Episode 140 | Goal Planning for 2020

I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling pretty excited about the upcoming year.  We are moving into a new decade, I’m celebrating a big birthday this year, the big 4-0.  It’s hard to believe.  As you are planning out your 2020, I want to share with you some ideas on how I plan and set goals.

As many of you know, I’m a huge advocate of the whiteboard.  It’s been my best friend as of late as my admin and I worked through what we want to do in the next year as well as the years ahead.  We talked through the dream of Mary Valloni Consulting.  2019 was the year I was able to bring on my first team member and maybe this is the year for you to do the same.  I also picked a word for 2019, which was fly, and my new word for 2020 is multiply.  It’s a word for the year that encompasses the season of life I’m in.  Adding a member to my team was one way to multiply, but I also believe I have all the tools I need for this next season.  I’ve built out everything I need and now I just need to go all-in.  Today I want to talk about the 7 areas to focus on when goal planning and I also want to show you how to use my 7-step FREEDOM process on those goals.  The seven areas I want to touch on today are

  • Physical
  • Financial
  • Spiritual
  • Career
  • Family
  • Mental
  • Social

The overarching goal I have for 2020 is consistency.  For my physical goal, my eating has always been pretty good, but when it comes to my physical activity, not so much.  So, my goal is 30 minutes a day.  It doesn’t have to just be in the gym, it can be going for a walk, too.  One of the items on my “what brings me joy list” is Forest Park.  I love jumping into my car with the dogs and going for a walk in the park.

Financial goals are important because it’s how we control our future.  I have a savings as well as a giving goal on my list because it’s a big deal for me to make sure I’m financially secure.  Ten years ago, I was going through the Dave Ramsey plan of paying off debt.  We’ve paid off most of our debt, but we still have this small loan leftover from building our house and I’m on a mission to get it paid off in the next month.  For my giving goal, I took out my checkbook and wrote a check to my favorite charity and put it on my vision board so that I can see it every day. 

Next is the spiritual goal.  As many of you know, I am a Christian, and one of my spiritual goals is I want to be a better prayer.  I never not want to be in prayer.  For 2020, I will pray for 20 specific people every single day for the entire year.  I’ve already put together the list of the 20 people I will pray for each day.  Starting January 1, I’m going to be praying each morning for this list of 20 people.  Not just for God to help them, but for God to really speak into their lives.

The career area is one where people put a lot of attention, but it’s only 1 of 7 areas.  Obviously, it impacts some of the other areas, but I don’t want you to give it more weight than it deserves.  My career goal for 2020 is to serve more people.  When I first got started in my business, I was working with one specific charity and have for the last five years.  I just recently stepped down as their consultant so I could serve even more charities.  I have nearly 300 clients and my goal is to get to 1000+. 

What is it that you want when it comes to family?  For 2019, the goal for my family was to build our dream home, which we did.  I told you at the beginning of this episode that I’m turning 40 this year.  My husband and I have been married for 18 and we still don’t have children.  To me, that’s a really big deal.  For 2020, we are going to expand our family – whatever that looks like.  I’m keeping this a little open-ended because I’m not sure what it’ll look like, it could be to have a baby or adopt.

In the mental space, journaling is big for me.  It allows me to dump out all the nonsense – all the negative stuff that swirls around but also to write out any ideas I have.  Consuming content from books and podcasts is also a great way to grow and learn to become a better version of yourself.  For me, I want to consume and produce content every day – writing, journaling, and podcasting.

As you can imagine, I am an Enneagram 3, which means I’m an achiever, I like setting goals.  But social stuff is hard.  Hanging out with friends or spending time in hobbies doesn’t always give you the same kind of fix as setting/achieving goals does.  In 2020, my goal is to spend time with my girlfriends in St. Louis and reengaging in my community.  One of the other things on my list is coloring.  It’s a way for me to escape the craziness. 

For every one of your goals in each of these 7 areas, I encourage you to take my FREEDOM process and begin with step number 1, Focus Your Vision.  I’m going to talk about the career area since that’s easier to wrap your arms around.  What I have done in the career area is go back to what I want the vision to be for my business.  As you know, my 3 components are to educate, encourage, and empower.  I commit to that again for 2020 and say that is what I do, I educate, encourage, and empower nonprofit leaders to raise more funds and have more freedom.  During the strategic planning I did with my assistant, it became apparent that there is one group of people I am absolutely on fire for.  If you can’t answer the ‘why’ you do what you do, then you need to sit down and dig in a little deeper to figure out why you care. 

Next is Run Your Research.  I can’t just jump from 300 to 1000 clients overnight.  I have to change my system.  What do I need to study up on?  What systems do I need to know?  Then, you can Enlist Your Team.  Do I need more coaches?  Do I need help with marketing?  Next, you Enhance the Brand.  You’re going to start seeing new branding in 2020 which includes updates to website and social media.  Then, I’m going to Deploy My Team – my assistant, my graphic designer, my team members – everyone is going to be in their lane, they are going to know what their jobs are, and we are all going to do what we do best.  Next, Organize the Ask, I’m going to invite people to be a part into what we’re doing so they raise more funds and have more freedom.  The last part of the process is to Make a Difference.  Being able to continue to spread my FREEDOM message and provide the tools to others to go do what they do. You can see that you can put any of your goals into this FREEDOM process. 

As we walk into 2020 together, I’m hopeful about what we are going to create.   I have a crazy belief that ANYTHING you want is possible.  Whatever crazy dream you have in your heart for what you want to do, you can absolutely achieve it!  Here’s to 2020, may it be your best year yet.

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