Add clients to consulting business.  My goal is to add 5 new clients this year.  Here are the things I will need to do to achieve this goal.

1. Brainstorm a list of at least 30 potential clients.
2. Research potential clients to determine which of my services suit their estimated needs.
3. Contact each of the potential clients to setup meetings to introduce myself and my services.  Continue to contact the potential clients until actually setup meetings.
4. Meet with clients having a draft of what services I can best provide their campaign.  During meeting determine how my draft changes based on what their needs actually are.
5. Before leaving meeting, setup specific date to follow up with them in person.
6. Create a specific proposal drawn up to meet their needs.
7. Meet with them again using proposal to close the deal. 

Here is a timeline for each step:

1. Brainstorming:  1 day
2. Research:  For each client, it takes about 6 – 8 hours of dedicated time.  The most largest block of dedicated time I have is 4 solid hours of time while the children are in preschool and then 3 hours or so total before they wake up or after they go to bed.  So for each client, it will take me about 2 days to do this. 
3. Contact to setup meeting:  10 minutes at a time as I finish research on clients until I can setup meeting.  This is the step that I have the least control over because I am dependent on others to answer or return their calls.
4. 1^st Meeting:  2 hours for each client
5. Specific proposal:  2 hours for each client
6. 2^nd Meeting:  1 ½ hours
7. To meet my goal of 5 new clients this year, I need to add one a month between February and June. 

Specific Timeline:

1. Brainstorming deadline:  February 8
2. Research deadline:  2 new clients per week
3. Contact: 1 new client every 2 weeks by calling each potential client as they are researched 1 time per week.
4. Meeting:  Have 2 meetings a week in March, April, and May
5. Proposal Deadline:  48 hours after meeting with client
6. 2^nd Meeting: 1 – 2 weeks after first meeting

For this goal, my deadlines are a bit nebulous because I still I am dependent on others to achieve the goals.  Still, while I do not know who the specific potential clients with whom I will meet, it seems reasonable that starting in March, I should be able to have 2 meetings per week.

How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time, right?  How do you achieve a goal?  One step at a time.

You have already developed your personal mission statement; created a wish list of everything you want to be, do, and have; and decided which wishes are going to be your goals.  Now it is time to break these goals down to their smallest parts to determine what the steps will be achieving your goal.

To break the goal into its smallest parts, you need to think about everything you will need to do to get from where you are right now to where you will be when you achieve your goal.  Think of it as the detailed “driving directions” you get when you mapquest a location. 

After breaking the goal into its smallest parts, you need to give yourself deadlines on when to reach each step.  To do this, determine how long it will take to do each step and how much time you can devote to this step in light of other roles and responsibilities in your life. 

By doing these 2 steps, you are creating a specific plan of action for each goal.  You know what the desired result is (the goal), you know how the goal lines up with your values (your mission statement and other criteria), you know what you steps are necessary to achieve the goal, and you know when you plan to check each step off your to do list.

Take a look at one of my goals as an example. 

Run through this process with each of your goals.  This will take some time to do.  As you create steps for the next goals, your timeline may change.  It is probably easiest to list the steps for each goal and then goal back to fill in the deadlines as you imagine how much time you will spend on all of the steps together.

Once you have done this, it is time to get to work.  Next time, we will look at ways to help strategize your time to actually get things done on each goal.  In the meantime, start tackling your goals like you would eating an elephant, one bite at a time.

Next week, I will review how to break each goal into manageable parts so that the goals can actually be achieve.  In the meantime, you may want to check out my other posts in this series:

Do You Have a Program to Set Goals?
Develop a Personal Mission Statement
Create Your Wish List:  A List of Everything You Want To Be, Do, and Have
From Wishes to Dreams, From Dreams to Goals

If you are working on your goals, leave a link in the messages below.  I’d love to hear about your progress.

This post is part of Shannon’s Works for Me Wednesday, which is being hosted by Melanie at Don’t Try This at Home.  Be sure to check out all the other entries.  It is a wealth of information  with many great tips and resources. 

After I wish for something, it is time to get real and determine whether these are truly just wishes or if they are items I can visualize and dream about and are willing to work to see the dream come true.  When I decide that something is still a wish, it is usually something that is out of my reach and I am not willing to work hard to achieve it.  For instance, I wish I were a size 2 and look like a super model.  I am really not willing to starve myself to become a size two.  I like food more than I like the idea of become a size 2.  I know that I am never going to put forth the effort to achieve this.  For me, becoming a size 2 is just a wish and I am fine letting it stay that way. 

When I turn a wish into a dream, I am ready to begin the process to achieve this desired result.  I use the following criteria to determine whether I am willing to turn a wish into a dream and the dream into a goal:

• Can I truly dream or day dream about this happening to me?

In other words, can I actually visualize the outcome?  If I cannot actually visualize myself achieving this goal, then there is no point in looking at the rest of the criteria. 

• What types of steps would be necessary for me to achieve this end result? 

I am not looking at all the minutia but a general outline of what would be necessary to achieve this goal.  If I do not know all the details and know that I need to research how to achieve it, then research is enough to get started for this step.

• Am I willing to put for the effort required to achieve this end result? 

Based on the necessary steps to achieve the end result, do I truly think I am willing to put forth the energy and time to make the wish a reality? Is there a fire in my belly that makes me want to work tirelessly to achieve this end result? 

• Is it in line with the way I envision living my life?  

In other words, is the end result in line with my personal mission statement?  

• Does achieving this result hurt anyone? 

If the wish will hurt someone else, then I personally cannot pursue it.

• Are the result and the steps required to achieve it ethical and moral? 

If the steps necessary to achieve the end result are not ethical and moral, then I personally cannot pursue it.

• Does this wish conflict with any other goals I am working towards?  

If the steps necessary to achieve this wish are going to hurt my progress towards another goal, then I will have to evaluate which one is truly the most important to me.  For example, if there is a trip I want to take to the Bahamas that is scheduled for the same dates as another trip I having been saving for in Alaska, I obviously cannot be in both places at the same time.  The trip to the Bahamas will help me increase my network connections and boost my career.  The trip to Alaska is a vacation that Mr. Right and I were planning to take for fun.  I have to determine which one is more important to me at this time in my life.  In this example, I may have to choose to the Bahamas now and reschedule the Alaska trip or vice versa. 

• Finally, after determining if this is a wish or a goal, I classify it as Short Term Goal, Long Term Goal, or Review Later Wish.

Short Term Goals are ones I plan to achieve in the next 90 days and need to focus on regularly everyday.  Long Term Goals are ones I am committed to achieving but they will take longer than 90 days.  I need to focus on these goals about once a week.  Review Later Wishes are wishes that I will need to review on a monthly basis to see if I am ready to move these from wishes to goals.  At this point in time, I am not ready to commit the resources to achieving these goals.

Now that you know my criteria to determine which wishes I will turn into dreams in my mind and goals that I work towards, let’s look at a few examples from my Wish List last week:

Help Mr. Right Get a Job

1. Visualization? Check.  I can visualize this.  I can see Mr. Right working some sort of job in the next 8 weeks. 
2. Necessary steps?  Check.  Review job posting website, help create cover letters, make sure he can focus 80% of his awake time on this effort.
3. Willing to put forth effort?  Check.  Boy am I willing!!  We desperately need the money.
4. In line with Personal Mission Statement?  Check.  Without having an income, I cannot serve my country and community.  Also, without an income, I am not treating my body with respect because I am stressed and worried much of the time. 
5. Does it hurt anyone?  No. Check.
6. Ethical?  Moral?  Yes.  Check
7. Conflict with other goals?  No.  Check.
8. Short or Long Term?  Short Term.

Resolve Our Financial Difficulties

1. Visualization? Check.  I can visualize this.  There will be much more peace in my life once this happens.
2. Necessary steps?  Check.  Mr. Right gets a job, I add additional clients, make arrangements with creditors.
3. Willing to put forth effort?  Check.  I am willing to spend time working on this.
4. In line with Personal Mission Statement?  Check.  Resolving these difficulties will give me peace which will help treat my body with respect by reducing stress.  Also, I will have more time to focus on my community and country for volunteer and work activities.
5. Does it hurt anyone?  No. Check.
6. Ethical?  Moral?  Yes.  Check
7. Conflict with other goals?  No.  Check.
8. Short or Long Term?  Short Term. 

Payoff Our Debt and Create a Net Worth of $5 Million

1. Visualization? Check.  I can visualize this.  All of our debt will be gone and the only bills we have are monthly utility bills.
2. Necessary steps?  Check.  Mr. Right gets a job, I add additional clients, make arrangements with creditors, create a plan to pay off debt, create a plan to save money.
3. Willing to put forth effort?  Check.  I am willing to spend time working on this.
4. In line with Personal Mission Statement?  Check.  Again, this will help me respect my body by giving myself peace. Also, I will have more money to invest in my community and country for volunteer and work activities.
5. Does it hurt anyone?  No. Check.
6. Ethical?  Moral?  Yes.  Check
7. Conflict with other goals?  No.  Check.
8. Short or Long Term?  Long Term

Have a Spa Day Once a Week

1. Visualization? Check.  I can visualize this.  Can you?  Imagine how relaxed I would be after having a massage and reflexology each week.  Oh the life!!
2. Necessary steps?  Check.  Make and keep appointments at my favorite spa.
3. Willing to put forth effort?  Check.  I am willing to spend time working on this.
4. In line with Personal Mission Statement?  Maybe.  I could justify how this is treating my body with respect.  Although, it does very little to serve my country and community.  Also, it is putting myself much further ahead of my family and taking time away from them.  Still, if I were more relaxed our time together would be much more enjoyable.
5. Does it hurt anyone?  No. Check.
6. Ethical?  Moral?  Yes.  Check
7. Conflict with other goals?  Yes.  There is no way to resolve our financial difficulties and pay off our debt if I am spending money at the spa.  Also, this the time at the spa would take away from the time to spend on my other goals.  Alas, the weekly spa day cannot be one of my goals. 
8. Review Later Wish

Learn to DigiScrap

1. Visualization? Check.  I can visualize this.  When I learn to digiscrap, I will have books that outline and detail our lives as a family.   
2. Necessary steps?  Check.  I already have tutorials to teach me to begin learning this, practice, and create pages.  I need to set aside time each day to do so. 
3. Willing to put forth effort?  Check.  I am willing to spend time working on this.
4. In line with Personal Mission Statement?  Check.  While, I do not specifically have “scrapbook” in my mission statement, it does fall in line with showing my love to my family by taking the time to detail their lives. 
5. Does it hurt anyone?  No. Check.
6. Ethical?  Moral?  Yes.  Check
7. Conflict with other goals?  No. Check.
8. Short or Long Term?  Short Term

Update Family Blog 4 Times a Week and Turn the Blog into a Book at the End of the Year

1. Visualization? Check.  I can visualize this.  I can see myself typing in my blog several times a week.   
2. Necessary steps?  Check.  Make notes of blogable moments, take photos regularly, type actual blog posts.  I need to set aside time each day to do so. 
3. Willing to put forth effort?  Check.  I am willing to spend time working on this.
4. In line with Personal Mission Statement?  Check.  While, I do not specifically have “scrapbook” in my mission statement, it does fall in line with showing my love to my family by taking the time to detail their lives. 
5. Does it hurt anyone?  No. Check.
6. Ethical?  Moral?  Yes.  Check
7. Conflict with other goals?  Yes.  At this point in my life, the time necessary to blog conflicts with the time necessary to digiscrap and work towards other goals.  Since I have already established a blogging routine, I will turn this one into a goal and set digiscrapping aside for the time being.  In a few months as I achieve other goals, I can review the digiscrapping goal again because I really do want to learn to digiscap.
8. Short or Long Term?  Short Term and change digiscrap to Review Later Wish

Without giving you the details on each of the other items in my wish list, here are my current goals.

Short Term Goals (to achieve in 0 – 90 days)

1. Help Mr. Right get a job
2. Resolve our financial difficulties
3. Update family blog 4 times a week and turn the blog into a book at end of year
4. Live my life as an example to our children so they can have a close personal relationship with God
5. Help GigglyGirl and BusyBoy learn how to read
6. Create my first money making blog
7. Add clients to consulting  business
8. Read 1 book per week including 2 non-fiction books per month  Given the time involved in my other goals, I have reduced this to 2 books per month, 1 non-fiction book every other month
9. Keep up with the laundry on a daily basis
10. Plan my weekly menus in advance at least 3 times per month
11. Workout regularly

Long Term Goals (to achieve longer than 90 days from now)

1. Payoff our debt and create a net worth of $5 million
2. Help on the Republican Nominee’s Presidential Campaign in swing states in October and November
3. Attend the RNC Convention
4. Lose 22 pounds
5. Determine whether or not GigglyGirl and BusyBoy will be in the same class not next year or not
6. Write a book with Mr. Right
7. Face life with a positive attitude even during adversity

Review Later Wishes

1. Start additional money making blogs   
2. Purchase a flat screen television for our bedroom and one for our family room I do want to do this but will need to review it again in a few months.   
3. Purchase a second car
4. Go on a family vacation sometime in 2008
5. Let GigglyGirl and BusyBoy take swimming lessons this spring
6. Replace the siding on our home
7. Replace the lighting in our kitchen
8. Volunteer for the various organizations I want to volunteer in
9. Learn to digi scrap
10. Have a spa day once a week
11. Finish paper scrapbook projects that I have already started and have not finished

Next week, I will review how to break each goal into manageable parts so that the goals can actually be achieve.  In the meantime, you may want to check out my other posts in this series:

Do You Have a Program to Set Goals?
Develop a Personal Mission Statement
Create Your Wish List:  A List of Everything You Want To Be, Do, and Have

If you have created a wish list and determined which wishes are your goals, leave a link in the messages below.  I’d love to hear about your progress.

This post is part of Shannon’s Works for Me Wednesday.  Be sure to check out all the other entries on the official site.  It is a wealth of information is many great tips and resources.

Once you have created your mission statement, you need to determine what goals you want to accomplish.  For me the best way to begin this process is to all of the things that I want to be, to do, to have.  This is called a wish list.  It is a no holds bar list.  Now is not the time to evaluate whether or not you can actually be, do, or have any of these things right now.  Do not over think it.  Brainstorm your list and be bold as you do this.

Here is a sample of what my wish list has on it right now.

1. Mr. Right to get a job
2. Resolve our financial difficulties
3. Live my life as an example to our children so they can have a close personal relationship with God
4. Help GigglyGirl and BusyBoy learn how to read
5. Create my first money making blog
6. Help on the Republican Nominee’s Presidential Campaign in swing states in October and November
7. Start additional money making blogs
8. Add clients to consulting  business
9. Purchase a flat screen television for our bedroom and one for our family room
10. Attend the RNC Convention
11. Read 1 book per week including 2 non-fiction books per month
12. Keep up with the laundry on a daily basis
13. Plan my weekly menus in advance at least 3 times per month
14. Purchase a second car
15. Go on a family vacation sometime in 2008
16. Lose 22 pounds
17. Let GigglyGirl and BusyBoy take swimming lessons this spring
18. Determine whether or not GigglyGirl and BusyBoy will be in the same class not next year or not
19. Replace the siding on our home
20. Replace the lighting in our kitchen
21. Volunteer for the various organizations I want to volunteer in
22. Write a book with Mr. Right
23. Face life with a positive attitude even during adversity
24. Update family blog 4 times a week and turn the blog into a book at end of year
25. Learn to digi scrap
26. Have a spa day once a week
27. Workout regularly
28. Finish paper scrapbook projects that I have already started and have not finished
29. Payoff debt and create a net worth of $5 million

Now it is your turn.  What are your wishes, hopes, and dreams?  What do you want to do?  What do you want to be?  What do you want to have?  Remember this is a no holds bar list.  Do not think of reasons why something should or should not be on the list.  Simply list these things out.  If you complete this exercise on your own blog, leave a link in the comments below.  If you do not have a blog, feel free to leave your list in the comments below.

This article is part of a series on “Do You Have a Program to Set Goals?”  If you have not already done so, check out the post on Developing a Personal Mission Statement.  Come back next week as we learn how to determine if each item on the liss tis a wish, dream, or goal.

Stephen Covey has the most information on developing a personal mission statement.  His books focus on this central theme. 

Here are questions to ask when creating a personal mission statement:

1. When your life is over and people speak at your funeral, what do you want them to say about you?  What will I have accomplished when my life is over?
2. What can you do that adds value to not only your life but the lives around you? 
3. What values and principles do I stand for?  What values and principles do you admire in others?
4. What are my talents? 
5. What are the roles I have in life? 

Take the answers to these questions and make a first draft of your personal mission statement.  Put it in your purse or wallet to keep it close to you.  Reflect on it and modify it as the weeks progress until you feel you have finessed it just so for your life.

Once you have a final draft, use it during your weekly planning and to help clarify your goals.

Ok, now I am opening myself up and sharing the notes that I made when I went through this process.  It was 10 years ago and it is interesting how little the ideas have changed even though many of the circumstances of my life have changed.  I suppose that is really the point.  You mission statement should be sustaining over time.  It is about your values and what matters most to you.  It is not fleeting. 

Jen’s Personal Mission Statement Process

What would I would like to have said about me at the end of my life?

• My wife loves me and has always demonstrated that love through faithfulness, honesty, understanding, compassion, support, and strength.
• My mom loves us very much.  She always put our family before outside influences.  Her life was an example to us through her relationships with God, family, friends, and strangers.
• Jen loves God.  She tried to live her life by 2 rules:  treating others as she wants to be treated and loving her neighbor as herself.  She put God above all else. 
• Jen has served her country with a cheerful heart.  She was an active citizen and a public servant.  She loves our country.  She constantly studied and learned how ideas for freedom work or do not work.
• Jen has worked hard to make her community a better place to live.  She looked for areas to improve and sought to improve them. 

What values and principles do I value and/or admire in others?
Honesty, integrity, love, passion to learn, sacrifice for country, sacrifice to do right thing, wisdom, leader, love of God

What are my roles? 
Christian, family member (wife and mother), American, Community Servant

First Attempt at My Mission Statement:
To live my life as an example to others by:

• Putting God first and loving God with a joyful heart
• Loving my family unconditionally and faithfully
• Treating my body with respect so I can be healthy to love and to serve
• Serving my country and the freedom for which it stands through learning, challenging others, and working to elect/vote for those who/which stand for freedom
• Serving my community by looking for areas in need of improvement and striving to improve those areas to a level of excellence
• Growing as an employee so that I learn skills that may be applied in all areas of my life.

Modified and Current Mission Statement:

I thought the original mission statement was a bit too long and wordy.  It is hard to remember.  I have modified it to the following, which encompasses much of the original intent but is less wordy. 

To live my life as an example to others by putting God first, loving my family unconditionally, treating my body with respect, and serving my country and community to make it a better place for future generations.

Here are some additional resources you may be interested in for developing a personal mission statement: 

Exercises to help develop a personal mission statement
Covey’s Mission Statement Builder
Value of Writing a Personal Mission Statement
Online Leadership Resources
Praying into Your Mission Statement

Join me for my next article in the series “Do You Have a Program to Set Goals” in which we Create a Wish List:  A List of Everything You Want to Be, Do, or Have.

In the meantime, I’d really like to hear from you.  What is your personal mission statement?  Do you have one already?  Are you going to create one?  Leave comments below telling me your mission statement and link to your blog if you are creating one from scratch.