I’m cringing at the thought of writing this and reporting on my lack of results. But here we go, no overthinking: this is my impossible goal quarterly review for Q1 (January to March 2020).
My impossible goal & milestones
You probably don’t know this, as I think I’ve only told The Man, but my impossible goal for 2020 is to make £50,000 with Living the Goodenough Life (this blog and the business I’m building around it). It’s difficult to share with others, probably because I don’t believe in myself enough yet to be confident about it.
Anyhoo, the reason for setting an “impossible” goal, rather than a realistic one, is to grow in the process of pursuing it. My word for 2020 is indeed “growth”.
If my goal for 2020 was to run a 10km race for example, I could pretty much keep living my life the way I already did. Because I know I can be consistent with exercise and 10km isn’t a scary distance for me. The reason for choosing a big business goal is that it will force me out of my comfort zone and I’ll need to figure things out along the way. I also need to show up consistently even when I get discouraged.
I’d like to note here that a lot of the thinking around this and the progress I’ve made is thanks to Sam Laura Brown and her community Perfectionists Getting Shit Done. Do check out her content if what I write here rings true with you!
To work towards my big £50,000 goal, I’ve broken the year down into quarterly milestones to work towards. My milestones are:
- Q1: £5,000
- Q2: £10,000
- Q3: £15,000
- Q4: £20,000
This is helping me to not get discouraged, by focusing on my current milestone, rather than overthinking the past quarter’s results (or lack thereof).
Progress during Q1
Drumroll please… I didn’t achieve my Q1 goal. So far, I’ve sold one item from my Etsy store (yay!), but that was yesterday, so not in Q1. However I do now have an Etsy store set up and I’ve added products to it, so I’ve set up the foundations for future income.
The things that I feel proud of from Q1 are:
- I didn’t veg out during Baby J‘s naps, but instead consistently worked on my blog and business (even when I wasn’t seeing results).
- I created a self-care workbook based on the Beat the Blues Challenge.
- I added Goodenough Mum items to my Etsy store.
During Q1, I learnt that:
- I can show up consistently in my business.
- I can be a mum and do other things too.
- Things get easier when I keep doing them. 😊
Things that worked well last quarter:
- Getting into a daily routine (more on that in the blog post that will come out next Thursday!).
- Getting up early so I can be ready to work during nap times.
- “Just doing it” and showing up when I doubt myself
Things that didn’t work well last quarter:
- Letting myself stay up late (watching telly, playing video games or just spending time online).
- Not getting blog posts out on Thursdays no matter what (you are reading exhibit A, ha).
- Not prioritising my tasks, i.e. having too many on any given day (26 instead of six…).
My game plan for next quarter
My milestone for Q2 (April to June) is to make £10,000 with Living the Goodenough Life.
It’s worth continuing to work towards this milestone (no matter the results) because:
- It teaches me to show up even when I’m feeling discouraged.
- Showing up will provide content that will help and inspire people.
- I’ll be more proud of myself than if I sat around doing nothing. 😊
In no particular order, here’s the work I’m going to do towards reaching that milestone:
- Finish updating my Etsy shop (for now), i.e. prices, terms & conditions and adding all the Goodenough Mum items – by the end of April.
- Creating the beta version of my Sane Mama online course and just getting it “out there” – by the end of April.
- Scheduling pins with Planoly to help people find my products and content – every week starting today!
- Being more active on social media (posting and engaging) – every week starting today.
- Creating more freebies for people to join my email list – a new one every month.
- Publishing blog posts on a weekly basis to reach more people, more often – every Thursday from now on.
- Getting into YouTube / podcasting to create more of a relationship with my audience – by the end of the quarter. If you have any ideas regarding this, please share them in the comments!
The lessons I am taking with me into Q2 are:
- Showing up is satisfying in itself, but it also yields more results than not showing up.
- Going to bed early and waking up early makes me happier (though how I feel is a choice!) and more productive.
- Shame festers in the dark: talk about projects with people.
If you’re struggling with similar things, here’s three ideas that might help:
- Time will pass anyway, might as well do something with it.
- Something little that you do could have a massive impact on someone, but you can’t know if you don’t do it.
- Think of whatever you’re doing as fun, and it will become fun. 😊
Back to you: do you do a quarterly / monthly / weekly review? Do you have a goal for 2020? How is it going so far? If you need help, please check out my free guide to making time for what is important!
Keep safe and have a lovely day!
xxx
Jessica
