Incredible Goal Setting for 2013!
Having recently moved to France at the beginning of 2012 I wasn’t really in a position to sit down and take stock of how my business performed in 2011, it was only 4 months old. That’s why looking back I feel as though I worked through 2012 in a bit of a haze, I had lots of ideas, but they were in my head and I very rarely wrote anything down. I had things I wanted to work on, I was jumping from one thing to another, not finishing things I had started. Obviously client work was my priority so my own business plans went down the drain.
Then…
Towards the end of 2012 I started to realise that I couldn’t spend another year doing what I had been doing. I needed to build my business rather than just letting it move along as it did in 2012, in a bit of a haze. So during those last few months of 2012 I made a conscious effort to start writing all my ideas and plans down. I even started allocating 1 hour per day to my business, as I mentioned in this blog post here, How You Can Get Those Projects Off The Ground and Finished.
A few months ago I attended a webinar with Alicia Rittenhouse via The Virtual Assistant Forums and she mentioned that she took 1 whole day a week to work on her business, not just new ideas, but things like invoicing and her own admin needs. I thought this was a great idea and decided that I would put this into practice in 2013. In fact I am writing this blog post on my new business day today!
As well as getting some great advice from Ali I also discovered Leonie Dawson back in November. I don’t normally ‘get‘ spiritual people, I’m not religious nor spiritual so to find Leonie and actually ‘get‘ some of what she says is brilliant for me. I quickly decided to purchase her 2013 Create Your Incredible Year Workbook and Planner for Life and Business, they are such great value (although very colourful so make sure you have lots of ink in your printer!). Leonie is a very creative person and she designed and created all the workbook and planner herself, it really is lovely.
Over the last few weeks I have been completing my workbooks and planners. To start with you have to take stock of the previous year, and then go on to make your new goals and dreams for this year. It’s a great way of getting everything down in writing, and the colours and drawings just make you want to go back to it time and again. Along with the workbooks there are calendars to go with each, a Life and Business version. I’ve already completed January (see image on the right) and now have a clear plan for what I need to achieve this month.
Last night I sat down to complete my Life workbook and calendar and actually found it more difficult to complete. One of the sections is 100 things you want to do in 2013 – I got to about 40, I think it just shows I need to get my life/work balance back!
I haven’t fully completed either workbook, as I want to go back to each week and reflect on what I have written, change or add new things to it when I can. Just opening up the calendar for January makes me feel motivated for the coming year.
As well as setting out my goals for the coming year, the workbooks have given me the inspiration for some more blog posts for the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I’ll be sharing some of my inspiration with you over the coming weeks.
Do let me know if you purchase the workbooks, or if you’ve used them before (this is the third year Leonie has produced them).
