Can you relate to this scenario? It’s January 1st and you’re feeling inspired, so you set these huge, bold goals for the year ahead. You tell yourself this is YOUR year to finally achieve that big dream – write a book, start your business, earn that degree, start that relationship, run that marathon, snap up that promotion. But then February hits and that motivation starts slipping. By the end of March, you’ve abandoned most of your big plans and fallen back into your regular routine.

Even if we really want what we say we want, we don’t get there. But Purpose Chasers, there is another way. I’ve been setting and achieving goals myself for years now without letting life get in the way. And I want this for you too! 

A lot of people ask me how I manage to get so much done. Like how I got my MBA while running my business, getting divorced, writing three books, raising my child, AND looking after my mom who was in a different state all at the same time.

Here’s the thing – I do my goal-setting differently. And a major principle of how I set my goals is this thing called Parkinson’s Law. This law says that a task is going to take exactly as much time as you give it. You give it a week, it’ll take a week. But maybe if you pushed yourself and set yourself three days for the same task, you might just surprise yourself and pull it off in those three days.

Well, same thing with goal-setting.

When I set my goals, I give myself 90 days.

When we try to tackle huge goals all at once, for the entire year, it becomes too much. We get lost in the vision and we get demotivated. And we don’t have a plan for how we’re going to achieve what we want to achieve.

But when you break it down into bite-sized 3-month chunks? Suddenly each piece feels totally doable. You get the satisfaction of checking things off your list each quarter (I see you out there, my list checkers!). And you build momentum that carries you forward to the next milestone.

My quarterly planning system keeps me focused only on the tasks directly ahead of me. Like that saying by Martin Luther King, I don’t stress about the whole staircase, just the next step. It also builds in accountability, so I actually stick to my goals and course-correct when I have to.

And because I’m celebrating small wins all along the way, I don’t burn out or beat myself up over setbacks. I can stay resilient through life’s ups, downs, and nuances and keep my eyes on the bigger purpose.

If you want to take this 90-day system and use it to push you toward your own visions, then keep these steps at the top of your mind.

Clarity is key.

First things first – you need crystal clarity on your big vision for the year. Not what sounds good or what you think other people want. Ask yourself: “What’s truly speaking to me? What’s in my heart?”

Only once you get honest about your soul-level desires can you start down the path to get there.

Next, write down that goal in your planner, and give yourself those 90 days to Get. It. Done. It might scare you a little, but being scared isn’t a bad thing.

While you’re looking at your planner, clear out all that busy work. You know what I’m talking about: the PTA meetings, the Church committees, the bake sales. Because the truth is that if you can’t do it, they’ll just find someone else. You don’t have to be the person who’s doing it all. Free up your time so that you can be intentional about how you’re spending it.

Now you need to plan out the little goals that’ll help you get to your big goal and divide them up into categories.

Because not all goals are the same.

First, there are the safe goals. These are the little goals that’ll give you a nudge in the direction you want to go. I bet there are some on your to-do list right now that you could knock off real easy.

After that come the support goals. These goals have a purpose: they make you practice asking for help. Because to get to where you want to go, you need a team. Your dream needs help, you weren’t ever meant to get there alone. But I know that some of you come from families and backgrounds where asking for help wasn’t a thing, so you need to break that habit now.

Set yourself a support goal that’ll challenge you just a bit and see who could help you on your way.

Our last kind of goal is that stretch goal. The one that’ll challenge you. It’ll push you right out of your comfort zone. But you need this stretch goal to make your vision a reality. And I want to be honest with you, you might not achieve that stretch goal in these 90 days because it might be just too far.

But trying for it will help you get further than you would have got without that goal.

Learn to celebrate those small wins and that sloppy progress. Baby steps are still territory acquired.

And when I say celebrate, I mean celebrate.

You don’t normally get your nails done? Go do them. Whatever makes you feel great about hitting this milestone, do it.

But it doesn’t stop there.

You need to keep checking in with yourself.

If you want to bring your vision to life in 90 days, you need to book time in your planner to check in with yourself and to be honest about how far you’ve come.

Did you really try your best this week?

What’s on the planner for next week that’ll help you to get one step further on your journey?

I schedule check-ins with myself every week and also at the beginning and end of every month. That way, I can see how I feel about my goals and my progress and catch myself if I’m not pushing myself as hard as I could be.

I hope this overview gets you pumped to plan out the next three months of crushing your goals. Remember, you got this! By giving yourself a bit less time and making your actions more intentional, you’re giving yourself a better chance of realizing your vision, even if it’s only the 1.0 version of your vision. Remember, you’re living anyway, why not live intentionally?

Happy goal-getting, friends! See you next time –

Patrice

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