You’re a Creative and You Have Big Plans

...or maybe you don’t yet, and that’s totally okay too. Have you been known to fly by the seat of your pants?

Planning within your business is one of the most critical ways to set yourself up for growth and success - if you haven’t started planning things out yet, now is definitely a good time to start! Over the past year, we’ve sat down with 14 of our industry’s strongest goal setting and planning experts, and we’re going to break down our findings here for you today. As creative entrepreneurs, we have so much to offer the world. We have skills and talents that far exceed the world’s wildest imaginations, but perhaps more importantly, we have a purpose that’s rooted to our core and drives us forward beyond barriers each and every single day.

Just because we are more creative, more right-brained, more flow- or intuition-oriented than our corporate peers, doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be setting plans. In fact, we have the freedom to plan differently — the chance to set our intentions in a more meaningful way.

But how do we get to a place where we’re setting goals and planning for our businesses that is more meaningful than just a modified corporate structure? Do a quick Google search for “goal setting” and you’ll find corporate-style, linear, left-brain books on the topic. Many creative individuals and people who want a little bit more flow to life get turned off by this. Our free-flowing sort of thinking seems as though it was deemed inadequate or otherwise “less than” the traditional left-brain way of doing things.

This simply isn’t the case. We’re firm believers in the idea that there is more than one way to do something and goal setting is no exception. But here’s the thing: We think that goal-setting is non-negotiable. It doesn’t matter how you do it, just that you are doing it. A Harvard Business study revealed remarkable statistics relating to goal setting and success: 83% of the population does not have goals; 14% have a plan in mind, but goal are unwritten; and 3% have goals written down. The study found that the 14% who have goals are 10 times more successful than those without goals. The 3% with written goals are three times more successful than the 14% with unwritten goals. Writing your goals down sets you up to be exponentially more successful. All it took was pen to paper!

In our creative space, there are many different ways to “write down” your goals - paper planners, goal setting planners, goal setting guides, and so much more! Whether you use one of these guides or planners or do the work on your own in a regular old notebook, there are a few key pieces that you need to assign to each goal.

A deadline: This deadline encourages you to focus on the goal and actually accomplish it.
A reason: Don’t just set goals to set goals. Make sure you understand the reason you’re setting them so that when you start to doubt or feel stressed, you can re-center yourself.
A plan: The best goals have more than just a few-word statement on what you want to accomplish. You’ll create time to dedicate to this plan. When you sit down, you’ll know exactly what you need to be working on.

Goal setting is a crucial element of business planning, but know this - it doesn’t matter how you choose to set goals, only that you’re taking the time to do it! The more you do it, the more you learn about yourself and you’re able to make predictions that work for how you like to work.