Goal planning sound overwhelming? Want some ways to make it more realistic & attainable? Well I’ve got that brand new, fresh year, feeling that comes every one trip around the sun. 2020 is upon us & it’s time to set some goals to crush, but how should we go about doing that?! Well goal panning of course!!

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Reflection

So first of all, lets slow our roll, put the goal planning on the back burner, & take a look at what we have done in the past year! As business owners we’re always focusing on what’s next & we tend to forget to slow down & really take a look & appreciate everything that we have done & accomplished. So what are some tangible things we can do? I am a very visual person so here are some ideas that I use:

• If you have a day planner or journal, go back through it & jot down on another piece of paper the things that you accomplished – nothing is too big or too small

• Ask others who you trust what they saw as your biggest accomplishment in the year. It can be helpful to have an outside perspective!

• Use questions like what changed, what have I done differently, what worked for me, what didn’t work, if I could change one thing what would it be?

Some of the goals that I have accomplished this year are: booking 10 weddings, shooting 3 international weddings, completing a re-brand and introducing my new brand name, and growing the Seanna Leaf Photography team to include a bomb-a** makeup and hair artist!

Dreaming

Now, I don’t know about you but this one can sometimes be the easiest or the hardest one depending on the day. Sometimes it is so easy to try & imagine what my business or life could look like in the next 12 months. On the other hand, sometimes it is terrifying to try to dream up what I want my business & life to look like.

Instead of sitting down & doing this all at once (hello avoidant Seanna) I instead have a note going in my phone & whenever an idea pops into my head, I jot it down. Then when I am ready to sit down & start planning for the year, I can go over those ‘dreams’ I had!

Some of my dreams for 2020 are: focusing on finding the best work/life balance, ‘fully’ booking myself for weddings (still haven’t decided on how many this looks like), offering mentorship sessions, & shooting 3 more international weddings!

Planning

YAY! You’ve done your reflection, dreaming & now we are onto the goal planning part! This is where you would actually sit down & plan out how to reach these goals or dreams that you laid out for yourself! This part is super important because we want to break down these awesome goals into small, manageable tasks!

Now, this could become a little overwhelming , but don’t worry I have some tips & tricks for how to make it more manageable!

• Break your goal planning down into SMART (specific, manageable, attainable, relevant, and time based) goals! This helps you break down your broader goals into achievable actions! If you want to read more about it check out this article!

• If you’re a visual person like me, create some pretty, simplistic, flow charts of these SMART goals & post them somewhere that you will see them everyday.

• Since you want your goals to be time based, jot down in your calendar when you want to have them achieved by, or at least what step you want to have achieved. This can be a scary one – I hate this one as I feel like I don’t want to put a date stamp on things because if I don’t achieve them, I failed. But that’s not the case at all, and we need to be a little kinder to ourselves! Using this time based skill will ensure that you are holding yourself accountable & accomplishing small tasks which will add up to your big goal!

Accountability

Now this is where shit gets real. Accountability. I don’t know about you but sometimes my internal accountability, holding myself accountable, really sucks. That’s where external accountability has really helped me! Within this last year I have found ‘my people’, those ones who I can be truly honest with & share my goals with. Goal planning with someone else can be super helpful because not only will they hold you accountable, but they will also help you to bounce ideas around! This accountability is super great because if I have lost sight of something, or I have fallen off the wagon, I have those friends who will give me a swift kick in the a** & get me going again.

Motivators

And last but not least, motivation! Just like accountability, there are two types of motivators; intrinsic & extrinsic. Again, sometimes my intrinsic motivation, my drive for wanting to do something just because I want to accomplish it, falls to the way side so that’s where extrinsic motivators come into play! If you’re goal planning for yourself, set a prize too! For example, maybe you want to volunteer more – after you have done x number of volunteer hours, take yourself out for a nice dinner. If you’re a photographer & you want to book x number of weddings, once you do, add something you’ve been eyeing up to your kit! The possibilities are endless!

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So now that you feel all inspired & shit, get out there & make your dreams come true – or at least plan to! I believe in you & know that you can do it!

If you enjoyed this blog post, please let me know in the comments & let me know what your goals are for 2020! Lets hold each other accountable!

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