As we move into a new year, it’s natural to think about what you want to achieve in the next 12 months. Consider what you want – ten more leads or the time to spend with your family, the house or the holiday you want? For most, personal goals i.e., the time, house or holiday are much more motivational than business goals of profit, revenue or turnover. Moreover, your business is the means to get the personal life you want; it should give you more life, but for it to do this, you need to know what you want out of life… 

What to ask yourself to set your personal goals 

There are six questions you must ask yourself to set your personal goals. These six questions are taken from Jim Rohn’s book, ‘7 Strategies for Wealth & Happiness’. They are: 

  • What do I want to do? 
  • What do I want to be? 
  • What do I want to see? 
  • What do I want to have? 
  • Where do I want to go? 
  • What would I like to share? 

Asking yourself the above can help you figure out what you want from life and your purpose. The book will help you to think about what you want to tick off your bucket list and where you want to be in life, and we highly recommend you read it.  

As Jim Rohn says, “work harder on yourself than you do on your business,” and here are the next steps you must take to ensure you’re working hard on yourself… 

Next step: Make your personal goals SMART(IE) 

Once you’ve answered the above six questions, the next step to help you envision what you want from life is to put them into a timeframe (one, three, five or ten years). We find many of our clients have short-term goals (that fall into the one or three-year category) and no goals in the ten-year timeframe. Ideally, you want four goals in each timeframe to ensure balance.  

Once you have four goals in each timeframe, prioritise which is most important to you, and write a detailed description of each goal so you can visualise why you want it to do this and how it’ll make you feel.  

If you can’t answer ‘why’ you want something, it could be because it’s a passing fantasy and isn’t important to you. To envision your goals in detail, you must find what’s meaningful to you. When asking yourself why something is important, try not to only justify with “because”. Consider justifying something with “so that…” or “in order to… [get more time with family, have enough money for a deposit on my dream house, have the time and money to travel]”. These justifications will force you to look to the future, help you identify what’s important and allow you to envision your goals more clearly.  

To keep your 16 goals fresh in your mind, we recommend creating a vision board (photographic images of each of your goals) to ensure you’re referring back and actively working towards them. 

When you have your 16 goals in this level of detail, help yourself achieve them by making them SMART(IE): 

  • Specific   
  • Measurable  
  • Achievable  
  • Results (What big result would you like to achieve? Aim high – you might not reach it, but you are likely to achieve more than if you set a more realistic goal!)  
  • Timely 
  • Inspirational  
  • Emotional 

By ensuring your goals are SMART, you’ll appeal to your left brain and see a clear path to how you will achieve them. But by also ensuring your goals are inspirational and emotional, it engages your right brain (as we’re motivated by emotion, by what we feel!). Therefore, meeting all the above criteria will set yourself on the best path to success, allow you to hold yourself accountable and measure your progress. 

Next Step: Align your business with your goals 

Finally, once you have a clear vision of your personal goals and they meet the SMART(IE) criteria, you must ensure your business is aligned with them to give you the life you want. 

When your business isn’t aligned with your personal goals, you’re likely to feel stressed or frustrated that you’re not getting the results you want, or you’ll feel you’re working too hard and not seeing the benefits. You might find you forget about your personal goals and think about the business 24/7, or even forget that the business should be giving you what you want and ‘more life’. 

Remember, “never wish your life was easier; wish you were better”, and for you to be better, you must align your business with your personal goals. 

Do you need help aligning your business with your personal goals? 

At Bill Squires Business Coaching, we have an alignment process that starts with asking “What are your personal goals?” then together, we consider your: 

  • Business goals 
  • Five-year plan 
  • Business offering and challenges 
  • 12–18-month goals  
  • Personal statement and action  

If you need help identifying your personal goals and ensuring your business is aligned with them, get in touch. Or if you have set your personal goals already, you can do a 1-to-1 alignment session with Bill. Get in touch to organise a time and date to suit you.