Episode 28: Turning Dreams into Reality: Effective Planning and Goal-Setting Strategies for your Health and Business
Dec 06, 2023
Kathy Mead Fronheiser
You've been dreaming about those lofty business and health goals, but unsure how to navigate the journey? Buckle up, as we embark on a fulfilling ride towards achieving your aspirations! Starting with my personal favorite - planning - we'll explore myriad techniques from the humble wall calendar to sleek appointment-style planners to manage your life and work. We'll also draw parallels between achieving health and business goals, examining how the same techniques can be applied to both.
From there, we'll dive into the world of goal-setting and time management. We'll break those big, audacious goals into smaller, digestible pieces, figure out the best time blocks for each, and create a realistic, achievable roadmap. You'll get an exclusive look at my personal experiences with annual planning and the practical tips that have helped me. As a bonus, we're handing out a free resource from my coach, Holly, who's an expert in planning and goal-setting. Ready to transform your dreams into reality? Let's get going!
Here's a link to my biz coach, Holly Haynes, free resource all about planning called CEO Week.
You've been dreaming about those lofty business and health goals, but unsure how to navigate the journey? Buckle up, as we embark on a fulfilling ride towards achieving your aspirations! Starting with my personal favorite - planning - we'll explore myriad techniques from the humble wall calendar to sleek appointment-style planners to manage your life and work. We'll also draw parallels between achieving health and business goals, examining how the same techniques can be applied to both.
From there, we'll dive into the world of goal-setting and time management. We'll break those big, audacious goals into smaller, digestible pieces, figure out the best time blocks for each, and create a realistic, achievable roadmap. You'll get an exclusive look at my personal experiences with annual planning and the practical tips that have helped me. As a bonus, we're handing out a free resource from my coach, Holly, who's an expert in planning and goal-setting. Ready to transform your dreams into reality? Let's get going!
Here's a link to my biz coach, Holly Haynes, free resource all about planning called CEO Week.
Hey, hey, hey. Happy holidays to everyone out there. This is the fun over 40 podcast and this is your host, kathy. Hope you guys are doing well.
Speaker 1:
So today I thought we'd talk a little bit about planning and this is going to have a business focus, but I almost wrote this podcast outline and was going to talk about business and like health and wellness, because there are so many like correlations on this topic between the two, but I just thought it would be confusing. So maybe I'll come back and focus on health and wellness and planning. But, to be totally honest, even if you're not a business owner, you can listen to this and I think you are a very smart woman, my dear listener, and you can understand the correlations between planning for business and planning for health and wellness goals or really any goals, right? So the reason I'm talking about this now is a couple of reasons. Okay, first of all, we're at the end of a year, 2023. I'm recording this in December and for a lot of people they who have a business they're starting to think about, or maybe they've already thought about 2024, right, like what, what do I want to accomplish in 2024? Also, things are on sale right now, so it's a great time to buy some stuff Nothing crazy expensive, as you will hear what we're talking about today and while you're contemplating, like what to buy yourself during the holiday season and what might benefit you and your business and, like I said, maybe your health and wellness too, in the new year, let's talk about how some simple calendars and planners will help you meet your goals. Okay, so I'm talking like literally under $100, probably under. You could probably be even under like 50 bucks, I don't know, it depends. You know how snazzy you go for literally all three of these items that I'm about to talk about.
Speaker 1:
Okay, so these are the three calendars that I recommend. One I recommend getting a big wall like whiteboard type calendar for the that has the entire year on it, and you can find these on Amazon. I will find one on Amazon for you and link it in the show notes so you can at least see what I'm talking about. You don't have to get that specific one. I have yet to create myself like an Amazon store. I need to do that, but you'll at least see what I'm talking about. And then number two you want to get like a month to month calendar. So this is like the kind of calendar that my mom had hanging in the kitchen when I was growing up and you know it's got each month, it's got a little square for each day, and you know she would write like our doctor's appointments or sports games or whatever, right? So you want one of those and the one that I have right now super basic, it's just white and gray and it's got nice big squares and I can write them.
Speaker 1:
And then what I want you to get is an appointment style planner. And so when I say appointment style and you should see this like if you go to office depot or something like that, and this is the time of year, right? This is when all the planners come out for the year. So what I mean by that is should say appointment planner or something like that on it. But what I mean by that is that each day is broken into one hour increments or less and it's seen somewhere it's like 15 minute increments. So this is for scheduling your week, because it'll usually show you kind of a week at a time or not. Maybe it's like one day at a time, but whatever. But it shows like a week and your days. Okay. So again I'll share a couple of my favorite planners, again, just so you can see what I'm talking about, not because I get, you know, a commission or anything like that. Okay so, okay.
Speaker 1:
So first I want you to get that calendar that shows the entire year. Okay, that's step one. And again, I like the whiteboard style because things are likely to change Now. If you don't get a whiteboard style, if it's like a big piece of paper, use a pencil, right? Just use a pencil, so you can erase things if you need to. So the first thing I want you to do is to write any important dates like birthdays, you know. Vacations, if your kids are out of spring break, that sort of thing. Busy seasons at work, you know. Like, if you're a CPA, you know that certain times of the year super busy, that sort of thing. Then I want to make sure that you avoid those times. And I want you to write in your goals for your business launches. So let's say you're a health coach and you want to launch, like some, your eight week signature coaching program three times in 2024. So what are the dates of the launch that are going to work best for your schedule and your life, based on those non-negotiable dates, right, like you don't want to launch over your kids spring break when you know that you're going to be on vacation, stuff like that. Okay. So write those dates down again whiteboard or use a pencil if it's paper, because things change you never know right, and if this totally stresses you out, then maybe you just start with quarter one of 2024, you know, if you're listening to this in December, whenever you're listening to this, just start within that, try a quarter at a time, and just write those dates down, kind of that 10,000 foot view. Okay.
Speaker 1:
Now if this was health and wellness, maybe you're writing down like a race or something that you're shooting for or an event of some kind, like last year. I'll give you a health and wellness example last year, or this year, I should say 2023 in mid June we went to Maine on a cycling trip. So this wasn't like a race or anything like that, it was just weird. But we were going to be riding a lot and I wanted to be fit enough to enjoy those rides. Ie do long ish rides and not, you know, be in pain, obviously, and do multiple back to back days of riding, right. So that for me was a date that was on my calendar, not only because I was going to be on vacation, but also because I wanted to do some cycling training leading up to that event, so I was ready for it Anyway. But for you it might be a launch of some kind. It might be starting, you know, launching your eight week health coaching program. So now we have something to work towards, or rather we're kind of working back from those launches.
Speaker 1:
So now you see those dates on your big year calendar and for each date that you plan to start a new program, you want to block anywhere from four to eight weeks prior, like leading up to that date, to actually launch that course. And so what I mean by that is you want to talk about it on social media. You know you want to have like a social media plan and then talk about it and, you know, master that plan and really follow through with that plan. You want to send emails during that time to your email list. You want to talk about it to people you meet in person. You want to reach out to prospects that maybe weren't ready the last time that you offer this service, but they might be ready now. So basically that four to eight weeks leading up to your date that the program starts is like your runway to launch. I prefer a super long runway. I'm kind of a long runway kind of girl, but that's totally up to you. But I like to have time to really, you know, nurture my audience, share reasons why they should participate in this eight week.
Speaker 1:
You know, health coaching program. What are the benefits? You can answer any of the big objections you tend to get. You know you can do that in emails and social media, that sort of thing. And the thing is and this is what my business coach always talks about, and we talk about this in the mastermind that I'm in is like you should be so sick of talking about your program. You are so over it. But guess what? The people that are on your email list or follow you on social media, they need to hear it many, many, many times. I mean on social media. I hear you know I'm sure there's some research number out or research out there, but you know 10% or fewer of your followers actually even see your posts. So if you're sick of talking about it on social media, too bad, keep talking about it. So just keep talking about like, make yourself sick with it, okay.
Speaker 1:
So Next I want you to get out that monthly calendar. So this is the one where each page is a month and this is the one that I was talking about. You know your mom hung in the kitchen with your doctor's appointments or your. You know games or whatever growing up, so I also put in my notes. You know the ones the banks give out for free, right, so you might be able to get one of these for free from a bank or a grocery store. I don't know, you can put it in your community church, but you just wanted to have nice big squares that you can write in. Okay, so you use the annual, the yearly calendar as an overall guide. You know, like that 10,000 foot view Now the monthly calendar is going to help you with your monthly and weekly focuses.
Speaker 1:
So you know, for example, will you take an entire month to maybe work on a specific goal, like maybe you want to be a podcast guest on as many podcasts as you can, or maybe you want to challenge yourself to post three reels per week. You know, whatever it is, you can put your focus at the top of the month and then you know, give each week even a focus. So you look at your monthly calendar and the weekly focus, and then we're going to get to the final planner, but a little bit more on the monthly calendar and the focus. So the thing is, and we'll get to this with the final planner, but you're going to have stuff that you need to get done every week, right? I mean, you've got, you've always. Maybe you're sending a new email newsletter, maybe you're always, you know, like for me, I'm always recording a podcast every week. You know, there's things that you're going to do weekly and that'll go. We'll talk about that with the final planner.
Speaker 1:
But with the monthly planner or calendar, excuse me, what I want you to really think about is outside of just the day to day. You know, or maybe you're working with clients weekly, right, but outside of that, what would you like to be like a major focus for that month? Maybe it is launch. You know you might have two months in a row that are launching and then that can really dictate what each week focus and each daily focus will be. But you can also, let's say, you're working on a big project. Let's say that one of your months is to, like you know, create a website.
Speaker 1:
You know when I was creating my website and now I need to tweak it, so that's a whole nother thing. But when I was creating my website, that was a monthly focus for a couple of months and what that meant was every week I would set aside a couple of hours, like at a block, like a two hour block, usually on a Saturday or Sunday, so that I could really sit down and focus and dig into that big goal. So, yes, I was doing my weekly emails and my weekly podcast recording and my social media and helping my clients, but then my focus for the month, a couple of months in a row, was to complete my website, and so that was like a big project goal and so that was my monthly goal. But yours might be launching and then that might then be broken down into daily and weekly goals. So you take a look at that monthly calendar and the weekly focuses and then you're going to pull out your final planner, which is that daily weekly appointment planner. So we really want to use this one to break down each day into hours so that you can time block and actually achieve things and move your business forward.
Speaker 1:
So let's say that you have a goal to post three reels per week Mm-hmm. Well, when you are going? Oh, I'm sorry. When are you going to record those reels? When are you going to write the captions? When are you going to actually post? What about the other things that you have to do, like I was talking about, in your business, you know, like working with clients? So pull out your planner on Sunday, mark off your business hours for each day that week, you know, and on Sunday take like 20 or 30 minutes, pull out your planner and then I want you to block Monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday an hour each day.
Speaker 1:
Now you might do this. Maybe this isn't a paper planner for you, maybe this is digital and that's fine, but I want you to block an hour each day and then I want you to actually write in each one of those blocks what you're going to do with that time. So not only are you marking off the business hours, but you're telling yourself exactly what to do in those hours, so you know what to execute. I would say this is especially important. Well, it's important regardless, but especially if you have limited time, right, like if you're working a full-time job and you're trying to build a business on the side or you're a you know stay-at-home mom, and that's more than a full-time job and you're trying to build a business on the side and you have that sacred one-hour block that you have committed to your business.
Speaker 1:
If you haven't told yourself what you're going to do during that one hour, it is very likely that you will waste that hour and you will not get done what you want to get done. Okay, and that is not what I want to happen for you. I want it's amazing how much you can get done with one focused hour. So really want you to try this so that when that hour comes, whether it might be early morning before you start work, it might be late in the evening after you put the kids to bed, it might be your lunch break, you know but when that hour comes, you know exactly what you're going to do. Okay, and I'll be honest, I got all of these tips from my business coach, holly Haynes, and she's really great at walking us through, thinking through those big goals and then how are we actually going to make it happen? And that's how you break big goals into smaller, more achievable goals and get things accomplished. And I know at the end of the year, we're thinking about this a lot, like you're like what have I done this year? And here comes, you know, a new year and what do I want to accomplish in that new year and what is going to make this year any different from last year?
Speaker 1:
I think I genuinely believe that if you want to accomplish any goal financial goals, you know you want to go back to school. You want to create a business, you anything, I mean any goal. It's really you know, like if you have ever graduated from high school or college, you know this. You went into school as a freshman, you know, with zero credit hours. Your counselor helps you choose and sign up for your first semester of classes, then your second semester, then the next thing, you knew you were a senior and you're graduating.
Speaker 1:
Right, it is literally the same concept. It's because you had a large overarching plan and then you broke that plan down into smaller achievable milestones. So like one class at a time, one semester at a time, one year at a time, and then four years later it's done. So you all anybody listening to this knows this process. I promise you do, and you have done this. I promise I know you have. You have all achieved a goal that at the beginning felt overwhelming. You know. It's that whole saying like, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time? Right, but this is how people accomplish health goals, career goals, business goals, financial goals. You know crafting goals. You want to sew a quilt? Well, guess what? There's like steps in that process.
Speaker 1:
So I think if you're not achieving goals in your life and you'd like to, let's talk, because this is really just basic planning and mapping out of goals. But I get it. It can be overwhelming. We can get in our own heads. We as women are really good at that. So I'd say, get out of your own head, simplify it. Just get the.
Speaker 1:
You know, I think, get that yearly calendar, get the monthly. And the nice thing is, I will say a paper planner. A lot of times it has a month built in right to the appointment. The appointment planner usually has a month. So maybe you don't need all three, maybe you just need the yearly and the appointment book. It's got a month. You know two pages that show the whole month and then it starts breaking down the day. So maybe that's all you need, just a little FYI there.
Speaker 1:
But if you want to chat, I'm happy to walk through, like whatever your big goal is for the year or even, like I said, for the first quarter, and let's break that into doable steps or chunks or goals or whatever you want to call it, and then you can actually see and feel yourself accomplishing something, which is super exciting, I think, and that's what really creates momentum in your business goals, in any goal. But I'd love to chat, so just shoot me a message on Instagram if you want to, if you want to chat. But hopefully this was helpful. Hopefully it wasn't overwhelming. I was trying to keep it super simple so that, if you've never thought about this, that at least it sort of introduces you right like dip your toe in the water of a little bit of annual planning and you can definitely dive deep into this.
Speaker 1:
I will link my coach Holly's. She has a free what she is doing as a CEO week and it's like five days of videos that really walks you through like creating planning and creating habits and goals for yourself so that you actually accomplish some stuff, and she has a great planner that I love called the crush the rush planner or so on. But I'll link that in the show notes. Hopefully this was helpful. If you have questions, shoot me a DM on the Instagram, and I hope you guys were having a great holiday season and we'll talk to you soon. Bye.