Goal Setting is Still Important, Especially in Uncertain Times
It may feel futile to set monthly goals when there’s so much uncertainty, such as in this 2020 Covid-19 period. Yet during uncertain times goal setting is as important as ever. Setting monthly goals that you then divide into weekly and daily goals can create the structure you need for positive forward movement.
To keep visioning your future goals, then working toward your future self through daily actions helps maintain balance and optimism. Add in some dynamic movement as a part of your daily goals and this will all go a long way toward elevating your overall sense of wellbeing and positivity.
Goal Setting Helps Calm Concerns
Let’s not waste our precious life in complaining, criticism, worry and fear. Let’s not get caught up in the bad news of the day. If there’s nothing we can do now to change it, then chances are it’s just keeping us from our goals and contributing negativity to our lives.
The Worst That Could Happen
Consider the worst case scenario that troubles you. Whether it is to happen or never to happen, your worry won’t change it, but it will change you. Worry constricts and diminishes joy and creativity. Don’t let it win.
We’re rolling into the last quarter of a historical year. If, under the circumstances, you’re off track with your goals, consider how you might be able to adjust and recreate a new plan to help you get back on track.
A Proven Path
The more optimistic, agile and resilient we are, the happier and more successful, no matter the circumstances.
Many have survived far worse circumstances and prevailed and excelled. The resilience of optimism, hope and positivity is proven to work, and begins with planning for a better future, then plotting our way there.
Have you set your goals for this month? How about the next? If you haven’t, today is a good time to start.
Setting Monthly Goals
Each layer of goal planning, from annual goals to daily goals, is a process of refining and manifesting your vision through a series of action plans. If you have already established your macro 90-day goals, creating your monthly goals plan is the next step.
But even if you haven’t yet created a 90-day plan… or if that seems too far out for you at this point, don’t worry. You can start with monthly goals and break those down into weekly and daily goals. The more you set and refine your monthly goals through weekly and daily tweaks, the easier and faster it gets.
But if the month seems too much to plan at once, no problem! You can start with the week, or even the day at first. Consider what you’d like to be able to check off as having done by day’s end, and make that your goal/s.
Setting goals gets easier, faster and more efficient… the more you do it, the easier it gets. Getting more done, without more work.
“Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.”
~Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter, poet, playwright, sculptor, ceramicist, 1881-1973
Table of Contents
Audio Article – Monthly Goals Planning:
Goals Planning Gets Easier
The great thing about goals planning is that it’s a naturally repetitive process that becomes increasingly easier and more efficient.
The same process used for determining your annual and 90-day goals can also be used to develop monthly goals. This is because the process of deciding doesn’t change. The details and scope change, but the process can be repeated from macro to micro and back again.
Take each of your 1-3 quarterly goals and start writing down the smaller goals you need to set in order to achieve the larger goal/s. Get every action step you can think of down before you start refining the list.
Goals are like setting a GPS to your destination. Even if you get off course, your goals are there to guide you back on track.
“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.”
~Tony Robbins, Entrepreneur, author, coach, philanthropist, b.2/29/60
RELATED: for awesome free personal development resources, check out these from Tony Robbins.
The Perfect Plan is a Myth
Don’t obsess about creating the perfect monthly plan. A perfect plan is a myth, because the resistance of life happens in the process of bringing the mental vision into physical reality.
The perfect blueprint by the best architect still needs tweaking in the field. Same thing with your monthly plan as you get into it. For now, just strip the monthly goals down to the essential actions for achieving them, then added together, these will help you achieve your quarterly goals.
You focus on the essentials and let go of the rest, because you must to achieve your dreams.
~LeAura Alderson, Cofounder-iCreateDaily.com®
Example of 30 Day Goals
So what does breaking down goals actually look like? Our goals for the fourth quarter of 2018 will give you an idea of how we’re breaking down our goals, which may help you in your process.
Breaking down big goals is like reverse engineering a recipe. If you want to end up with a big pot of vegetable minestrone soup, you identify the ingredients (steps/goals/tasks) needed to end up with the finished dish.
Monthly planning is simply creating and working weekly and daily goals.
Goal setting and the diligence of daily doing is a tried and true recipe for success.
~LeAura Alderson, Cofounder-iCreateDaily.com®
Monthly Goal Setting Example
We like to state monthly goals as four goals that can then be roughly divided into four weeks. I say “roughly”, because some of the goals may actually persist through the month, but delegating these to weeks helps to sort and anchor the planning process.
- Create new Amazon listing for the iCreateDaily goals journals
- Hire ecom freelancers to assist
- Prep and ship journals to Amazon
- Edit journals for next printing
- Continue content creation with a focus on iCD brand
Below, is an example of how we’ve laid out the monthly goals sheet in the 90 Day Goals Journal. You can find more examples of daily goals here. (This example page is from our previous year’s monthly plan for September, where the focus was building our podcast website).
Weekly Goals
In this example below, the week’s goals are broken down in such a way that these can easily be pulled into the daily tasks and expanded into more specific actions per item.
- Week 1:
- Hire freelancers
- Keyword research
- Compile and turn over list of necessary items, permissions, photos and content to freelancers
- Freelancers to begin getting products listed on Amazon
- Continue content creation across brands
- Week 2: Create product ads across all relevant advertising channels
- Ongoing content
- Manage freelancers
- Create ads
- Amazon
- Adwords
- Week 3: Monitoring / sustaining
- Update product photos
- Monitor and tweak ads
- Monitor inventory
- Manage freelancers
- Ongoing content
- Week 4: Content creation schedule to include all brands
- Websites
- 2 articles per day
- Social
- Podcast
- Email –
- create more consistency for GA list
- get ahead on content and scheduling
- Manage freelancers
- Websites
