Goal Setting for your Ideas

In my last post, I wrote about how to manage and sort through all your wonderful ideas. This is important because without a way to untangle yourself from all your ideas, you can end up stuck and frustrated. The key take-away from this post was the importance of having a way to get those ideas out of your head and into an safe, organized, calm space.

So let’s say you’ve spent time getting all those ideas out, whether in your journal, a designated notebook or even a conversation with someone who can help capture these ideas for you. You already feel lighter and more on top of all the things you want to tackle - yay! Now what? 

Well now that you can more clearly see and articulate what you want to explore, it’s time to think about two things that might feel a little scary:

Goals and Timing

These things can feel scary because you are beginning to put structure and expectations around your ideas. You are starting to give your ideas the leverage they need to come to life, which means that vulnerability, accountability and expectations are coming into the equation, and that can start to feel a little uncomfortable.

The good news is that by identifying your goals and establishing timing, you can begin to work backwards and create a plan…which brings your ideas to life and makes them feel more doable. Now things can really start to happen!

So say that you have always wanted to write a book. With all the ideas in your head, you finally took some time to work with a coach or mentor to sort through and organize them. You now have a clearer vision of what this book could look like, so you are feeling more motivated to get started. Great!

Now you can start thinking about the ideal outcome of writing this book, which involves asking yourself a bunch of question. Who do you want to sell it to, how broad of an audience do you want to reach, how quickly do you want to complete it, do you want to self publish or get it done professionally, how will you market it, etc? All these questions will be based off your goals for the project. Once you can identify these things, you can think through the timing involved and can then create a timeline, breaking each part down into actionable steps.

By thinking about your end goal for a specific project as well as the timing around it, you can really start to move forward in a clear and effective way. Setting up this kind of structure is key for seeing a project through from beginning to end.

Again, this is a great time to work with a coach or someone you trust to help facilitate the timing around each step of your project. Someone to keep you accountable and check in is so incredibly helpful along the way; as well as someone to give you encouragement and support.

If you are looking for that type of support, let’s set up a time to chat! I’d love to help you through your creative endeavors and be beside you every step of the way.