Posted on August 13, 2009 - by Jus

Commitment to Milestones

The lack of posting on my blog is usually a sign that I am juggling many areas of my life, over-commiting myself and attempting to achieve a number of things all at the same time.

This past couple of weeks is no different.  Since starting with my peer coach, I have felt hyper charged in the bid to launch my business, even if only as a ’soft launch’ and start to gather the momentum and experience I know I will need in order to be in a position to quit my day job in June 2010.

That’s “the goal” if you like and it’s a biggun.  For many years I have talked (a lot) about getting out of the industry I have spent over a decade with and working for myself in a business that satiated my emotional needs as well as my financial and intellectual needs… it’s always been fear that has held me back and I am determined not to let fear stand in my way any longer.

You know how some people kind of live by the seat of their pants?  Live each day as it comes and rarely let more than the next 24 hours occupy their minds?  Well… that’s definitely not me.  I am a planner.  I goal setter.  A future-focused over-thinker.  By the time I get to a situation, I have generally considered almost every possible problem or issue that could arise and have made moves to anticipate these.  It comes from being a strategic personality I guess… or maybe that is euphemism for control freak…!

So in planning for the big goal of June 2010… I have started to set some key milestones.  At the same time, I have just finished the class on Goal Setting and although I didn’t necessarily learn anything new about the way I set goals, I did learn a bit about how much I often stress myself out by scoping out every last detail of what I need to do to reach that goal and giving them timeframes… which in turn overwhelms me and panders to the perfectionist in me…. which ultimately holds me back because I then get stuck in the frame of thinking “how could I possibly launch that, do that, tick off that milestone… unless I finish all the steps first?”

Sometimes it would do me well not to plan so much.  To just set a date and commit to the milestone being finished by that date and then using whatever resources I have available to achieving it.  Not disimilar to the way I have always managed people in my teams over the course of my career… when delegating, I set the task in the form of a ‘desired outcome’ and be clear about the expectations with respect to quality, boundaries and the deadline.  Then I set that person off to achieve that outcome in whatever way they feel is best.  If I was to prescibe the path or means by which they achieved the outcome, they would simply become ‘order takers’ and not show any initative of their own.

So why do I find it so difficult to use this theory with my own milestones?  Define the outcome, establish acceptable expectations for quality, boundaries and the deadline and then let myself get there in whatever way feels right as I go through the process…. rather than meticulously planning that process and freaking myself out with how many steps are involved!

To that end, this is me, setting milestones in the form of outcomes.  And I plan on holding myself to these, so stay tuned for updates!

Milestone 1
Outcome : my brand is established/launched and I can begin to market myself.
Expectations : Includes launching my business’ website with even the most basic of content (minimum 1on1 coaching and 1 workshop service) having business cards printed and newsletter subscription service, so that I have the foundation from which to build and grow between now and June 2010.
Deadline : August 23rd, 2009

Milestone 2
Outcome : facilitating workshop confidence.
Expectations : doesn’t matter what format the first workshop is in (live or teleclass) so long as it’s conducted and feedback is recorded for future learning.  Doesn’t matter if the attendees are paying or not.
Deadline : September 10th, 2009

Milestone 3
Outcome : one on one coaching confidence.
Expectations : involves at least one ICA peer coaching client and at least one non-ICA peer coaching client for a minimum of 12 sessions per client, with feedback sought and received.
Deadline : November 8th, 2009

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1. Course Curriculum
2. 108 | Idenitfying My Niche