Episode 634: 5 Steps to Goal Setting and Planning for the New Year (Mindset & Self-Care)

EBT634 – 5 Steps to Goal Setting and Planning for the New Year

Intro  00:01

Hey food bloggers. Thank you so much for joining me in this mindset and self-care focused episode here on Eat Blog Talk. One of the reasons I started a blog talk was to hold a space to talk about the importance of mindset and self-care. Being an entrepreneur can be a lot. If we are not taking care of ourselves, then getting actionable information about SEO Pinterest or whatever else is all moot. I will meet you back here every Wednesday to discuss various mindset and self-care topics. So you have the energy and space to tackle the rest.

Sponsor (Kara Myers)  00:37

Hey, bloggers, are you feeling overwhelmed by your blogging business and unsure where to focus your efforts to grow? Do you have trouble finding systems that work for you? I’m Kara, food blogger at sweetlysplendid.com. And full service blogging business coach, there’s so much that goes into blogging and finding what works best for you is the key to growing and making profit. I don’t believe in a one size fits all solution. It’s about what’s right for your business, not what the industry says you need. With my person first approach, I see the person not just the business, because at the end of the day, burnout won’t make you profitable. We’ll work together to pinpoint bottlenecks, make customized solutions and provide actionable steps in a one to one environment that fits in with your life and your time constraints. your blog and your success are the priority and main focus of every coaching session. My coaching program isn’t just another blog coaching system where you get a generic list of things to do. I would love to chat with you about how we could work together to grow your business for any questions or to sign up, just head over to sweetlysplendid.com/coaching to get started.

Megan Porta  01:39

Hello there, food bloggers. Welcome to this mindset and self care focused episode of Eat Blog Talk. Today we are going to talk about something that is near and dear to my heart. I love this topic so much. Five steps to goal setting and planning for the new year. And by the way, happy new year. It is the first day of 2025 as you’re listening to this. So I hope that things are going well so far. Hopefully they are, because we’re only a few hours in, and I just wish you all the best year ahead truly. It’s going to be a great year. I can feel it for so many of us. I am coming off a little tooth surgery today as I’m recording this. So I don’t know if that means I’m either dedicated or dumb for recording an episode feeling the way I do, but I am definitely not 100%. So bear with me today. If I sound a little off, that is why. 

Megan Porta  02:38

Also this topic is not 100% mindset. I really debated on whether or not to publish it here because of that, but it kind of is, if we don’t have a handle on our goals, our minds can really get cluttered and out of control. So I think it really does relate. And like I said, I absolutely adore this topic. I tapped into the power of goal setting a handful of years ago, and it has literally changed everything in my life and in my business for the better. And that is no exaggeration at all, because let me tell you, flying by the seat of your pants when it comes to goals and what your dreams are and doing the things you actually want to do is not the way to go. I’ve been there. It is fruitless, it’s aimless, it is resultless. It is not a good option. So I hope this episode encourages you to take the reins this year, so that next year, at this time, you can look back with much gratitude that you took the time for goal setting and planning in 2025. This is a powerhouse move. Many people avoid it because it takes a little bit of time and effort, and sometimes it feels daunting to think ahead to what you actually want to accomplish. Don’t do that. Don’t avoid it. If you’ve never thought through your year ahead before, now is the time to do it. There is no better year than 2025 to sit down and make this happen for yourself and your business. 

Megan Porta  04:04

If you already do plan your years in advance and think through your goals and dreams, maybe this episode will give you a few new ideas to incorporate into your plan, whether you’re a planner currently or not. I hope you get something out of this episode. I was just perusing through my goal setting and planning doc that I wrote last year around this time, I wrote a lot of ambitious goals down a year ago, and I would say that somewhere around 90% of them have come to fruition, and the ones that haven’t come to fruition have either become obsolete over time or irrelevant, or they’ve come really close to coming to fruition. There is so much power in taking the time for this exercise. Please promise me to start 2025 you will sit down and try it this year before we get to talking points, open your calendar. Please, right now if by your computer, or you have your phone in your hand and find a three or four hour chunk of time in the next week when you are going to commit to sitting down and doing this. Block out that time. Now, please do it. I will pause to let you do that. Do, do, do, do, do, do. 

Megan Porta  05:19

Okay, let’s talk through five steps to goal setting and planning for the new year. If you really don’t want to sit down and do this yourself and you want help with it, I do offer 90 minute goal planning sessions for people. If you send me an email at [email protected] with subject line, goal setting discount. I will give you $150 off a goal setting session, and this offer applies through the end of January of this year. 

Megan Porta  05:50

Okay, number one is define your why open a fresh new Google Doc and title it Goals for 2025. You are going to write all kinds of things in the doc when you do your sit down with yourself in the next week, but we’re gonna start with your why. And for now, as you’re listening, you can just type an outline in the doc, and then when you do your sit down with yourself, you can round it out more. Have you ever given your why any thought? Why are you an entrepreneur? Why do you do what you do? Why do you show up every day to publish content and connect with people and put stories and reels and videos out into the world? Maybe you’re clearly connected to your why? And if so, write it down, if you’re not just start typing and don’t stop typing until you feel emotionally connected to the words that come out, that is when you’ll know that you’ve nailed what your why is. I always tell people to keep asking yourself, why? Until you get teary. I’m an entrepreneur because I want to leave my job. Why? Because I want to leave my job. Why? Because I want to be home with my kids? Why because I hate being away from them so much? Why? Because we deserve to have the freedom to be together more often? Okay, that almost put me in tears. There it is, and these are exactly my answers from 12 years ago. By the way, my why was, and still is today that I wanted the freedom to spend as much time with my family as possible. So take a few minutes to go through this exercise, and you might want a box of tissues nearby. If you use it, it’s a good sign once you land on your why, embrace it. Own what your why is, you can create a Canva graphic for your computer, or write your y down on a whiteboard or on your bathroom mirror. Every single year, when I sit down to plan and set goals, I create a new desktop pattern for my laptop that has photos of the adventures my family and I took throughout the year. I also include photos of places we have yet to go that we would like to go, and things that we would like to do together. Having valuable experiences with my favorite people on my timeline is my why. So I put together all the words and images that support that, and I put that somewhere where I can see it multiple times a day as a reminder about why I’m working so hard and putting in the hours and all the energy on these businesses. Before you make any other plans and set any goals for the year, you have got to know your why, and you have to be super tuned into it and remind yourself of it all the time. 

Megan Porta  08:39

Number two, reflect on the previous year. I love this part because so often at surface level, it is super easy to dismiss all of the wonderful things that have been accomplished in a given time frame. Inside your magical new doc that you’ve created, you are going to reflect on two things, what worked in the past year and what did not work in the past year. Write down projects that you started or projects you completed, log revenue increases, traffic wins, specific platform wins, such as increased follower counts or increased engagement on Instagram or Pinterest or whatever, note any increases in email subscribers, or how well an opt in performed. Give attention to any engagement you were able to stir up inside of your community. Also think about improvements that were made with your body, with your mind, your family, your home. Maybe you took a vacation that you’ve been planning for a long time, or maybe even just scheduled a vacation that is to come on the horizon. Perhaps you were really good at setting personal or professional boundaries in the past year. This is a huge win, by the way. Maybe you joined a high quality mastermind group that sent your business and confidence into a new realm of awesomeness, or you made big or small upgrades to your site or your life in general. Did you start outsourcing? Did you cut back on outsourcing? Did you gain a fresh perspective on keyword research or Pinterest? Did you make new friends or join a new club or learn a new skill? Maybe you made improvements to your home or upgraded your car? Don’t forget to write down all of the failures you experienced as well. Because remember that failure is the best way to learn. Write out all the things that flopped and didn’t go as planned. This list will be just important as your what worked list, if not more important. Get it all out, every word of it, every bit of it, every failure, every win, every success. Because you are going to look at this doc a lot over the course of the next year. 

Megan Porta  10:45

Number three, goals, focuses, projects, what not to do all for the coming year. Now create a new section in your doc, and this is going to be for logging your goals, your areas of focus, the projects you’d like to create, as well as the things you do not want to focus on at all this year, when I do my planning calls with people, this is my favorite part, because it is so much fun to see people think ahead to a future version of themselves. So right now, think ahead to one year in the future. If you are somewhere where you can close your eyes, do that and just envision yourself sitting, maybe in the same spot or somewhere else. What is different in your life and in your business? What is the same? Which projects have you started? Which projects have you finished? How is your mental state or your physical body different, or maybe it’s the same? What trips have you taken? What people are most important to you? How’s your financial situation? What does your bank account look like? How’s your blog traffic? I also like to create a no list for myself. On it. I put projects, people, pursuits that I want to exclude from my life in the next year. Here is a no list from a previous year. Just to give you a taste. I had written down no video or photo focus, no Tiktok or threads or anything new that pops up in our world, no cookbooks or ebooks, no audits and no YouTube. Any time I was tempted to dig into one of these ventures throughout the year, I would open my dock. I would see what I had intentionally written down that I did not want to do, and I would remind myself to avoid it. As you know, we work in an industry absolutely filled with distractions, with new opportunities, new platforms that pop up all the time, like weekly, sometimes it feels like it’s daily. In order to work efficiently and to achieve the goals you want to achieve, you have got to exclude some things and exercise that say no muscle. I can honestly say that one of the biggest hindrances people experience when I’m doing planning calls with them is that they want to do too much, and they have a hard time saying no to things. So creating this no list is a really powerful way to focus on the things that you actually want to focus on for the year. So again, within this section, you are going to write down any specific goals you have for your business or your health or anything in your life. Really, you’re going to have, you’re going to write down the projects and things you would like to focus on, and you’re going to have a no list for the coming year. And by the way, this is all subject to change. Sometimes halfway through the year, I will really have a nudge to do something that wasn’t on my goal list initially, and it’s okay to change, but for now, this is what we are setting for our year. 

Megan Porta  13:45

Number four upgrades to make. I feel like I’m saying this about every part, but I love this part so much. I started doing this a couple years ago, and it has massively helped me to not only upgrade my life and my business little by little, but also to consistently chip away at tasks that are really easy to put off. The thing I love about writing down potential upgrades to make is that they can be teeny, tiny things, that when they’re stacked together, can produce really big results. Plus, there are just so many different ways to upgrade your life. The list can go on forever. Literally, I could spend four hours a day for an entire year making upgrades and never run out of things to do. For this past year, I have made a point to put one upgrade on my daily to do list every single day. It could be something super small, like schedule a dentist appointment, huh? That’s very relevant for today. Schedule a doctor’s appointment for a kid, or spend five minutes cleaning out the corner of the living room that’s piled with clutter. I need to do this now. It’s driving me crazy, but when these little things are done repeatedly over time, they help to create an uncluttered life, and this creates an uncluttered business. There is a correlation. Here are a few of the upgrades I wrote down last year, all of which were completed. 

Megan Porta  14:58

Create an ongoing to do. List for family, home life, upgrades, more friend time, regular date nights. Declutter home bit by bit. Purchase a new phone, consistent morning routine and self care. Get blood testing done, get caught up with medical appointments, clean a bedroom closet once and for all. Get caught up with laundry by the end of each weekend. And and that’s just a little snippet. So as you think of new upgrades, log them in your dock each week. As you plan, refer back to your upgrade list and toss a few things from it into your to do list for the week. You will be amazed at how much progress you’ll make with life and business admin type things and just overall, decluttering your home, your business and your mind. Do not underestimate the power of the upgrades when done consistently over time. This can transform a life in a business. 

Megan Porta  15:49

And number five, make a plan. We’re going to make a one year plan, a quarterly plan and a weekly action step plan, once you have all of the information compiled after your three to four hour session that you’re going to sit down and do in the next week. It’s time to make a plan. This is the fun part. You know your why. You have reminders of your why in places where you’ll see them often and you’ll be emotionally stimulated by them. You are doing this so you don’t lose sight of your goals, and so you stay on track with them. You have a long list in front of you telling you what worked last year, what didn’t work last year. You also have your goals, your focuses, your projects and things to avoid, written down, as well as a list of upgrades you’d like to make in the next year. From all this information, create four to five goals for the coming year. What will you have accomplished when you’re back here going through the same exercise next year? Maybe you have an overarching blog traffic goal or a revenue goal, or a health goal, or goals about a specific project, like completing an e book or writing a cookbook, or getting on the local news three times. Write them out and get specific now for each goal, what are one to three things you can do in the next quarter that will move you toward achieving that goal? An example is, if one of your one year goals is to write a cookbook, then a quarterly goal might be to have a proposal written, an outline written, and you’ve landed on a publisher. Each quarterly goal is going to steer you in the direction of action steps that you can put on your calendar this week and for the rest of the month. Action Steps to align with writing a proposal, inviting a publisher could be to land on a title, land on a topic, brainstorm recipe ideas, maybe even start testing recipes, write your outline and research and reach out to publishers. Go through this process with each one year goal. So you have quarterly goals that support each one year goal as well as action steps to support all quarterly goals. 

Megan Porta  17:56

Here are a few things that help me stay on track with my goals. Getting accountability. I use my husband for this. I use friends. I use Blogger peers. I also am highly motivated by self rewards. So if I do all my action steps for an entire week, I can have a binge meal at the end of the week, or take Friday completely off work, something like that. Also staying in touch with my why keeps me on track. I also like to frequently visualize a future moment in time that brings me peace and that aligns with what my why is, and I check in with my magical doc that I create each year, every day. That might seem like overkill, but it really, really helps me to keep everything top of mind and stay on track. Take five minutes, just five minutes. Everyone can find five minutes to start your day and just buzz through your why, your reflections of last year, your goals, your focuses, projects for the coming year, your list of upgrades and your plan. Doing this keeps it fresh in your mind, so that you’re always looking for opportunities that align with everything in your doc. It also provides an opportunity to make tweaks and additions to your doc as the year goes on, I typically make at least one small addition or change to my doc every single time I open it. 

Megan Porta  19:12

Don’t see this as a one and done thing. You don’t write everything out and then leave it until next year. This is the beginning of an ongoing commitment to following through with the things that support you achieving your goals once and for all. In a nutshell, this whole process will take four hours to sit down and make the plan, write everything down, and then five minutes a day to keep it going and flowing. That’s really not much time if you really want to make all of your dreams and all of your goals come true this year. This is the foundation of turning your dreams into reality. 

Megan Porta  19:47

So let’s recap, define your why reflect on the previous year’s wins and losses. Set clear goals and make a plan with actionable steps, and you are going to set yourself up for success and a very purposeful, awesom year ahead. If you haven’t done so yet, go set aside that four hour block on your calendar. Get into your goal setting mindset and start the year with so much intention. I’m excited to hear how this goes for you guys. I hope it goes well. Send me an email and let me know. I so appreciate you listening. Here’s to another year of awesomeness and growth and so many good things. I wish you the best 2025 ever. As always, I appreciate your ears here on the podcast, and I made it through the episode without being in too much pain, yay. See you next week.

Outro 

Thank you so much for listening to this mindset and self-care episode here on Eat Blog Talk. If you are a food blogger providing a service for other food bloggers, and you want to spread the word about the value that you offer. I would love to offer you a free way to do just this. Send me a 60 second audio clip to be featured in a mindset and self-care episode here on Eat Blog Talk in 2024. Go to eatblogtalk.com/audioclip to learn more.