In part one of this blog series on Planning Your Most Intentional Year Yet we made a few lists. We evaluated our year and wrote down what went right and what went wrong. We did a little dreaming about how our perfect year would look. And then we made our Yes / No List.

We created boundaries around with our time, around our businesses and our families. With those boundaries in place we can better protect our resources and focus on our true priorities.

Next up . . . we’re going to start setting some goals.

A goal, by its very definition, is a target, a purpose or an intention. It’s the place we want to finish.

In order to accomplish a goal you have to set your eyes on the finish line and essentially put blinders on to everything else - all the distractions, the temptations and the noise. You have to focus on that target in order to reach it.

Now I’ve been guilty in the past of trying to do too many things at once. If you know me personally, that’s a shocker, right? Haha! And I bet you’ve done the same thing at some point. Piled on to an already full schedule? Yep. It happens.

But this year you have your Yes / No List and it’s going to stay somewhere you can see it so that doesn’t happen again. Ok team? Let’s get to it! ;)

Before you even start setting those goals, do a little evaluation of last year and the different areas of your life, your health, relationships, finances and business. Where do you feel like you need to focus the most this year?

Once you know those key areas it’s time to start forming some goals around improving them this year.

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Goal Brainstorming

Get your pen and paper out! It’s time to start jotting down some goal ideas.

Be sure the goals you write down are specific and can be measured. “Improving sales” is not a goal. “Increasing my average senior sale to $2500” is a goal. See how there’s a target to hit with that one?

These don’t have to be perfect. You’re just getting it all out on paper right now.

Once you’ve brainstormed as much as you possibly can, look over your list and choose the goals that are crazy important to you, that are in alignment with your priorities and that are going to move your business and personal life forward this year.

I’d choose between 8-10 goals to set for the year. Too many could paralyze you and keep you from taking action or just the opposite, exhaust you.

Goal Evaluation

Before you set these in stone it’s best to double check them against a few things. Ask yourself these questions about each of your goals:

Does this goal fall in line with my priorities and my “why”?
Do I have the time and the budget for this goal?
Is this the right time in my life for this goal?
Does this goal line up with my perfect year I dreamed about?

If you answered no to any of these questions it’s probably best to put that particular goal on the back burner for now. You can always revisit your goals. Nothing is permanent here!

Goal Setting

If you’re ready to make your Goals List then let’s do it! I’ve provided a few more pages to add to the Intentional Planning Workbook from the first blog post in this series. Go ahead and print those new pages out.

DOWNLOAD YOUR INTENTIONAL YEAR WORKBOOK HERE

Now, post that Goals List somewhere you can see it!

Goal Planning

Looking at that list for what you want to accomplish in a year can be a little intimidating and overwhelming. Those goals are going to take some time to tackle. So it’s best to break them down into smaller action steps and time frames. I like to break them down into quarterly (90 day) goals.

Here’s an example:

Let’s say you want to make $100,000 in sales this year. You want a sales average of $2500. That means you need 40 senior clients. How are you going to get there?

Quarter 1 Goal: $10,000 (4 seniors)
Quarter 2 Goal: $20,000 (8 seniors)
Quarter 3 Goal: $40,000 (16 seniors)
Quarter 4 Goal: $30,000 (12 seniors)

Now break that down even further into more action items.

Action Item Ideas:

Set available dates on the calendar.
Evaluate pricing to make sure you can get a $2500 average. (Do you need help with this? Look here.)
Create a marketing plan to book those available dates.

Keep breaking down those goals until you have a solid idea of what it is going to take to reach your big goals this year.

The Big Picture

In order to not get completely overwhelmed with trying to do too many things at once, I like to look at the year as a whole. Where can I fit all of this in to meet those goals I’ve set for myself each year?

If you have room for it you could get yourself a giant dry erase wall calendar of the year. I absolutely love this one I have in the studio. It houses all of our important dates - sessions, premieres, model team activities, marketing campaigns, conferences, and yep - goals.

Once I can see my year (the big picture) I can start putting those action items into my year. I know that in June and July the studio will be in full swing senior season. There won’t be much time for anything else other than shooting and sales. So, I am not going to try to tackle a big goal during those months. I’ll take it easy on myself. Make sense?

If you don’t have room for something like this you can always use a smaller desk or wall calendar. It doesn’t have to be fancy! It just needs to serve the purpose so that you can see the big picture.

I’ve provided a quarterly breakdown in the Intentional Year Workbook so you can start jotting down your action items now while they’re fresh in your head instead of impatiently waiting the 2 days for that calendar from Amazon Prime. Haha!

Intentional Growth

Outside of monthly goals I want to be sure I am growing my knowledge in all areas of business. I love to read and learn new things so I like to challenge myself to dive into one area or subject each month. If this is something you have an interest in as well but haven’t really focused on it just yet I would start with every other month instead of a new subject each month. Or give yourself a break when you know your calendar is going to be full.

Creating Your Intentional Growth List

It’s time to brainstorm all those big things you’ve been wanting to learn and improve in your business and life. What areas do you want to focus on this year? Are there some books you want to read? Maybe some podcasts you want to binge listen to? Maybe you have something personal you want to learn?

I’ll start a list to get the creativity flowing . . .

Off Camera Flash
Studio Lighting
In Person Sales
Instagram Stories
Facebook Ads
Branding
Workflow
Pricing
Pinterest
Model Team
Blogging & SEO
Chalk Painting Cabinets
Hand Lettering

Now think about your year as a whole. There are busier months and slower months in the senior photography business and probably in your home as well.

The purpose here is to take each of those areas of improvement and assign them to a month where you can really focus on them. If you can keep your blinders on and not get distracted by all the shiny objects you could grow by leaps and bounds this coming year. Align these with your goals and see exponential growth!

There may be months where you just want to only focus on your clients. That’s ok! And there may be months where you need to focus solely on your family. Maybe you have 2 kiddos playing 2 different sports at the same time. Been there! Or one of your kiddos has an upcoming surgery. You know those months are going to be crazy, so maybe you choose a lighter subject to focus on or nothing at all. We need mental breaks too!

Now, these are obviously not set in stone. You may find that you need to focus on something sooner in the year. Do it! The purpose is to just stay focused on one area of improvement instead of bouncing all over the place. Ok? Let’s do it!

Be sure you print out your Intentional Year Workbook. If you haven’t gone through the last blog post which covers the first few pages - what went right, what went wrong, dreaming, setting your Yes / No List - you can find it here. Then it’s on to brainstorming, evaluating and setting your goals for this year! You got this!

I can’t wait to see what you come up with. Please come on over to the Facebook Group to share with us about your most intentional year ever!