Research and Evaluation Consulting Maryland

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4 Tips for Setting Clear Goals & Intentions for your Business

Having clear goals & motivations make many aspects of business easier.

How? Here are 4 tips I’ve found to be most impactful

🌱 Get creative. Draw inspiration for your goals or intentions by pulling a card from a tarot or oracle deck (need one for today? DM me and I’ll pull one for you!). Think about what this season represents or what the weather makes you think of. Exercise - I often move my body to help move my mind. I find that when I focus on the thing that is frustrating while I’m exercising (especially if it’s a really hard workout) it can lead to a breakthrough. Creativity and goals don’t always come from researching or reading - close the tabs and spend that time looking out the window instead. 

🌱 Think in the short term (next 30 days). It can feel really good to set long term goals or yearly intentions, but make sure you leave some space for flexibility. Who knows what the year will bring! Though I might have overall themes or intentions for the year, I think it’s better to start in the shower term. What is something you’d like to accomplish, call in, or release in the next 30 days? Setting shorter term goals can often help you break through any roadblocks.

🌱 No more than 3!  When I work with my evaluation clients, especially when we’re learning from and planning with data, there’s often the desire to fix, change, improve, and achieve E V E R Y T H I N G all at once! However, based on my experience as an evaluator, if you set more than 3 goals, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Start with 1. Yes, I know that’s hard, but the more focused and clear you are, the more you can hone in on that one goal and test each action, activity, partnership, and plan against whether or not it moves you towards that goal. So try to set at least 1 goal or intention, but force yourself to no more than 3.

🌱 Look outside your box. On social media we often find ourselves gravitating towards and following people and accounts that do work very similar to our own, often with similar values and aesthetics. But comparison can often lead to competition and unrealistic expectations… maybe even contributing to us questioning ourselves and our choices. To break this mold and call in some creativity I follow accounts that represent the full breadth of my interests (and some that just look pretty). Follow accounts and brands outside of your area of focus. I follow painters, photographers, interior design, gardeners, florists, and candle companies (just to name a few). 

Ok so let’s actually take a minute to A P P L Y some of these tips. I want you to break it down. No need for long detailed plans. It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3…

1️⃣ Think about something you want to accomplish or call in over the next 30 days.
2️⃣ Write down 1 thing you can do TODAY or by the end of this week that will move you down the path of achieving your goal.
3️⃣ So what did you write down? Tell me in the comments!

Goals or intentions don’t have to be huge, they just have to move you down that path you’re choosing to be on. 

I could talk about goal setting for hours… maybe even days. But if you’re new to it, these three steps will help. Try it for February and let me know how it goes. If you want more tips like this, be sure to sign up for my email list here!

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