Each year with my team at work we host a goal-setting workshop. And each year I try to come up with an activity that gets us thinking, inspires us to think big, and ultimately come up with ambitious but achievable goals. Over the years I’ve found several different formats that work well for productive goal setting.
Today I wanted to share three different methods I have tried for goal setting and resolution making that may just inspire you to set some goals for the new year!
1. Goal Workbook
Last year, Mica May, the entrepreneur behind May Designs (my go-to source for stationery and notebooks), released a goal-setting workbook. She is pretty much #careergoals #momgoals and #organizationgoals rolled into one, so I didn’t think twice about dropping $10 to get access to the method she uses for planning and goal setting.
The 25-page workbook is designed for personal or family use, but it easily adapts to work for business purposes as well. (I re-worked it a bit for our team’s goal-setting workshop last year and it worked out perfectly.) It covers each area of life, including finances, home, family, kids, personal, and friendships.
It starts with having you reflect on the previous year and gives several prompts to help you dig into the areas of your life that fill you up vs. overwhelm you.
Mica explains how she and her husband go on a couples retreat each year, work through their workbooks, and plan their family’s goals and priorities for the year.
2. The Index Card Method
If you are short on time, this is an awesome goal-setting method that can be done in a half-hour. We did this with our whole team four years ago, and I still l have my notecards and flip through them. I found this method via the YouTube video above, which gives a good, albeit lengthy explanation of how it works. I’ll summarize the basics of the approach below.
Goal Setting with Index Cards
Get out 100 index cards. Divide them into 4 piles of 25. Take 4 cards and write these titles on each one:
- Past
- Present
- Future
- Revisions
Past
Start with the deck labeled “past.” Set a timer for 10 minutes. Write down things that used to be goals but you have now accomplished. Don’t limit this to just professional or business goals, include personal ones as well.
Don’t skip this. it is very is important. Sometimes when you start writing goals you feel like an imposter. You feel like you shouldn’t set an ambitious goal because you will never achieve it. So why even try?
If you start by writing down things that were past goals that you have already achieved it gives you confidence and a new mindset.
Use these cards to list all the cool and difficult things you’ve already accomplished in your life. As he says in the video, what is neat is that you’ll find things you’ve forgotten about or discounted in the past.
Present
The truth is when planning your goals most of the time you have already taken some steps towards achieving them. Use this stack to write down any goals that are front and center for you right now. Write down things that are in reach or that you’ve already done towards your future goals.
Doing this part of the exercise helps highlight risks you’ve taken or things you’ve learned.
Future
Lastly, take the next set of 25 cards and write down what you want to achieve. Think about what you see for yourself in the future. By now your mind should be open and you should be confident enough to set ambitious goals.
Shuffle the Deck
This step might feel frustrating for the organized folks out there, but when you’re done with all three decks, put them together and shuffle them. Your past, present, and future stacks will become one deck.
Now, flip through your deck again. A new psychological phenomenon starts to happen. All your goals will start to meld together, both the things you’ve already accomplished and your big future goals.
Keep this deck at your desk or by your bedside table. Flip through them regularly. Practicing this will not only help you focus on what you’re trying to achieve but also remind you of how far you’ve come.
Revisions
Keep the revisions deck with your newly shuffled stack. Use these blank cards to add new goals to your stack or as you remember old ones. Also, there are times when you may need to remove a goal from your deck because markets or priorities have changed. That’s okay. Use your revisions deck to update that goal with your new outlook.
3. Vision Board
Honestly, I am usually a SMART goal setter. I like to have specific, measurable, goals, so I never really got on the vision board train. Last year a coworker planned a company event surrounding vision boards so I decided to give it a try.
I am so glad I did.
As much as I love specific goals, I am also a very visual person. I hung my vision board up in my office and it was a great daily reminder of my priorities. Even as 2020 turned out to be a very different year than we all imagined, keeping my vision board front and center helped focus me on what really matters.
How to Create a Vision Board
All you really need to create a vision board is a poster board, glue, and a stack of magazines.
After an hour or two of leafing through magazines, I realized that wasn’t going to work for me. It was taking too much time and the images didn’t have much meaning to me. So I turned to google and my camera roll. I started printing out pictures of family, quotes, images, and words that resonated with me.
I grouped like images and themes together then finally arranged them on the poster board before gluing them down.
Finally, I hung the vision board by my desk so I’d see it every day.
I hope these goal-setting tactics were helpful for you. Do you have any tried and true goal-setting tips? If so, share them in the comments below.
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