Goal Setting Worksheets
May 12, 2008
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As you know, doing business online isn’t just about the money. It’s about the lifestyle.
But how can you create the Internet Lifestyle you really want if you’ve never sat down to think about what you want?
When you go on vacation, you had better figure out where you want to go before you take off driving, or who knows where you’ll end up.
From coaching entrepreneurs, I can tell you where some of them end up in their business journey. All they know when they start out is they want to make a lot of money, and they do that alright. But in the process they build a business monster that sucks up all their time, destroys their health, and costs them relationships with their family. They got their goal, but lost other more important things in the process.
You need to decide what it is you really want. Some people will say, “I just want to make $20,000 a month…”
Is that all? You don’t care how much time it takes you to do that each month? You don’t care what you have to do to accomplish it?
If you take a long hard look at this goal, I doubt it’s that you really just want to have $20,000 worth of green paper sitting there every month. It’s what you can buy with the money that attracts you.
Money is just a tool to get to the real goal.
Quit looking at the number. Dig a little deeper and find your real goal.
Even if you were to say I want to make a million dollars a year, I doubt it’s the million green pieces of paper motivating you. It’s the lifestyle and the emotional way you’d feel about yourself that you’re after. It’s the recognition you’d feel from others.
So let’s get clear on our goals. What is it you’re really after?
One of the books I’ve really enjoyed recently was Timothy Ferriss’ “The 4-Hour Work Week.” A primary discussion in his book is about “Lifestyle Design.” On his site, he has a section about figuring out the cost of your ideal lifestyle. In his book and on his site he talks quite a bit about mini-retirements and building a lifestyle you love.
That’s why I always talk about the Internet Lifestyle as well. It’s not just about the money. It’s about the lifestyle.
I’m including a series of worksheets in this posts you can use to create your Internet Lifestyle plan. These were originally developed by Paul Myers and I purchased rights to them some time back. They’re yours as my gift to you.
Download the goal setting worksheets here in PDF form…
Let me help you go through each of the worksheets quickly…
Goals Brainstorming: Describe your perfect lifestyle throughout this series of questions. Don’t think about cost right now. Don’t worry about money when filling out this sheet whatsoever. You can come back and figure out the money later (and the amount will likely change in the future). You’re creating your perfect lifestyle as if ANYTHING and EVERYTHING were possible. What do you really want?
Things to Get Rid Of: These are also called tolerations. What are you tolerating in your life right now that you’d like to get rid of? Many times I’ve found these much more motivating to me than “goals.” What is causing you pain, worry, or additional stress in your life? Why will your life be better without this? These could be as simple as you’re tolerating a chair that’s causing you back pain or they could be vital to your health such as tolerating a 70 hour work week. These are the things you want to eliminate, and when you plan to do so.
Inventory Skills: Make a list of everything you’re good at. Often we only look at our weaknesses and never look at our giftings and strengths. If you have trouble coming up with all your skills, contact a friend, family, or co-worker to help you out with some ideas. It might take you a few days to remember everything you’ve accomplished and all the skills you really have. Don’t cop-out on me on this assignment. You have skills you’ve taken for granted!
Inventory Interests: Write down all the subjects you’re interested in. What do you enjoy learning more about? What grabs your attention whenever you hear about it? Write it all down.
Inventory Activities: List all your normal activities in your business and personal life. Why? We’re going to find activities you enjoy and ones you don’t enjoy. We’re also going to find some potential topics you hadn’t considered to help you grow your Internet Lifestyle Retirement System. If you need to, just start listing your activities for the past week…and then continue on back through the years (you may need a few more pieces of paper).
Inventory Character Traits: Describe your character traits - your strengths and your weaknesses. Are you creative? Are you a good manager? Are you impatient? List them all here as we want to build the right business for you, not anyone else.
I Really Enjoy: Write down the three things you enjoy the most and could do all day long. No matter how long you did them, you’d never get bored. What are they? If we design a business for you that you love, you’ll never work a day in your life (you’ll have fun every day). Don’t worry about how you would turn that into a business at the moment. Just write down your three things.
Step-By-Step: Now let’s take one of your primary goals and make a step-by-step plan to get there. And as I’m always harping on with my clients, start at the end and work backwards. So what is the last step to getting to that goal. Then what happens before that…again and again until you get back to today.
Taking the Step: Now let’s focus on the first step to reaching your goal. You just work backwards from your primary goal. Now we’re starting at step one and we’re figuring out what we need to do to accomplish this step on the way to our goal.
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As someone who has conducted seminars and classes for the past 20+ years, I understand the importance of goal setting.
When I ‘early-retired’ four years ago I knew I wanted to do business online. I quicly learned that there was too much in too many places on the internet, and everything sounded seductive. I knew that I could waste hours and money by a hodge-podge method.
Keeping my goals in mind I did a little online research and quickly decided on Terry Dean as my internet mentor and coach. I continually see how this benefits me by keeping me on track and moving forward every day.
Thanks, Terry. This is the best decision I could have made.
Hi, i really like your site layout. I will continue reading here, so i subscribed! Maybe you could check out my site, and even subscribe if you like. Thanks, Zach.
Terry,
Again you deliver not just content, but value.
Strategic Focus is probably the single biggest difference betweens success and failure, and this is especially true with the maze of supersonic rabbit holes that is the internet.
Strategic prioritizing, planning and goal-setting are simply the most important foundation of any internet business regardless of what way we go about doing it. This is a lesson I learned late myself, but better late than never.
Also I want to thank you for your very, very, prompt response to my voice mail when I called you 3 weeks ago. It shows that you really maintain the integrity that you write and teach about.
Gogo
Thanks for providing this tools free of charge. It has been a blessing visiting this blog. I have learnt some useful tips that will enhance my growth. Cheers.
Thanks Terry,
I have downloaded the goal setting worksheets and found them useful.Keep more of such coming.
[…] Download the free goal setting worksheets here… […]
Great stuff Terry - as usual.
BTW: Purchased your Internet Lifestyle System and it is the best such program I have purchased in over 10 years online.
The Book Publishing and Infoproduct Superconference CDs were worth the price of the whole thing.
Have a Great Independence Day
Ed Osworth
Coach and Consultant
Author of “Unstoppable Joy - 12 Easy Steps to a Happier You”