Marketing Followers Annual Goal:
Subscribers for blog – 5,000
Twitter followers – 15,000 total
Facebook Fan Page – 8,000
YouTube followers – 5,000
List total – 20,000
Although this list is very aggressive, what I’ll then do is break this Annual Goal down into Quarterly & Monthly (Lets take the Blog for example):
Blog Quarterly Growth Goal:
Q1 (Jan – Mar): 1250
Q2 (Apr -Jun) : 1250
Q3 (Jul – Sept): 1250
Q4 (Oct – Dec): 1250
Now let’s break this down even further to Monthly & Even Weekly Goals(to keep everything simple, I’ll just do it evenly):
Jan: 416 (Wk 1: 104) (Wk 2: 104), etc…… (DAILY GOAL: 21 ppl per day)
Feb: 416
Mar: 416
duplicate all the way down (this is just an example as I know the numbers will vary based on the months and the interaction of online users)
Step #3: Write down milestones / activities that will allow you to reach that goal:
Ways to increase blog subscribers:
Hire SEO team
submit backlinks
write articles to drive traffic back to the blog (be even more specific about this… submit 5 articles per week)
link all videos to live link for blog
offer free report to create more opt-ins
Create Autoresponder Series
comment on other blogs (3-5 per day)
post blogs more, 3-4 times per week
have more value on the blog that drives traffic due to the content
Step #4: Create Daily Plan of Action around the milestones:
You will then create your weekly plan around the milestones that you created and begin to jot down daily tasks that you must do to guarantee that you stick with this plan and generate the traffic that you “SAID” you wanted!
Monday (Today for example – 1/3/10):
Today’s Focus: SEO & Keywords (I’m simply looking at the list above as I type this.. that’s why you need to have more detailed milestones):
Post ad on Odesk with goal of hiring SEO team by Thursday to start on SEO
Research backlinks and keywords to understand the process better.
Research products that will teach me how to add the right keywords to my blog (Market Samurai).
Tuesday (1/4/10):
Focus: Article Submissions:
Post Ad for Article Writer on Odesk.
Find an Article Spinner
Find an Article Submission Product
Have Article Writer open accounts for the top 10 Article
Submission Sites.
Wednesday (1/5/10)
Focus: Free Report & Autoresponders:
Write down outline for Autoresponder messages and ideas that will make people ‘active subscribers’.
Create outline and topic ideas for Free Report
Research Topic Ideas and write down 5-10 Key points per topic
Format Plan to Write 2 pages of content every day for next 5 days, focusing on 2 key points per day to create Free Report
Thursday (1/6/10)
Focus: Follow Other Blogs & Interact / Content Calendar for my personal blog entries:
Look for top 25 blogs in my niche to connect with
Visit 3 – 5 blogs today , read top post and comment
Sign up for disqus.com
Write down blog ideas and topic keywords to help create a content calendar
Jot down 3-5 Blog Topics and create bullets on what I would want to cover on that topic for future blog entries
Set schedule for dates that I want to post and types of post I want to make… (i.e., lists, videos, inspirational messages, affiliate link-product training, upcoming webinar, etc)
Make decision on SEO Team
Friday (1/7/10)
Focus: Blog Enhancement
Spend this time looking at improvements that I want to make to the blog
Hire Article Writer
Map out content for next week
Map out plan for next week
As you can see, if you follow this format, you will allow yourself to set up a “Fail-Proof” Plan that gives you a strong level of direction on a daily basis to know exactly what your shooting for and how your going to accomplish it!!
It is my goal to hear that you’ve done your homework, so if this blog was useful to you in any way, please comment below and let me know when you found your accountability partner and if you finished your homework by Friday!
I’m looking forward to hearing from you;)
Cheers & Happy New Years once again.. Now time to start the New Year off right and get this done!!
Your Success Coach,
P.S. If your sick and tired of trying to figure out how to “Really Make Money Online” and want to know what I used to build a team of over 8,000 people while sitting on my couch, get access to my TRAINING NOW by visiting Social Marketing Boutique and learn how you can “Cash In” on Social Media and start making “MAILBOX MONEY” TODAY!!
The Mailbox Money Blog – Nicole Cooper
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