Defining Your Finish Line

Hello, and welcome to the traveling introvert. Today, I want to talk about goal setting, but not just goal setting. There are so many different ways to goal set and also how to track that. And I want to give you a idea of a variety of ways that you can think about goal setting and what that might look like for you and the work that you're doing or the different types of things that you can track and be thinking about. And so goal setting, personal or or non personal goal setting. The idea is to set something that you want to do and a lot of time we are really good at like I'm going to, start a business, okay, that's great, but what we are really bad at doing is specifying what the finish line is and what that looks like. How do you know when you can check this off a list or task? How do you know when you've you've started a business? Is it when you've thought of a name? Is it when you have bought the domain and you now have an email address? Is it when you register it with your local government? Is it when you first do taxes? Is it when you tell the world that you actually have a business? When is it? When does that count? And so, that's why it's really important to have a finish line, a definitive, and I don't mean a date, but I kind of, for example, for some people it could be, I will have a business when I make $50 So, when you hit that $50, yes, I've done this thing. I've started my business.

Let's continue. Right? So, having real specific finish point is really really important because it gives you something very targeted to aim for and is very very targeted for you to feel good about taking it off. And, another thing that you can do when thinking about goal setting is how would you feel when you achieve that goal? A lot of people use visualization techniques so that like what would the air smell like or the cake look like or whatever it might be thinking about your five senses and then thinking about what that would feel like to you should you hit this specific goal and then tracking that goal, what does that even look like? Do you have a journal for tracking your goal? A lot of the time we just say things and then we don't follow-up and track them I use one thing that I use is I have a project management tool but at the same time I also have a visibility audit that I do once a week at the same time I also have a bingo card that I have that is more long term and so that's the other thing you can make multiple goals in your mind and write them down but you need to know the difference between a short term and medium term and a long term goal and what you need to use to track these things that will be good for you. There is not one right way there is just figuring out the way that works for you. You can use tech, you can use digital tools and apps for goal setting and tracking, Trello or Asana to break down goals into actual tasks, you could use ClickUp, you could use a bingo card like I'm doing, you can use post it notes on the wall. There are so many different ways to do things, colour coding is also great, keywords, accountability, having accountability partner to maintain motivation and discipline to check-in on you like hey did you do that thing how's that thing going and not to guilt you but to push you forward and remind you sometimes you just get so lost in whatever it is that you're doing. The other thing that we find really difficult as humans is to make adjustments once we have decided we are going to do this thing. Sometimes something comes up, sometimes it's no longer a good idea, sometimes you need to change it a little and adjusting goals as needed is really really important.

Having that flexibility and having reassessment checkpoints is something that needs to be embedded in your goal setting not just here's my goal and I've just got to keep working towards it every week or month or however long that period is that you think you're going to be working on this thing you should check-in and see if this is still the right direction to be going or if you need to tweak it slightly and that's okay. You can modify a goal timeline due to unforeseen circumstances while still maintaining the ultimate objective that is fine. It's like having a theme you want to be healthier but that can mean many different things depending on what's going on in your life. So, the idea is start small with your goal setting and then keep getting bigger to get confidence in that and make sure it is unique to you how you do goal setting and how you keep tracking is unique to you not one thing will work for everybody. Thank you for listening. This is Janice at The Career Introvert helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.