It seems like goal setting and goal setters fall into two different camps;

 
How do you want to feel?  

or

What do you want to do?

The feelers are talking about theme words and desired feelings, while the doers are figuring out their action steps and their metrics.

What would happen if we did both?

 
I think having practical action steps to take to get us towards our desired feelings make us unstoppable in 2015.  This combination leads us to a more successful business and a life we love…all at the same time.

If you played along last week with the Instagram My Tiny Empire challenge or tuned in for Monday’s 2015 Planning Party, you already started this process.  But let’s dive in a little deeper.

Start with your theme word:

 
How do you want to feel in 2015?  What word describes your business and our life in 2015?

Spend some time on this.  I actually used the thesaurus and the dictionary to help me arrive at my word.  I thought of one word, then looked it up to see if it’s definition really resonated, then I used the thesaurus to see if there was a similar word that was closer to how I wanted to feel.

Now, write 3 things that need to happen for you to feel this word.

 
Sometimes its helpful to start with why you didn’t feel this way in 2014.  Maybe you have chosen “balance” as your 2015 word.

What in 2014 felt out of balance?

Was it the time you spent working vs with your family?

Was it the amount of free content you created vs the income that came in?

It doesn’t mean you did anything wrong in 2014, maybe this was the first year of your business or you were side hustling and you knew going into 2014 that you were going to be putting a lot of effort into your business and some other things were going to fall by the wayside…now you are ready to find more balance.

Once you know what didn’t feel ______(insert your word), then you can be really specific on 3 end results that would help you feel that way.

Write those down.

The 3 things I need to do to feel _________

 

Now, let’s switch to action steps.

 
Look at the first thing you wrote on that list above.  Let’s pick a different theme word to use as an example here.  Perhaps your theme word is “growth.”  The first way you want to feel growth in 2015 is to expand your social media following.

Pick 3 actions steps you can do in 2015 to accomplish that end result, so;

1. Run an Instagram Challenge
2. Learn and run a facebook add to get more likes on my page
3. Be more consistent in posting on my social media channels

Now take one of your action steps and break it down into 3 tasks (or more if needed) to complete that action step

So, the 3 tasks for “be more consistent in posting on my social media channels” might be:

1. Set aside 1 day a month to batch write social media updates
2. Schedule 1 hour a week to schedule posts and check in with sources of good content
3. Download a phone ap to create graphic images while I’m watching TV at night

To test your action steps so far, try writing them as a sentence:

“By setting aside 1 day a month to batch write social media updates, I’ll be able to be more consistent in posting on social media channels, which will expand my social media following which will allow me to “grow” in 2015”

Wow.  Now you have a pretty clear path of action steps to get you to your theme word for 2015!

The last step is to decide when each of these action steps are going to occur.  Assign a specific date or time frame to each task. Maybe, in our example above, you’ll set aside the first Sunday of each month to batch write your posts or maybe you’ll download the app tomorrow afternoon.

Now add that date to your calendar.  Now you know that when you see that appointment on Sunday to batch write social media content, it is directly leading you towards your big feeling goal for 2015.

If you are ready to take action on the goals you have set for yourself in 2015.  I want to invite you to my super holiday presale offer of my new Virtual Workshop, My Tiny Empire.  

 

My Tiny Empire is 3 complete systems for running your business.  Each system is a low tech, high impact method for Organizing Projects, Creating Products and Planning and Scheduling everything in your business, all using one little power house office supply you probably already have in your drawer.

 

 My Tiny Empire will be available Jan 12th, so preorder your copy today at a super holiday price and with a super holiday bonus.  Then you can put your planning away for the rest of 2015 and focus on your other priorities, knowing you have a secret weapon coming for your empire building in 2015!

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