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    The PetsitUSA Blog

    5 Goal-Setting Steps to Create Your Best Year Ever!

    Posted: 03 Jan 2012 07:00 AM PST

    It’s that time again.

    The time when many people make resolutions they don’t keep.

    Here are 5 steps to powerfully set your business and personal life goals and (yes) attain them. And guess what, PetsitUSA readers?

    Goal setting is interactive and so is this blog post. Woo-hoo!

    Here’s where the interactive part comes in: after you are done reading this post you can then take what you learn here and apply it to the 2012 Goal Setting Worksheet that you will find when you click on the link at the bottom of this post.

    Okay, let’s get started…

    Step One: Acknowledge your achievements in 2011. That’s right. Before you go on to next year goals let’s pause. Take a deep breath. There you go.

    One more breath.

    One more DEEP breath.

    Good.

    Here’s the thing: we humans are so used to barreling on through to the next thing which means rarely, if ever, do we truly acknowledge and celebrate what we have created or accomplished.

    So take a moment and remember (and honor) what you have accomplished in 2011.

    Include big and little achievements. Teeny-tiny accomplishments as well as huge blimp-size ones. The important thing is to create a steady stream of accomplishments, whether you are thinking about them now or writing them down on your worksheet. Don’t hold back! Let it rip!

    Step Two: Acknowledge your disappointments in 2011. I know, I know. You want to move on to more of the good stuff.  But this is the good stuff too. Work with me here. You’ll see what I mean if you keep reading.

    In the same way that we rarely acknowledge our achievements, it’s rarer still to acknowledge our disappointments. Yuck. Who wants to do that? Let’s move on, right?

    Actually, acknowledging our disappointments is where a lot of the gold of life is. Why? We often learn much more from pain than from pleasure. It’s part of the human condition. Yet few are willing to really look at the pain so it’s just sitting there. That gold. In a corner gathering dust. Poor gold.

    But you can dust it off and mine that gold! Here’s how: Write your disappointments from 2011 down on your worksheet. All of them. Even those little teeny tiny ones that leave you saying, “Oh come on, Kristin, I don’t want to write that one.”

    Write that one down.

    Write all of them down.

    When you are done you can move on to step three which is where you will mine the gold from your accomplishments and your disappointments. Step Three will create a firm foundation for you to set powerful goals that will create a knock-your-socks-off-in-a-good-way kind of year.

    You ready?

    Step Three: Create guidelines from your disappointments and your accomplishments.

    Guidelines? What are guidelines? I want the gold!  (I can hear you grumbling.)

    Give me a second here. The gold is coming. Don’t worry.

    You’ve taken a look at your accomplishments from 2011. You’ve taken a look at your disappointments from 2011.

    What did you learn?

    We learn something from everything that we do. Everything.

    When you earned the most income you’ve ever earned this year, what did you learn?

    Perhaps: Focusing on income-producing activities reaps results and profit.

    When you didn’t do something that one of your clients requested via a note and she was unhappy, what did you learn?

    Perhaps: Always read client notes thoroughly and follow through on what is asked of me. 

    That’s the gold, folks. If you learn the lesson you (often) don’t have to learn that same lesson again. That’s why it’s gold.

    Now, there will be other lessons.

    Sorry. It’s true. But this is life and you aren’t dead yet. So there will be lots of them. Good ones. Bad ones. More lessons. More guidelines to heed in your future.

    But if you learn the lesson the first time you won’t have to make the same mistake again.

    And the flip side is that you can recreate what helped you achieve what ever you accomplished this year by doing that same action over and over. You can recreate your success.

    So mine your gold from your achievements and disappointments by creating guidelines for yourself in the coming year. Let your life be your greatest teacher.

    Step Four: Determine your top five values.

    What’s most important to you? Honesty? Family? Money? Health? Generosity?

    If you aren’t sure what your values are, ask yourself these 4 questions:

    1) What (or who) brings me the most joy?

    2) What behavior do I most dislike most in myself and others? (The opposite of that is usually a value, that’s why it bugs us so much.)

    3) If I had unlimited funds, what would I do and most importantly, why? (Travel often comes up when this question is posed and it can be a clue that freedom and/or adventure is an important value.)

    4) What do I most love doing in my life right now, as it is, and why?

    Getting clear about our values brings us closer to what has heart and meaning for us which ultimately should be in alignment with the goals we set.

    If family is most important to you and one of your top 5 values and yet you are working 12 hours a day and barely get to spend time with your family you might want to take a look at that and really re-evaluate your goals to have them match up to what you most value in your life.

    Time is precious. This is your one great life.

    Don’t let it slip away.

    Goals that are in alignment with our values help us honor and make time for the people, things, and life experiences that matter most to us.

    Definitely have some business goals. Absolutely. Just don’t make all your goals about business if people and connection come up high on your value list.

    Step Five: Set a maximum of ten goals.

    That’s right. You heard me.

    10.

    Less is okay but no more that ten goals.

    Any more than ten goals and you’ll get overwhelmed. Really overwhelmed.

    Trust me. I’ve tried more than ten goals in one year and it’s not pretty.

    (That was not my best year ever. Enough said.)

    When you are writing your ten goals, be sure to diversify your goals. Have 2-3 for business, 2-3 for family/friendships, 1-2 for finances, 1-2 for health, etc, etc. Until you have ten solid goals that represent what you most want to achieve in many different areas in your life.

    Get your 2012 Best Year Ever! Worksheet now.

    Enjoy and happy goal-setting and achieving!

    © All Rights Reserved by Kristin Morrison and Six-Figure Pet Sitting Academy (TM)

    Kristin Morrison is the author of the book: Six-Figure Pet Sitting: Catapult Your Pet Sitting Business to Unlimited Success. She is also the founder of the Six-Figure Pet Sitting Academy and has provided business coaching for hundreds of pet sitting and dog walking business owners from across the country and Canada. Kristin started her own pet sitting and dog walking business in 1995 and has created a pet sitting business that thrives without her constant involvement. Kristin can be reached at the Six-Figure Pet Sitting Academy.