The truth is that burnout often happens when you haven’t done the work to match your personality with your business, and you end up disillusioned by still hating your work even when you’re running your own business. Keep reading to learn how to develop SMART Goals.
Maybe you thought that you didn’t like your work as an accountant due to working for a corporation, but now that you have your own business, you’re discovering how much you dislike the work in general, even if you’re on your own. Discovering something like this can be a real roadblock for many.
However, most of the problems mentioned above can actually be solved in advance through good planning. Planning starts with understanding what you want from life and business and being able to develop goals that turn into plans that turn into actions that result in the lifestyle and business you really wanted.
To stop burnout in its tracks learn the right way on how to develop SMART goals. The very best way to create goals is to learn the SMART goal technique. The reason setting SMART goals works so well is that it automatically creates actions that you put into your schedule that will provide the results you want.
To develop S.M.A.R.T. Goals, look to the meaning of the acronym.
Specific – The goal needs to be small, simple, sensible, and significant too.
Ask yourself what you really want to accomplish with your business or your life. You may have relationship goals, exercise goals, diet goals, and business and lifestyle goals that you want to achieve.
Know precisely why it’s essential for you to achieve this goal. When you think about doing the steps to attain this goal, who will help you, which resources will you use, or do you have limits there? It may also help you to identify where the actions will take place.
Measurable – A good goal is also meaningful and in and of itself motivating.
Without a metric to track, it’ll be impossible for you to know whether you have succeeded in reaching your goals or not. Therefore, always attach a number to the goal, such as how much, how many, and what metric identifies that you’ve accomplished the task or goal that you’re trying to reach.
For example, if you have a goal of adding 1,000 new subscribers each month to your email list that lets you know if you’ve made it or not. Likewise, if you have your own bookkeeping business, you might set a goal to have five new clients within a specific time period.
Achievable – In addition to being even achievable or attainable at all, it should be something agreeable to you.
When you set a goal, it does nothing for you or anyone else to set goals that are totally impossible even to do. For example, if you don’t have use of your legs and you’re in a wheelchair you cannot run a marathon in the normal way, that’s okay, but don’t make it a goal when it’s impossible.
Instead, find ways to make goals that are possible so that you have a chance to achieve them. It’s okay if it’s challenging, and you fear you’ll fall short, but it’s not helpful to make a goal that can’t be achieved at all. Not only that, if it’s not even something you want to do, why even make it a goal? If you don’t like running, and never will, don’t make it a goal to run a marathon in the first place, find something else you like instead.
You need to know how you can accomplish the goal, and what the potential constraints are so that you can ensure you have the right tools, resources, and assistance as required to accomplish the goal.
Relevant – All goals, of course, need to have something to do with the ultimate thing you’re trying to accomplish, but they should also be reasonable, and results-based. Not to mention if you don’t have the resources to do it, you’ll need to ensure you do because otherwise, it’s not realistic.
If a goal you make is not worthwhile or it’s the wrong time, and it doesn’t match your other needs, it’s not relevant. If you’re not the right person or your company is not right, it’s not relevant. If you don’t have the funds to support this goal right now, it’s not relevant (or realistic), and that’s okay. Focus on something else.
For example, perhaps you want to upgrade to a more expensive membership or funnel software that costs a grand a month, but you’re not earning a grand a month yet. It’s okay to put that idea on the back burner and use something else for now.
Time-Bound – You have to set up each goal with a deadline for achieving it because if you don’t set a time limit or make sure the goal is timely, it might not even matter if you achieve it.
If you don’t set a time or goal target date, it’s going to be hard to accomplish in a timely manner. One reason is that Parkinson’s law says that “work expands to fit the time available for its completion” and that applies to this idea of setting time limits and due dates for yourself for the work you’re doing to reach your goals.
If you know when and then follow that up with tasks each day that ends up with that final due date or time you set, you’ll achieve a lot more.
For example, if you need to finish a 40,000-word eBook, you need to set a deadline so that you know how much work you want to devote each day toward completion. If the due date is 40 days from now, make a list of all the actions that need to be taken to have a finished eBook on that due date. Some items on the list might include outlining, researching, writing, editing, designing, and so forth. Enter each activity into your calendar so that it happens in time to move on to the next thing.
It’s the only way you can be sure you’ll get finished even close to the time because human nature will cause you to stretch out the time indefinitely. It’s hard to run a life or a business that way.
As you see, setting SMART goals is the best technique for helping you achieve your goals. When you are actually doing what you want to do and achieving the goals you set, you’re going to be a lot less likely to experience burnout.
Want to learn more about setting smart goals and avoiding burnout in your business?
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