How To Turn Your Goal In To An Action Plan

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Who has a New Year’s Resolution?

Having a goal is great.

But How To Turn Your Goal Into An Action Plan?

Not so great.

It’s tough, taking something so abstract and breaking it down into a tangible plan of action.

Where oh where to start?

With New Year’s Resolutions on our minds, everyone is reviewing last year and making plans for this year.

Most people don’t even last a month.

But we are moms.

And we know how to stick something out for the long haul.

We do, after all, give 18 years (and then some!) to our children.

So we can make it more than a month with our New Year’s Resolution!

Let’s do this mommas!!

How To Turn Your Goal Into An Action Plan

1. Identify your SMART goal for the year

Need help figuring out your goal? Read the Three Dirty Secrets to Identifying Your Goal. Never turned a goal into a SMART goal? The 3 Dirty Secrets will walk you through that, but if your goal is a blogging goal, this post is a better option.

An Example of a SMART GOAL:  Make $1,000 a month from freelance writing every month.

2. Break it down into mini-goals

Take your big yearly goal and break it down by quarters and then by months.

What are your mini goals that you need to reach each month to attain the final goal by the end of the year?

What needs to happen in 6 months?

For example,  a writer may want to make $1,000 a month freelancing but that is not something that is going to happen right away.

Example Mini Goals:

Six Months – reach $1,000 a month and stay there for the next six months

First Quarter (first three months of the year) – make $500 a month

Second Quarter (the next three months) – increase income continuously until $1,000 is reached, by the end of the quarter

Third Quarter – stay at $1,000 consistently

Fourth Quarter – stay at $1,000 consistently

3. Identify a few steps you need to take each month to reach your mini goals

What do you need to do each month to be sure you reach your quarterly goal? What steps can you take? What tasks do you need to complete?

Brainstorm – write it all down. Then choose the ones that seem doable and will get you to your goal.

There are many ways a writer could reach an income goal by freelancing, but let’s say one decided pitching clients and publications was the best place to start.

So what does one need to do each month to reach that goal?

PITCH!!

(For those of you not in the freelancing world, that means to propose writing ideas to a publication or a prospective client.)

Let’s say a writer averages $50 – $200 per article.

If that writer wanted to make $1,000 a month, that would mean she needs to be paid at least $50 for 20 articles a month.

Since every idea pitched won’t be accepted, one needs to pitch more than 20 ideas a month. That writer might want to pitch 40 ideas every month – assuming at least half of the proposals will be accepted.

Example Steps:  Pitch 40 articles a month, landing at least half of them for $50 to $200 per article

4. Break those steps down into weekly tasks for each month

You broke your quarterly and monthly mini-goals down into actionable steps. Now take those steps and break them down into actionable tasks for each week of the month.

I find completing actionable steps for each month to be overwhelming, so I focus only on the first month or two. After those months have passed, I look at the next two.

For example, pitching 40 ideas, articles, or prospective clients each month may seem incredibly overwhelming.  But, to get 40 pitches out by the end of the month, one only needs to pitch 10 ideas every week.

That’s only 2 pitches per weekday.

That is far more doable!

Example goal:  Earn $1,000 a month from freelance writing on a consistent basis

Example quarterly mini goal:  Earn $500 a month to start with

Example monthly step: pitch 40 articles a month

Example weekly task: pitch 10 ideas a week

Example daily task: pitch twice a day

If needed, you can break your daily task down further.

For example, one may want to get one’s pitching done first thing in the morning, so another goal one may have is to get up early and use that extra time to pitch.

EXAMPLE ACTION PLAN: Start every weekday out by getting up at five a.m. and pitching two articles before doing anything else.

Of course, a writer can’t just pitch. A writer actually has to write the articles that are accepted and get paid for them. So one would need to complete an action plan for that task as well.

You may have more than one plan of action to arrive at your goal.

5. At the end of the month, review your progress.

How did it go? Did you get the steps done to reach your mini-goal that month?

Will it keep you progressing to the next mini-goal, and the next, until you are well on your way to reaching your resolution?

Or were you unsuccessful?

Review what obstacles were in your way, and make a plan to overcome them.

Review your tasks – are they realistically able to get you to your goal? If not, you have the wrong action steps. Repeat steps 2 – 4 to arrive at realistic, achievable action steps.

Then create a weekly to-do list for the next month.

6. At the end of the quarter, review your progress

Re-evaluate your goal and your action plan. Are your daily and weekly tasks helping you to reach your monthly mini-goals?

Are your monthly mini-goals getting you to your quarterly goal?

Will your quarterly goal help you reach your final resolution?

Repeat steps 3 through 6 for each month and each quarter until you have arrived at your goal!

I know it still seems daunting.

How to start?

I take out my calendar. I have a plain old monthly/weekly planner that I use to break my goal down by quarters, months, weeks, and daily tasks. I start at the end of the year and work myself backwards.

Another secret I discovered: The Slay Your Goals Planner.

This planner is amazing! It is a printable planner that you can also type in to, directly on your computer.

It is a 60-page planner that seems almost daunting at first.

But it has 60 pages because we all have different learning styles and different ways our brains compute things. So what works for me might not work for you.

This planner gives you a variety of options for identifying your goals and breaking them down into actionable steps. You complete the pages that make sense to you and skip the ones that don’t fit your style.

The most important aspect of the planner: It helps you identify your goal and then break it down into actionable steps.

Other benefits: It helps you work out why your goal is important to you and where you want to be down the road (in 2 years, 5 years, and 10 years).

This planner looks at more than just one aspect of your life – it helps you set goals for your physical health, financial health, your spiritual health, your relationships, etc.

It uses pie charts, brain maps, lists, and even a letter to yourself – all different tools to help you identify your goal and break it down into actionable steps.

Use the tools that work best for you.

It ends with printable calendars and daily to-do lists. It is a complete guide to slaying your goals!

The best part?  For a limited time, you get a free Ebook with your planner!

Turn your New Year’s Resolutions into achievable goals in 2023 with the “10 Quick & Easy Goal Slaying Hacks” eBook. Each hack has easy-to-implement advice to push you beyond goal setting into goal slaying. This 20-page eBook also shares inspiring tips for gaining confidence and motivation even when things get hard.

If you are serious about your resolution this year, grab your Slay Your Goals Planner here!

Good Luck Momma! Together we can make this year truly amazing!!

What is your resolution for this year?  Tell us!