I'm sitting in my office with a small case of the "blahs." You know that feeling right? I have tons of stuff to do and little desire to do it. I woke up at 5:30 this morning and I'm tired. And I'm not so sure that I haven't lost sight of some of my goals and I'm not confident that I'm making progress.
So where did I get off track? I was moving along just fine, getting more excited every day and then ...Something hit. In my case it was the air conditioner, the washing machine and the lawn mower all breaking in the same week. Then all the rain we've been having must have eroded some of the soil in on our land because a tree fell over and destroyed part of our fence. And my husband just announced he may be transferred to Fresno, CA.
Doesn't it ALWAYS happen this way....You are going along just fine and something just blows up in your face and that carefully planned goal gets forgotten.
So the real question is ...Now that I know that I'm off-track, what do I do about it and how can I keep it from happening again? Well, the first step is to remember what your main goal is. In my case that goal is to ..."Make a decent living while helping as many people as I possibly can achieve their own goals for a quality life." But, wait. I have to admit that I am making a decent living, at least in my own estimation. So have I achieved my goal? Is that why I feel so lost? Is it time to change my goal? Of course not. I just need to fine tune my goal. You see, my original goal was written long before I learned anything about how to set SMART goals. What is a "decent living." Who gets to decide? How will I know when I make it?
A goal is a clear, concise statement - specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and has a time limit. So let's see what we can do with that original goal to make it better. Ready? How about "Earn $200,000 this year" or "Make $40,000 a month by the end of 2008." Better? Okay. That's part one. Now for the second part - "help as many people as possible achieve their own goals." This one could be a little trickier. How will I know if I've helped as many people as I can? How will I know I couldn't have helped just one more if I had worked harder? Is there any way to make this a SMARTer goal? Probably not. So you know what. It's not a goal. Perhaps it should be part of my personal mission statement. (What? You don't have your own mission statement? Shame on you! We'll work on that in a different post.).
Okay, so my new financial goal now reads: Make $30,000 a month by the end of 2008. Good goal. I'm feeling more focused already!
Step two. When you've lost focus and you've reexamined your goals, your not finished. Because just rewriting or remembering your goals isn't going to help you get back on track. You have to look at your strategy for achieving your goals. So how am I going to make $30,000 per month? I have my site selection business. That does well. But with the current economic situation, many meetings are being cancelled or scaled back so the chances of making $30,000 per month with that is not good. I have my Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing business. That does great. And it's growing. It could conceivably make $30,000 per month. But probably not by the end of 2008. Then there's the money I make from my affiliate programs. They all bring a little. And the "Travels with Bob" website is almost ready for launch. These are all good businesses. But none of them will make $30,000 a month by the end of 2008.
So what's the answer? Multiple sources of income. Alone - none of these will help me make my goal. But together I will more than achieve it. That was part of my sense of failure. I was focusing on one business to take me all the way. And then I talked to one of my mentors who reminded me that $30,000 is $30,000 whether it's all from one business or $10,000 each from several businesses.
Now, running several enterprises at once can be time consuming. And since one of my other goals is to spend more time with my husband, daughter, and grandchildren, that could cause conflict. So I also need to come up with some passive, recurring, and residual income. I will need to look at automating more of the processes on "Bob's" website. And maybe it's time to hire an assistant to help with some of the clerical and administrative tasks. And then I really need to share Fortune with as many people as possible. Network marketing is one of the greatest sources for passive residual income!
I'm so excited! I feel a new burst of energy. I think I'm back on track. In fact, I'm so excited that I almost forgot what I originally wanted to post about. I've been thinking of writing a book. I've got a title."Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise - A Woman's Guide to Becoming Physically, Financially, and Spiritually Fit". And you can help me write it. I need some specific input from you. If I've helped any of you in any way, I need to hear about it. Why? Well, it's not for my ego -- although I have at least as much ego going as the next person. It's because I need to know what things I am doing to reach my goals actually WORK! It's OK if you want to e-mail me and tell me that nothing has worked for you yet...But ...That's not the purpose of this post. What I am looking for is specific information, tools or techniques that I have personally given you that helped you towards a better life. I'm really looking for specific results. The more specific the better. If you have benefited from something that I've shared with you, please take a moment, hit the comment button and let me know specifically what it was. I'll be able to see what is working for you and that will help me help others.
