Each year I say to myself, I am going to improve in areas personally and professionally. For example, I would like to lose 20 pounds, plan better for a special trip, grow myself professionally, de-clutter my closets, etc. Then the year goes by and somehow some of my goals and plans aren’t all accomplished.

Why is this? Perhaps someday, I should write a book on the “Art of Effective Procrastination” LOL!

Do you ever feel this is the case with you?

It is never easy to set and execute goals. I found over the years that some of the keys to success are to be sure we spend time on designing “SMART” Goals. When I was a member of a professional management learning group called the “Leaders Network”, founded by Larry Beeson, we learned effective goal setting techniques that helped both of us both personally and professionally. Sadly, this group no longer exists, but as a former owner and member, I am grateful to have learned the critical lessons in how to develop myself as a better leader who accomplished goals.

Here is what the Leaders Network taught…

SMART Goals must begin by being Specific.  Specific means that when you have accomplished a goal, you can prove you did it. An example of this would be: To grow our net profit by 4% over last year. The ‘M’ stands for Measurable and 4% was the goal, we either hit it or we did not. Our action plans and everything we did that year, had to align with this percentage. The ‘A’ stands for Attainable. Was 4% something we could achieve? Depending on the size of your firm, your competitive market, your growth potential, your ability to grow your revenue per case, and how much you can lower your costs, could determine if this is a Realistic goal, thus the ‘R’. We spent a great deal of time in the months before our new fiscal year began, discussing if the goals we wanted to accomplish were attainable and realistic. Like most everyone, we want to have wins, achieve most of our goals and not fail.  If our goals are too far-fetched, perhaps we needed to reassess what we thought we could accomplish. We did want to stretch ourselves a bit too, so the goals had to accomplish positive results that made us work for them. We also had to establish a date by when we wanted to accomplish each of the goals. That is where the ‘T’ in SMART comes in. As we learned, all goals must be Time-based, with a beginning and an end date.  Next, our goals need to be published, shown to others, and reviewed each and every week/month/and quarter where we assessed our progress and adjust our action plans. Sound difficult? Goals setting is not easy, but it is worthwhile work that is necessary in order to grow ourselves and our businesses.

As you work on your annual goals and plans for 2022, and/or re-assess them, I hope you consider making them SMART Goals.  I encourage you to ensure that you have a healthy balance of professional and personal goals. After these last 2 years of the Pandemic, we have learned that it’s important to make more time for ourselves, for our mental and physical well-being.

If you need help with goal setting, feel free to reach out to me. One of my SMART goals this fiscal year for my business, Your Funeral Coach, is to teach goals setting through my blogs, podcasts, and to my clients as one of the keys to success.  If I can help just one of you in my profession accomplish goals this year, that you thought you could not achieve, then I have done my job. That is what a coach does, helps others accomplish their dreams and goals.

I hope you will listen in to the Your Funeral Coach Talks podcast episodes coming in 2022 and sign up to receive the blogs and newsletters to learn more about goal setting, leadership, grief programs, business, and financial best practices from our Collaborative Network Partners. Make this year your best and learn more about accomplishing great results both in business and in your personal life in 2022.

On our next podcast episode, I will be interviewing John Schmitz, CPA and Financial Business Expert in the funeral, cremation, and cemetery profession. He and I discuss what companies need to do more of and less of to be successful, with a little added tax advice on this upcoming year.

I wish you many blessings and best wishes in 2022 as you seek to accomplish your goals both personally and professionally.

My best always,

Lisa Baue

Lisa@yourfuneralcoach.com
Yourfuneralcoach.com