Coffee Talk #208: 5 Steps to Setting BIG Goals

It’s Tuesday! Grab your cup and let’s start chattin’.

If we were having coffee together today, I’d tell you to go vote. I loved participating in early voting this year. Early voting numbers were at an all-time high and I’d love to see the Election Day numbers up there, too. Vote, Vote, Vote.

If we were having coffee together today, I’d tell you that I filmed the live version of the Coffee Talk at 5 a.m. in a hotel stairwell. Why? I believe in being consistent. Daily action leads to big results. As much as I can, I like to stay on course and keep consistent with my plans. So, sometimes that means putting on a smile at 4:30 a.m. and pumping myself up to talk about big, important topics.

If we were having coffee together today, I’d tell you that the focus of this week’s topic is BIG Goals. What’s a big goal? It could be a long-term goal, it could be a major shift in your current environment. It’s something that you’re working toward and probably not something accomplished in a short amount of time. This is the thing that drives you, your WHY.

When we set BIG goals or plans, we can get excited. Sometimes this excitement springs us to action.

When we focus on a BIG goal, we don’t have time for the pettiness of day-to-day. We start to switch off the noise around us. We focus our effort on our goal, not on drama.

Big goals also force us to face our reality. Instead of filing down the conveyor belt, we can be honest with ourselves. This can cause discomfort and be really, really freakin’ hard.

But when we face our reality, we start to notice things. Not feeling well every day? I recently had a conversation with a friend who told me that she was ‘tired of feeling happy only 50% of her days.’ She made a shift. She actually completely changed careers and is happy 90% of her days. She wouldn’t have noticed that she wasn’t happy if she didn’t take intentional steps to ‘sit in her shit.’

1. Dream. If we allow ourselves to dream, we can get really excited. Isn’t it fun to dream? The excitement of possibility can push you to action, even if it’s the tiniest step. This will also help you develop and better understand your WHY. Why do you want to achieve this goal? What outcome are you hoping to get?

2. Move your body & challenge your mind. This makes all my lists because it’s just too dang important. Again, you don’t have to go BALLS TO THE WALL with every single fitness session but work yourself to do something that challenges your body. I like to aim for 30 minutes/day. If that’s not possible, try 10 or 20 and see if you can build from there.

To challenge my mind, I have two favorite ways: 1) meditation (10 years ago I’d roll my eyes at anyone who suggested this and now I crave it) and 2) brain dump – exactly what it sounds like — grab a pen or type in a doc/on phone everything in your brain/on your mind right now, even if it doesn’t make sense. I’ll review my brain dumps like once a week and see if I notice any patterns.

3. Get SMART. Want to set and achieve a BIG goal? Make it SMART.

• Specific: Don’t be vague. Exactly what do you want?
• Measurable: Quantify your goal. How will you know if you’ve achieved it or not?
• Attainable: What can you reasonably accomplish at this point in your life, while taking into consideration your current responsibilities.
• Realistic: It’s got to be doable, real and practical. But allow yourself to reach a little.
• Time: When should you complete the goal? Give it a time frame.

4. Find an accountability buddy. We’re 67% more likely to achieve a goal if we write it down. What happens when you share your goal with a trusted friend? You push yourself closer to 100%. Now listen here – I highly recommend that you don’t BLAST your goal to everyone. Some people are not in your corner and will have opinions. If you’re not strong enough to handle criticism from the keyboard warriors, keep your goal to yourself and a close friend. But if you can handle it and you think it will make you more accountable to share your goals with the universe, do it.

5. Build a network chart. You need help to achieve your goal. Want to switch careers? Talk to someone (or several someones) who are in the career you want to enter. Want to build a business? Talk to people who have experience doing this. Learn, learn, learn. The act of building a network chart is a new tool I learned from a workshop. Start with your inner circle, the people you spend time with every day or most days. The next circle is people you encounter frequently — who are they? What do they do? The next circle is people in your universe your infrequently encounter, but you have a connection – who are they? What do they do? From there, note any connections between circles or potential connections that do not yet exist. Does someone work in an industry where you want to work? Keep building those lines and asking questions until you find a list of potential contacts.

Now, take action. We can dream and plan all we want, but we need to take that first step. Remember, it’s the LITTLE things that lead to BIG things.

What’s one small step you can make TODAY toward your goal?