Episode 7

full
Published on:

24th Sep 2024

🌷 Planning for Q4 and Spring Cleaning your Business

In this episode, I share the 5 step process I followed to prep myself for ending the year strong!

  • The importance of reflection and goal setting
  • Reflecting on where you are NOW
  • A framework for setting clear + intentional goals
  • Practical strategies for staying in track

We'll also touch on the concept of creating a weekly rhythm, the benefits of outsourcing, and how to use scripting as an energetic practice for staying tapped into your vision..

You can read the accompanying blog post for this episode HERE.

+ the Weekly Rhythm blog post HERE.

Transcript
Speaker:

Hello and welcome back

to the podcast today.

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I'm excited to be diving into our episode

topic, which is all around prepping

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for the final quarter of the year.

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Big spring cleaning energy.

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If you are like me and you live in

the Southern hemisphere, then You will

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know we are pretty much like well and

truly into spring now, even though

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actually today, the day that I'm

recording this is the spring equinox.

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It's I think officially the first

day of spring where we've got

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more light in the days than dark.

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And yeah, although in Australia

we recognize spring as all of our

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seasons starting on like the first

of a calendar month, which is weird.

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But anyway, I know spring is here

because I have been suffering the most

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I have the most terrible hay fever,

but I am loving the change in weather.

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I'm loving the warmer, the warmer days,

the sunshine, being able to sit outside

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and like work when My set hay fever is

not too bad and I'm definitely bringing

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this energy into my business and other

areas of my life and feeling like there's

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a lot of gunk that needs to be cleaned

out and I feel like it's currently there.

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Eclipse season as well.

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And so a lot of stuff is coming up for a

lot of people, but I have just sat down

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recently and done a bit of a reflection

on where I'm currently at in my business

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and in life and what my goals are for the

next quarter and to close out the year.

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And so I wanted to take some time to,

yeah, chat to you about that process and

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hopefully give you a bit of inspiration

if you are wanting to do the same thing.

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And for me, for the next Three ish months.

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I'm actually feeling like a really

big like Transformation coming there's

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I just want to shift a lot of shit.

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Do you know what I mean?

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Like I don't want to continue coasting.

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I want to really make some solid

transformations in my life and I know

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I Have clients that are based in the

States and I feel like a lot of the

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energy for the warmer months and the

summer is is to take time off and

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to slow down and enjoy that weather.

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But I almost feel like because

in Australia, we don't have such

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massive changes in our seasons.

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And even when it is the height of

winter, like we can still go outside.

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We still have sunshine.

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We can still do most of

the things that we enjoy.

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doing.

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And so therefore when it is nice and

warm and summer, it's not like we've been

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completely stripped of all of that, like

beautiful time to spend out in nature.

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So I almost feel like in the summer

months, I kind of want to work.

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And sometimes it's nice to like,

Be inside, be in the aircon,

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working and then sneak out when

it's not like scorching hot.

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Go for a swim, go to the

beach, watch the sunset.

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But yeah, anyway, so today I'm going

to kind of run over the process.

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What I'm feeling is coming for me

in like the next few days, next

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few days, in the next few months,

and give you a bit of a process.

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So, Firstly, I've been thinking, and

for me, when I think about and we'll get

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into this when I talk about the process,

but when I get, when I think about who

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do I need to be to really achieve these

goals, something that comes up for me is

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having a bit more discipline in doing the

things that I know are really good for me.

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But.

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for whatever reason I don't really

want to do, or I'm avoiding doing them

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because it might mean that I have to face

like challenges or emotions or putting

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myself in like stretchy situations.

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And so I've actually been thinking

about doing 75 hard again.

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And I think I'm going to start it this

week, like in the next day or two,

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I've actually done 75 hard before.

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I did it last year in I completed it

in August last year and I actually

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really wanted to do like the whole 75

hard or live hard program, which is

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like after you do 75 hard, you then do

this thing called phase one and then

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there's a few other phases, but you have

to do it within a whole calendar year.

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And it's been a calendar

year since I completed it.

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And I am a stickler for

following the rules.

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So I knew if I was to do it, I

wouldn't have the same satisfaction.

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knowing that I hadn't done it

in the recommended timeframe.

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So anyway, I think I'm going

to start 75 hard again.

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I'm sure you have heard of 75 hard.

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I feel like in the last few years,

few years, it's yeah, kind of like

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taken off in the like business

owner entrepreneurial space.

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But if you don't know what 75 hard is,

let me give you a quick rundown before we

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get into the actual point of this episode.

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So 75 hard is a challenge

about discipline.

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It's got a lot to do

with health and fitness.

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And I think sometimes people can think

of it as maybe a challenge that you do

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if you want to lose weight, or if you

want to increase your strengths and those

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sorts of things, which of course it can be

used for, but like the primary intention

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behind the challenge is discipline.

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. Sorry.

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As the name would suggest, 75

hard is a 75 day challenge.

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And every day of the challenge, you have a

set of things that you need to achieve and

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those things are two 45 minute workouts.

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One of them has to be outside

regardless of the weather.

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So the workouts can be like

a walk or going to the gym,

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going to Pilates, whatever.

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It just has to be a workout.

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And I've actually struggled to find

confirmation on this, but I'm pretty

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sure there is a set time period that

those two workouts need to be apart.

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You can't, I know you

can't do them back to back.

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I'm not sure what their recommended

gap is that it needs to be between them.

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But when I did it last time, I would

do, One of my outside workout would

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pretty much always be a walk and then

I would go to the gym, go to yoga, go

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to Pilates or do an at home workout.

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When I needed a rest I would

often just do two 45 minute walks.

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So there's a two workouts.

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You need to read 10 pages of a

personal development book a day.

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It can't be like a fiction book.

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And it needs to be reading a

physical book or like on a Kindle.

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It can't be an audio.

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You have to take a

progress picture every day.

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You have to drink a gallon of

water, which I think is like 3.

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8 liters.

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And you have to follow a diet.

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The diet you can kind of pick and choose

whatever you want it to be, but you have

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to obviously pick it at the start of the

challenge and then stick to that diet.

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And no cheat meals, no alcohol.

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So I don't drink anyway, so the

alcohol thing is not a problem for

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me because I think I've probably

had one glass of wine all year.

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Yeah.

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And so I did this before I've

tried 75 hard multiple times.

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The first time I did it, I actually

failed on day 60 or something,

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which I was so annoyed at.

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I forgot to take a picture.

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And even though it's the smallest

thing, like I said, I'm like

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a stickler for the rules.

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I knew I had failed.

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I knew I wouldn't get the

satisfaction if I finished it.

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And then I had tried it maybe four or

five times since, and wasn't able to

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get in more than a week without failing.

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And then I finally did that

last year and it built.

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So good.

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I even got COVID in the middle of

it and I was just like walking.

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It was rough, but the satisfaction

that you feel when you commit to

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something really challenging and

follow through is really good.

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Really good.

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And so I know for me doing this challenge,

it definitely increased my discipline

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and just like being able to say to

myself, I'm going to do this thing, even

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though I know it's going to challenge

me, even though I know there's going

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to be days where I don't want to, but

I'm going to have to show up anyway.

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And that was really big for me to do.

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And so I'm really feeling

like I want to do it again.

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So I'm pretty sure I'm going

to start maybe on Tuesday.

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So I'll keep you updated on that.

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I'll probably post on social

media about it, but anyway.

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Okay.

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Now that we've had that, like bit

of a chat, let's actually dive into

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the content of today's episode.

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So.

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I've got five steps here that you can use

to walk through if you are wanting to do

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a bit of a check in and set some goals to

close out the end of the year really well.

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And of course this is relevant whenever

you're listening to the episode,

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if it's in the future, well like at

the start of the year, middle of the

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year, you can do this same process.

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So step one is to reflect on

where you are currently at.

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And so this is pretty obvious,

but I think especially as business

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owners, we can get caught up in this.

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cycle of just like wanting to create

more, reach the next level, hit the

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next goal, earn more money, reach more

people, have a bigger impact, whatever.

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And we can kind of forget to celebrate the

little things that we've already achieved.

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And so I want you to firstly take a

moment to Think about where you currently

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are in your business and in your life.

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If you were looking at this more

holistically, which I recommend you

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do, and even look back on previous

goals that you have set and see

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how far you have already come.

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Like, When I think back to when I started

my business and I just wanted to like make

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enough money to cover my bills and not

have to think about having another job.

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And I compare that to where

I am now where I can cover my

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bills and I can pay for things.

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And my business like fully

supports me and my life.

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That is incredible.

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And I think that we can sometimes

lose sight of just how far we've come.

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So really take a moment and celebrate

what you have already achieved.

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And then I also want you to

think about like, where are

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things currently feeling sticky?

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Maybe where are you not showing

up in integrity in your business?

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Where have you let some like bad habits

fall in and you know that they are not

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serving you to get to the level that

you want to be, or even just to be the

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business owner that you want to be.

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So, this might look like reflecting on

certain habits and behaviors, or maybe

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just like certain areas of your business.

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It's It could be that you feel really

good in like the client delivery working

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with your clients, but your marketing

is just feeling like really shit.

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Or maybe your health is feeling like

really shit and you know that you're not

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prioritizing the things that make you

the best version of who you want to be.

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And you know that that is trickling

into your business because

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everything is so connected.

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Okay, let's dive into step two,

and I also hope that you cannot

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hear too much background noise.

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I literally told my partner, hey, I'm

going to go record a podcast episode.

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Be quiet.

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And he's outside blowing

leaves off our driveway.

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So I'm hoping I can edit that out.

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If you have a partner and they have

a blower, like a I don't really

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know the proper word, but you

know, a blower, like a leaf blower.

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They use those things for everything.

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Anyway, step two.

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So after we've reflected on where

we are currently at, we then want

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to sit down and set our goals.

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And so there are a few things to keep in

mind when you are creating your goals.

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And just quickly, before I go any further,

if you are listening to this and you're

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wanting to take some notes or refer

back to it, I do have an accompanying

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blog post to this episode where I'll

have everything written out for you.

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So if you're listening to this while

you're on a walk or you're driving or

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whatever, and you want to be able to

refer back to it, I will link the blog

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post in the show notes because that might

be easier to see everything written out.

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If you want to sit down, put

some music on, get a drink,

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whatever, and follow this process.

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You can easily do that.

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So, Step two, a couple of things to keep

in mind when you are setting your goals.

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Firstly, when it comes to goal

setting, I like to look at all

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different areas of my life.

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And I find it really hard if I'm like

setting goals for my business and I'm

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not looking at like the goals for my

life, my personal life, my health,

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my relationships, that sort of thing.

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Because as entrepreneurs, the line between

like our work and our life is a lot less.

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straight and clear than it is if

you were to work a normal nine to

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five job where you work for someone

else and you're able to come home

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and like disconnect from work.

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And I definitely think it is really

important to have that separation

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between the entity of our business and

then the entity of us as a person, but

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it's also like we need to be realistic

and we know that like Those things

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are a lot more intertwined when we are

entrepreneurs and we are business owners

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compared to if we work in another way.

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And so.

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Whenever I'm sitting down to look

at the goals for my business, I will

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always look at the goals for my life

as well and what season of life I'm in.

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And just to make sure that everything

is like going to be cohesive and work

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together because, you know, if we're

in a really big season of our personal

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life, and we have a lot of things that

we're dealing with, Then maybe in our

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business, we might be in more of a

maintenance mode than like a growth

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mode, or we might be like moving

between different seasons in business

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and life, and we just want to make sure

that we're not going to burn ourselves

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out and that we are being realistic.

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, and then when it comes to actually

creating our goals, a framework that I

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like to follow is setting SMART goals.

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And you've possibly heard of

this before, but we're looking

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at the word SMART as an acronym.

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And this is a framework that I learned

in my Previous corporate job, we

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would always have to make sure any

goals that we were referencing when

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we were creating our business plans

and things like that were SMART goals.

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And so I'm going to run you through

each letter and what that means.

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So the S in SMART stands for specific,

and this is just saying that we

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don't want to have a vague goal.

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We want to be really specific on

what it looks like to hit that goal.

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The M is measurable, and this means

that we need to be able to like kind

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of tick a box, how we achieve this.

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Yes, or no.

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So what can we actually measure to tell

ourselves if we have hit this goal?

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And so something really obvious would

be we wouldn't want to set a goal that's

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just I want to increase my revenue.

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Because a 1 increase is technically

hitting the goal of increasing

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your revenue, but that's

probably not what you meant.

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So we want to set something that's

measurable and that might look like,

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you know, a 50 percent increase in

revenue or hitting x amount of dollars.

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in revenue for the quarter if

we're looking at a financial goal.

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A is achievable.

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So we want to make sure that we're not

like hitting, we're not choosing a goal

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that's a really big like moonshot goal.

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And I think it is kind of like I do

like to set goals that are a little

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bit unrealistic, but we want to make

sure that we're not kind of setting

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ourselves up for failure to feel like we

can't hit the goals that we're setting.

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We want it to be something

that is achievable.

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So something that you can do around

this point as well is setting your

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good, better, and best, like you

can set three phases of your goals.

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So it's at a minimum, I want to hit.

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That's to say an average

of 10 K per month.

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What would be like a little bit of a

stretch beyond that would maybe be 13 K

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per month, but then what would be really

freaking amazing is if I could hit.

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18k per month.

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So you can kind of tier it.

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And that way you've got like a few, few

levels that you're looking to reach if you

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don't want to just stick with one amount.

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And that's personally

what I like to do as well.

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And especially setting that like minimum,

if you're looking at like numbers in terms

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of like revenue or amount of students

that you get into a course or something

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like that, having a baseline that's yeah,

this is like the minimum that I kind of.

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And then in the word smart,

the letter R is for relevant.

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And this just means that we want to

be thinking about the bigger picture.

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So if we're setting the goals for

the quarter, we want to look at

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what are our bigger picture goals?

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What are we aiming to get to for the year?

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And does this smaller goal

actually support that?

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And then time bound is for T

timeline goal is that we just want

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to make sure we've got a timeline.

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So if you're saying, I want

to increase my revenue by 50%.

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By when, like, when are we

looking to measure that?

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And obviously in the context of this

episode, we're talking about the quarter.

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So our timeline is going to be by the end

of the year or by the end of the quarter.

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So we want to set some goals for

our business and you can do also

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some life goals in here as well.

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And then moving on to step

three, we need to plan out how

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we are going to achieve this.

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So two questions that I like to ask

myself when I'm planning things is.

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Who do I need to be in order to achieve?

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these goals.

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And so when I sit back and reflect

on that, and I'm looking at my goals,

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I'm like, I need to be a lot more

disciplined than I am right now.

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And that is kind of what led

me to decide to redo 75 hard.

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And you can think about what type

of behavior would I be doing?

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What would my day to day look like?

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What is different from like how I

start my day now compared to how I

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would need to start my day in order to

be the type of a person, the type of

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person that can achieve these goals.

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And then the second question under step

three is what are the actions that I

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need to take in order to reach this goal?

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And so that's where you want to look at

each goal and you want to break it down

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into a few smaller like steps that you

can be taking in order to hit those goals.

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So for example, if we are working

with the the revenue goal of wanting

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to hit say 10k a month and let's just

say currently on average you have

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Maybe 6k of like payment plans and

clients that are locked in per month.

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And so you have a gap of 4k, right?

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So you need to think about what

actions do I need to take in order

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to close that 4, 000 per month gap?

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To hit my goal.

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And so this could be anything

like I need to sell more.

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Therefore I need to market my offers more.

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It could be, I need to create a new offer.

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I need to create more capacity in

my business to hold more clients.

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Cause at the moment I feel fully booked

or I don't feel like I have more.

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space.

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It could be , I need to create more space.

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So maybe I need to outsource some

things in my home life so I can spend

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more time, like working in this season.

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And this is actually a really

interesting point that I was thinking

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about earlier today is around

outsourcing, just a little side note.

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My partner and I have a lot of gardening

needed to be done in our garden.

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We have so many weeds.

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And as I mentioned, My hay fever has

been frigging horrendous lately.

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And so we actually hired someone

to help us get a headstart on all

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the gardening that we needed to do.

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And I was like, this is great.

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This is amazing.

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Like when you are outsourcing in order to

create more space and time for yourself

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and your business, we can also look

at like areas beyond just our direct

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business that we can get support with,

especially if that thing, if it's things

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that you don't necessarily For example,

I would never outsource cooking meals,

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even though it would create a lot of time.

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But I find cooking like a

really nourishing and grounding

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activity for myself to do, that I

wouldn't want to outsource that.

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But gardening on the other hand,

like pulling weeds from our garden.

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Verge, which was like full of

weeds now that spring has sprung.

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Not something I want to do is sniffling

in the, in the garden bed all day.

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So that's also just something to think

about and then moving on we have step

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four and this is the how so you've You

know what your goals are, you kind of

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know the overall actions that need to

be taken in order to hit those goals,

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and now we want to think about how

are you going to take those actions

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in order to achieve those goals.

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So what are you going to do in order

to stay This might look like adding

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projects into your project management

tool creating a plan with anyone on your

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team who's going to be supporting you

with these, assigning them tasks planning

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out what your week would look like.

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I have this process that I do

and I kind of revisit it every,

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every few months, maybe every

quarter, sometimes a bit longer.

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That is my weekly rhythm.

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And so it's kind of like a take

on time blocking in your calendar.

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But I look at all of the like regular

work that I do, the regular commitments

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that I have, the regular things that I

need to do within my life and my business

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to get to where I'm wanting to go.

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And I plan out what my, Weekly rhythm

is so this could look like certain

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days in my business that are dedicated

for certain things and I schedule in

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everything that is needed to be done and

then it's something that I can reflect

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on and revisit every week, shuffle

what needs to be shuffled around and

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so when you are revisiting and setting

new goals, you want to make sure that

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the setup of your week and your month

is supportive to reaching those goals.

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I do also have another Well, blog

post on creating a weekly rhythm.

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So I will link that below as well.

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And then the final step to this process is

making sure you have something in place to

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be regularly checking in with your goals.

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I think something that can happen

so often, and I know I am, you know,

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Very guilty of this if I don't have

a process for it is setting goals and

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then just completely forgetting about

them, getting stuck in the day to

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:

day of life and running a business.

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And then it gets to like the end of

the month or the end of the quarter.

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And you realize, Oh shit, I've

completely forgotten about

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:

that goal that I set myself.

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And I think this is so easy to do.

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And so, I have so many clients

that experience the same thing.

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If we don't have a process in place to

be tracking how we are going towards

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:

our goals and to be checking in with

our goals, how things are feeling for

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us as well, then it can be really easy

to just get caught up in completely.

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And not actually be moving forward

to where we're wanting to go.

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So a process for this might look like

sticking up like a poster, a sticky note,

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like a piece of paper that has your goals

on it and has your daily actions in there.

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It could be scheduling like a

week weekly, like CEO date where

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you sit down with your goals.

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:

It can also look like having a

really strong energetic practice

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:

around keeping a pulse on like your

bigger picture and your vision.

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:

And so something that I like to do

for myself is to write out a script.

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And so if you're not familiar with

scripting, it's kind of like a journaling

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:

practice where you future pace a bit.

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So you might like kind of write a

journal entry and be like, today

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is the 31st of December, 2024.

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And you kind of just write

out what your day looks like.

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:

would look like or what your life

currently looks like at that point.

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So you're like in the practice of writing

it as if it has already happened and

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:

it could really help you to tap into.

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:

why you want certain goals and what

impact that's going to have on your life.

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:

And so you write out this

script and then you revisit it.

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And so sometimes I'll record myself

reading out the script and then I

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can listen back to it, or I might

just have it on a piece of paper

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:

or in a word doc on my computer.

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And then I can read it at the start

of my day or a couple of times a week

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and really keep you anchored into.

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If you haven't tried scripting

before, I definitely recommend it.

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It's a really powerful practice

and I love the practice of speaking

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about our goals in the present tense,

especially when you're like, Yeah.

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If you're doing like a really beautiful

meditation, have some music on, have

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:

some incense burning, it can be a really

powerful practice to tap into what

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you actually are desiring to create

in your business and in your life.

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:

So that is all five steps for the process.

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As I mentioned, there is a supporting

blog post for this episode.

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:

So I'll be sure to link it down below

if you want to sit down and kind of

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:

follow through this flow yourself.

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:

Yeah, let me know how you find this

episode and I would love to know

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:

what it is that you are hoping to

achieve in the end of the year.

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So yeah, feel free to send me a

message on Instagram and let me know

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what you got out of this episode

and what it is that you are calling

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:

in in the final quarter of 2024.

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:

Okay.

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:

I'll see you in the next

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About the Podcast

Spacious Scaling
Welcome to The Spacious Scaling podcast. This is for you if you’re an online coach, creative or service provider looking to scale your income and impact without burning out..

About your host

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Steph Dunn