We all get excited when January 1st rolls around. We create grand plans for the year to come. We create huge lists of what we’ll do and accomplish. Big goals and even bigger resolutions.
– “I’m going to get into the best shape of my life!”
– “I’m going to build my business to $100,000 revenue!”
– “I’m going to manifest 100 new high-ticket clients!”
And then what happens? Right. At some point usually in the first month, something goes off the rails, we can start to feel like we’re already behind schedule and pretty quickly, those huge yearly goals start to look more and more unreachable, unattainable, and unrealistic. And the next thing you know, you’re running out the clock until next year, when you get to try it all over again.
That’s the trouble with setting yearly goals.
They’re fun & easy to set, but once you start to work toward them, their sheer enormity can actually demotivate you pretty quickly. And what’s more, because of their size, yearly goals can be near impossible to break down into a bite-size daily action items that you can actually get done.
So what’s the solution?
How can you set big, hairy, audacious goals for yourself and your business while still giving yourself a chance of accomplishing them?
I’ve found that creating Quarterly “Rocks” is the best way to go.
Quarterly Rocks, are the 5-7 goals that you have for the next 3-months that will bring you closer to realizing your bigger goals and vision for the year.
Quarterly Rocks don’t compromise your ability to have a big vision for the future one bit, but they force you to break your vision down into four, bite-sized, 3-month, achievable pieces that you can actually get started doing today that won’t leave you feeling paralyzed or stuck.
Plus, setting Quarterly Rocks has the added additional benefit of allowing you to start each quarter feeling stoked and ready to go.
And my favorite quarter? It’s Q4 – the end of the year, because I like to start fast and finish strong. To me, Q4 represents the harvest, collecting the bounty on the seeds I planted throughout the year. It’s the culmination of my vision or the year.
And before I dive it, it’s important that you not compare yourself to me or anyone else. I’m running 3 companies simultaneously right now which is not something I recommend unless you’re a seasoned entrepreneur and you enjoy working very long hours.
Plus, you never want to compare your “beginning” with someone else’s “middle” or “end”. Or even compare your “middle” with someone else’s “middle” or “beginning”. (You get the idea.) You’re exactly where you need to be to make the next 3 months the most powerful you’ve ever experienced in your business up until now.
So here are my quarterly rocks for October-December 2017:
- Implement our first 7-figure+ launch with the Experience Product Masterclass
- UpgradeExperience Product Masterclass and dial-in coaching systems to get even more students to “Mission Accomplished”
- Sell first 300+ tickets to Message to Money LIVE
- Grow Heroic membership base by 600 members by the end of the year
- Bring in $150K in Heroic sales by the end of the year to break even in the last quarter
- Relaunch the Internet Famous Agency website and get our first 3 customers
- Prioritize health, fun and self-care: create time and space to rest, rejuvenate and enjoy
You’ll notice that my first two rocks are about the Experience Product Masterclass. It’s common to have several quarterly rocks around the same project. Every rock doesn’t have to be around a different project, in fact it’s often better to have 2 or more rocks around a single project.
One more thing to keep in mind as you hear my list and some big numbers and goals: I’ve been working towards some of these goals all year-long.
Over the last two quarters I had quarterly rocks around getting a specific number of partners to promote the Experience Product Masterclass, so a 7-figure launch this quarter is now possible.
So what I want you to see is that your quarterly rocks are progressive… they stack from one quarter to the next and lead you towards realizing your larger goals and vision for the year. I usually create my quarterly rocks in advance for the entire year, then review and revise them before each new quarter begins to make sure they’re up-to-date with how things have evolved throughout the year.
If it feels overwhelming to you to create your quarterly rocks for an entire year, simply focus on defining your rocks for the next 90-days and put a reminder in your schedule for 3-months from now to come back to work on your next set of rocks.
(And the real magic is you don’t have to hit every goal for every quarter. The mere fact that you’re able to take consistent action all year long is going fundamentally transform your life and business by the end of the year.)
Your Next Steps: I want to support you into going into this last quarter (and every quarter throughout the year) with clarity and focus by setting your quarterly rocks.
What are the 5-7 measurable goals that you can realistically accomplish over the next 3-months? These should be big enough that they’ll move you towards your larger vision for your life and business, yet small enough that you can accomplish this in a 3-month time period.
Ideally these goals build on what you’ve been working on over the last 3 quarters, and help you realize your larger goals and vision for the year.
Now if you’re just getting started, keep it simple and take things one quarter at a time… that way you stay open to the new opportunities that come when you take action.
Don’t beat yourself up about what you haven’t done yet this year, focus on what you can do over the next 3-months. The past doesn’t matter, what matters is what you do starting today.
Let me know what your rocks are in the comments below!
If you take 5 minutes now to do this exercise, you’ll have a clear vision for going into the next 3-months. You’ll be able to finish the year strong by really focusing your time, energy and attention.
And when you have your Quarterly Rocks on your wall driving you you each day, you won’t need to plug into something or someone else. You’ll have an inexhaustible energy source inside of you, so you’ll always be in control of your state, focus & flow — which is the one thing that separates successful entrepreneurs from the unsuccessful.