I want to talk about something that changed everything for me when it comes to annual planning. How I used to plan for a new year was on January 1st I would sit down and start to create my resolutions for the year. It would be overwhelming and I would not normally reach any of them because it was so long and I always changed my mind on a monthly basis anyways. Annual goals just really didn’t work for me.

When I discovered creating more of a 90-day plan, that’s when everything changed. I had less stress trying to complete goals for 90 days. Previously, I didn’t know how to break down my annual goals into milestones and actions.

The best thing that happened for me with my 90-day plan was when my husband joined our team in 2014 and we decided we needed a whole new website rebrand AND that we needed to create a whole new course called The Dream Career Launchpad. This was a huge undertaking and it was very overwhelming at the time. I decided to use a 90-day plan like you can download here.

We got done everything way faster than 90 days! We got our entire website rebrand and course done in just one month because we had it all planned out and focused on the most important things we needed to do to make it happen. It’s all about the focus and priorities and I am determined to help you make it happen!

So let’s dive into the five things you need to do to make your goals and dreams happen (or whenever you are reading this).

The 5 Proven Steps To Achieve Your Goals

Note: If you haven’t downloaded your Create your future 90-day planner yet, you need to do that. You can get access to it at www.classycareergirl.com/freeplan. It’s a 40-page planner you can print out yourself if you want to or just use certain pages that you like as well. It’s also digital so you can complete it online as well. Today I am going to walk you through that whole first section you should do before the new year starts.

1. Looking Back

I usually do this in November before the year actually starts but you can do it whenever you want. Look back at the last 90 days or year and get clear on what did work. If you run a business, look at your sales and income and look at when you were happiest. When were you in a groove and loving what you did in your career?

Do some brainstorming and journaling. What are you grateful for that happened in your career and business? What were some of your biggest time wasters? Were you watching some shows that did not do anything for you? When you were at your best, what were you doing? Now we know when planning the next 90 days, you add in what you really enjoy.

2. Vision Journal

Dive into what you want your life to look like? If you could create anything in your future, what is your vision and what do you want to look like? I also want you to journal the words and phrases that represent your vision when you have completed your goal. When you complete your goal, what does life look like when you have that goal accomplished?

Why do you want to reach this goal? We can set goals all day long. This was a big thing missing for me in the past. I had no idea WHY I wanted my goals.

3. Annual Plan

This is about figuring out your three main goals for the year. Only three things you want to have done. Then we create focuses for each quarter. When it comes time to create your 90-day plan, you’ll already know your focus for those 90 days so you don’t have to start from scratch creating your 90-day plan. At the bottom is the next year’s focus so you don’t get overwhelmed with what you want to do long-term. You don’t need to focus on all your goals at once. You just need to focus on one or maybe two per quarter.

4. Quarterly Plan

Each quarter, you’ll have a focus.  You’ll come out with three big goals that you want to achieve in those next 90 days and you’ll want to write out why you want to accomplish those goals too. What you are going to get done and why do you want to achieve those things?

5. 90-Day Plan

This is where you are going to break down your three goals and determine what tasks you need to complete in 30/60/90 day increments to complete your goals.

We’ve made these five steps extremely easy for you to do with our free 90-day planner. Make sure you grab your copy and get planning for your best year ever. Download it for free at www.classycareergirl.com/freeplan