How to make sure you’re not over-complicating your goals

Do you think you could be over-complicating your goals?  This can easily result in not actually achieving very much of anything.

When I think back over the years about my own goals in business and life, I have definitely been guilty of over-complicating my goals.

I’m a real goals girl.  I talk about goal setting a lot here on the blog, I help people with goal setting through coaching and I even have an online course Goal Setting for Business Success, but sometimes I feel like we’re under pressure to have goals that are actually wrong for us.

So on one of my favourite subjects, I want to share some thoughts on your goals to make sure you’re not over-complicating your goals.

Know what’s really important to you

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There’s always that temptation to set goals based on what you think is expected of you.  I want you to get really, really clear about what you personally want in your business and in life.

If you haven’t got it yet, sign up for my FREE Ideal Business Workbook (it focused on clarity in business and your life).

Okay, so take the time to get really clear about what you want and write it down.  This is the big picture.

I was once asked what I wanted to be known for after I die.  Harsh question, but actually it was a powerful question and I strongly recommend you ask this question yourself.

For me, I want to be known for being a nice person who was a real family person.  That is the bottom line want for me.

My family comes first.  I make sure that on a day to day basis I live this life.

Secondly, I want to be successful enough to live the life I want.

So the people might say things like, “She was such a nice person, she was happiest surrounded by her family and they knew it and loved it, she really did live a life she loved.”

And when I’m on my deathbed, I’m pretty sure I’m not going to be thinking, “Boy, I wish I’d spent more time on social media”, or “I wish I’d worked longer hours to make more money.”

Keep life in perspective

I love my business and I love getting to help people along the way.  I definitely feel very privileged.

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However, over the years, I’ve made choices that have seemed “Odd” to others.  I’ve turned down high-paying speaking opportunities.  I’ve turned down high-paying clients who only want to work with me in the evening or at the weekend.

I am clear about the life I want.  That certainly doesn’t involve leaving my son to his own devices for an hour plus in the evenings whilst I take coaching calls.  That would be going completely against the life I want.

My son’s 14 now and he really doesn’t need me to be with him all the time when he’s home and most evenings, he shuts himself in his room playing his Xbox, but then other nights he clearly wants to spend time with me.  The way I run my business means I can put him first and that’s what I personally want.

The important thing to understand is your goals are about YOU and I really want you to be focusing on goals that YOU really want, to help you create a life and business you really love.

You don’t have to have really big, world-changing goals

Right, here’s the thing.  Not everyone wants to be famous, be a world-class business owner employing thousands of people.

In fact, I’ve found through talking with my coaching clients and other people I meet, that most people don’t want that kind of success.

My goals are very much based around being a good mum, living a life I am proud of (and often that simply means going to bed each night knowing I’m a nice person and I like the way I live my life).

Different sorts of goals

I have what I call now goals in life and business.  For example, I’m currently on a weight loss journey and I’m setting weight loss and healthy living goals for myself.  You can read about my journey and the things I’m doing over on my Ideal Weight Challenge Blog

I have a current goal to clear all of my debt and live completely debt free.

And I have various now goals in my business such as Social Media Goals, Email list goals, income goals…

So let’s look at these few goals I’ve mentioned.  My current weight loss goal is to be under 11 stone by the end of May.  So whilst I will aim to live a healthy and active lifestyle for life, this goal to lose a specific amount of weight will not be a big life goal.

My debt free living goal will be ongoing.  I currently have some debt, so my immediate goal is to clear that debt then it will be a lifetime goal to remain debt free.  This is something I personally feel really passionate about.

And my business goals, whilst I’m so passionate about my business are still relatively short term. My goal is to have an ongoing successful business that I absolutely love and brings in an income that allows me to live a life I love.

Goals and your to-do list

Okay, so I want to share with you what my FOCUS goals are right now.

1. Increase my blog income to £1,500 per month by the end of 2016
2. Weigh under 11 stone by end May 2016
3. Have a lovely home
4. Be a great mum
5. Be productive in my business every work day.

These are my goals and from these goals, I create my daily to-do list.

So that might look something like this.

1. Create a new blog post, either adding an affiliate link or linking to an affiliate post.
2. Plan out all meals and snacks for the day, 10,000+steps and 10 minutes workout.
3. Sort out filing cabinet (in the process of doing this as it will help with my home being tidy and decluttered).
4. Help my son get more organized so that mornings are calm and relaxed.  Switch off in the evenings and spend time with him.
5. Work on new worksheets to go on Fiverr and Gumroad. (productivity).

So you can see that I really only have a small amount of Focus Goals, this for me, means that it’s so easy to plan my day to day to-do list.

Over-complicating your goals often means you don’t achieve your goals

Often when you over-complicate your goals, you find that you don’t achieve very much.  Can you relate to that?  I know I can.

I know that if I’m setting goals and not achieving them for a period of time then I know I need to simplify things.

Note: If you don’t achieve a monthly goal that you’ve set for yourself, don’t stress about it.  It’s really not the end of the world, just move it to the next month and re-evaluate your action plan.  If you find you’re constantly moving your goals forward, then you need to have a good look at what’s happening.

More about that in a later post.

So, I think that’s enough for today.  I hope I’ve given you some things to think about.

Have fun, be happy, be successful.  You’re so awesome!

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