So we’re officially one month in to the New Year, and by now, you’re probably already losing site of what you should be focusing on in your business to accomplish your goals.
Although we start the new year with good intentions, we tend to get lost along the way with wondering where to put our attention and focus, and what we should be doing to create the results that we want.
I’ve been pretty good at setting goals, but it wasn’t until a year ago that I discovered the secret weapon that I had been missing in my goal setting process that has made all the difference.
My Lightbulb Moment
I was in the shower, listening to the Amy Porterfield Podcast Episode #21: “How To Set Goals And Create A Plan For The New Year”. One of the key things she mentioned in this episode was the Importance of developing a Theme for the year!
Immediately when I heard her say that, it’s like the lightbulb came on in my head and I knew that this is what I was missing in my Goal Planning Routine, that I needed to implement right away.
Suddenly, without giving it any further thought, My theme came right to me, and I said “Yup, that’s what I’m going to do”…. (I share what the theme is below).
Ever since listening to that podcast, I’ve decided to choose a theme for my business which exemplifies what I want to focus on for the year.
This Years Theme
My theme for this year is one word: ALIGNMENT!
What that means to me is that I’m only pursuing the things that align with what I know I’m called to do.
Why You Need A Theme
Setting a theme for the year is a like a plumbline, or a guide that will insure that you stay on track for what you really want to accomplish for the year. It’s your way of identifying what your Ultimate Goal is for the year and it keeps you focused on making decisions that will keep you on track in all that you do moving forward.
Last year was the first time I had done this. My theme for 2014 was:
“Create a Team And Build An Army To Make The Impossible, Possible!”
This wasn’t necessarily based on my Online Business, but more in terms of building my personal team within my company. The way that I came to this theme was because I was looking through my goals and plans for the previous years and saw that I kept having the same goals show up every year that weren’t being manifested. And I had to ask myself, why?…
It was then that I realized that what I desired to accomplish required a team and I wasn’t capable of fulfilling it by myself. Instead, I truly needed to build an army of support behind me that would allow me to focus on what I do well, trusting and knowing that they would have my back behind the scenes with keeping things going, so I can move forward!
So what did I do?? I spent the entire last year focused on putting the right people in place and getting clear on what this Army looked like. It may sound silly, and you might be wondering “What a minute, you spent your whole year trying to figure this out?”… Uhm, yep, I sure did!
I devoted time to learn what I needed to delegate, what I needed to be focusing on that generated the income in my business, what kinds of people I needed in place and so on and so forth!
I literally did whatever I could to position myself for success with the goal in mind that I would ultimately have my team in place and I could finally free myself up from sitting behind a computer 6-10 hours per day, to keep my business going!
It may seem a bit farfetched but the end result was this…
- I have a VA in place who knows the ins and outs of my business and we are putting systems and processes in place to create consistency with our business!
- I have an OBM who oversees all projects and she makes sure that all the I’s are dotted and all the T’s are crossed.
- I have a Tech VA that handles all my tech and development challenges
- I have a Podcast Editor, Graphic Designer and everyone else I need to assist me when needed
My sound expensive, and I would say it runs me $1k – $3k per month for my team (depending on what we’re launching during that time). And when you have a goal of earning $100k per month, you have to position yourself in a way where you can be creative and focused on what will generate that income, so sacrificing to pay for the support team to keep things going is worth it… IF YOU STAY ON TARGET DOING WHAT YOU MUST TO KEEP YOUR BUSINESS GOING!
The Benefits of Creating a Theme For The Year
Here are the benefits of setting a theme for your business for the year:
- It keeps you focused on the One Key thing that you want to accomplish for the year in all that you do
- It creates a gauge for when you’re on task or not in your business and life
- It helps you to create results oriented goals around that one main focus
- It shows you where to place your focus
As you can see, a theme does one key thing… FOCUS… and when you focus, you create RESULTS!!
How To Come Up With A Theme
I’m going to map out a few simple steps for you to follow that will help you establish a theme for the year if you haven’t done so already.
Step #1: Think about One Key thing you’d like to accomplish this year
For example, the reason why I named this year (2015) The Year Of Alignment is because I was dealing with a lot of internal frustration where I felt like I was allowing myself to compromise on what I knew I should be doing, because of what I thought others expected of me. So I hung around doing things that I knew weren’t in alignment with me spiritually, and that caused frustration.
So going into this year, I made a commitment that I will not do ANYTHING that isn’t in alignment with what I know I was called to do, which is why I established the Theme of ALIGNMENT to keep me focused!
What this does is that when an opportunity is presented to me, I quickly assess if it is in alignment, and if not, I easily give it a No, if it does, I then have to investigate further to see how it fits in, but you catch my jist…. setting the theme of the year sets the tone of the year!
Consider what you want yours to look like, and write out 3-5 ideas, then see which one is best suited for the big picture overall.
Step #2: Reflect on what you wanted to happen last year that didn’t, and why!
Reflection is the best way to identify where there are glitches in the processes you have for getting the results you want. If you find out like I did, that I was writing the same goals down every year that weren’t being manifested, figure out what the glitch is, and what it would take to fix it.
This will allow you to see where you need HELP! Yes, I said it, YOU NEED HELP. The question is, in what ways do you need help and who do you need help from!
When you get clear on this, then you’ll easily be able to identify what the focus should be to assist you in getting the results you want!
Step #3: Set the Theme and Stick with it!
One of the biggest hindrances to the success of most people is “indecisiveness”! When we go back and forth, taking forever to make decisions, we’re really holding ourselves back from making progress.
The best way to avoid this is to MAKE A DECISION AND STICK WITH IT!
Don’t spend too much time trying to be ultra creative. The goal is to be clear on what you need to do to get the results you want and set that as a goal, and get it done!
Time To Set Up Your Theme
Now that I’ve shared with you the power of setting up a theme, it’s time for you to take action!
What do you feel you need to help you get the results you want in your business?
What do you feel is your theme for this year?
Share them below, I’d love to hear from you. And let me know if this post has been helpful!
Great post Nicole! I agree with you that if you want to start making money with your business that you have to treat it like a corporation. This year I’m definitely on the right track since I had implemented a daily plan of action.
Yes Chris, we must view ourselves as the CEO’s that we desire to be! THank you Chris, tons of great value ahead!