PYG 103: The power of writing it down

Yesterday I talked about the power of speaking your dreams into existence, and how IF you've verbalized your desires, your mind subconsciously sets you on a path to achieve the things you want to do, even if you've lost your nerve or don't feel confident.

 

Well looking over my written goals for 2019 has given me a window into how powerful writing your goals down can be even if you don't set out with an intentional plan.

 

I didn't realize it before reviewing the goals, but I'm on track to reach them.

 

I won't go through them all, but a few of the goals I wrote down at the beginning of the year were

1. To double my revenue

2. Take 4 vacations - 2 domestic, 2 international

3. Double my podcast downloads from last year

4. Quadruple my book sales from last year

 

At the halfway mark, I just happened to look at my full list of annual goals and realized that I've already accomplished a few of them in some way. The most interesting thing though was that I didn't reach the goals in the way I'd originally planned to reach them.

 

So for example, my husband took another job that increased our household income and that wasn't how I thought our household earnings would grow when I made out that list. I am on track to double my annual revenue, but I thought it was mainly going to be through my group programs. Instead, I've had a number of unexpected corporate invitations come up that have helped close that gap.

 

In terms of the vacations, I wanted to take two domestic and two international trips some solo and some with my family. For some of my goals I see them through the lens of my household, so at this point I've already taken two international trips, my husband went on a delegation to Mexico, and we traveled domestically with the boys for spring break. We're planning one more summer trip with them before school starts back. But two of the international trips came out of the blue. He was invited to be a part of the delegation 10 days before the trip. The Italy trip as I've mentioned before happened because a friend was coming here for a conference and asked me on a whim if I just happened to be available.

 

Another goal was to double my podcast downloads from last year. Originally I divided that annual number by 12 to get an idea of how many downloads I needed to get each month, then I divided that number by 4 to see how many downloads I'd need to reach with each weekly episode. Around March, I realized I was consistently falling short by a few thousand downloads each month. My initial strategy was to show up consistently every week, switch podcast hosts and get the podcast up on Spotify and Google Play. Those definitely helped, but I hadn't quite hit the number I wanted, so I was thinking about stepping up the marketing, maybe doing ads. Then I met Heather Chauvin and heard about her daily podcast challenge and thought it would be a fun thing to try for a month. I had no thoughts on how doing the challenge would effect my downloads - I honestly didn't even consider what would happen, but to my surprise, doing this daily challenge has essentially caught me up so to speak in terms of where I should be at the halfway point of the year. So I've already hit last year's numbers 6 months in - but it's only because of the podcast challenge, that only occurred to me at the end of May.

 

For my goal of increasing book sales, I assumed I would initiate social media ads to begin driving traffic to the book. But I didn't anticipate bulk book orders from companies I had no prior relationship with getting me to that goal. So I'm on track with the book sales too, but again not in the way I originally expected to be.

 

I thought that was interesting to note how all of these goals are in play even though I couldn't see it happening. So since it looks like what I'm doing is working, I have four tips for you to use as you set out to reach your goals.

 

1. Write down your goals. I don't know what the science is, but it works. Even if you don't think through your plan to reach your goals write them down. Put them out there. They're now in your brain even when you're not thinking about them intentionally.

 

2. Don't get discouraged if you haven't reached your goal on an incremental timeline. Especially if your goal involves a quantity like my doubled revenue, doubled podcast downloads and 4 trips. You may need only one client to double your revenue. You could have one influencer share your podcast and allow you to meet that goal in one week. You could take a month off and get your four trips in. Being rigid in your thinking can make you blind to what's actually happening.

 

3. Be open to meeting your goal in a way you didn't expect. It won't always look like how you imagine it. There are many streets that lead to the same place. Just because I am not going to double my revenue through my group programs doesn't mean I'm not going to double my revenue at all. There are corporate sources that have shown up unexpectedly that are helping me close that goal gap. I had no idea any of those would pan out 6 months ago. Don't limit yourself with what you know - we don't know everything.

 

4. Review the goals periodically. Stay acquainted with them. Bring your intentional brain to the goals. My next level is going to be envisioning myself reaching my goals each day so I can get them out of that subconscious part of my brain and in the forefront so I can use them.

 

What about you? How are you doing with your goals for the year? Are you on track to reach them? Do you need to play around with a new strategy if you're not on track? Did you have any goals for the year? I'd be curious to know how the year is shaping up for you.