The ULTIMATE Monthly Action Plan To Rock Your Goals And Your Life

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Coming up with a goal is actually the easiest part of the goal setting process. You start with evaluating where you are now and then figure out where you want to go - and if you're savvy, you also have a basic outline for how you want to get there.

Related: The High-Achiever's 7-Step Guide to Setting Crystal Clear Goals

But what happens next? 

If you're like 80% of Americans who set a New Year's Resolution... You make 1-5 good attempts at accomplishing your goal and then it falls to the way side is about a month (and likely less). 

What happens for those other people?

You know the tenacious few who are able to persist through the struggle and finally get to the point where they are able to accomplish their goals?

They have a plan. 

We've already talked about how to break down your goals for the year into quarterly and monthly goals. Here we'll deep dive into how to plan out your monthly schedule.

In typical Thrive Lounge fashion, we're going to put a little lifestyle twist on your goal setting ( because we gotta squeeze in time for wine and mimosas). 

Here are the steps to planning out your monthly goals, but do me a favor will ya? Follow them IN ORDER to get the best out of your life AND your goals.

I always set my goals like this to make sure that I remember my life comes first. Goals are important but enjoying your life in this moment matters, too. These steps will make sure you do both. 

Step 1: Don't Miss Out On Important Dates

The first thing you want to do when you look at a blank calendar for a new month is put in the dates that matter in your close relationships. That means schedule in the family + friend birthday parties, weddings, potlucks, brunch with the girls and date night with bae.

All of this needs to go into your schedule first because relationships make a huge difference in your level of happiness. 

Do this step first unless your situation is urgent - like if you don't hit your goal, you can't feed your family. (Trust me, I've been there before. It's not pretty.) In every other case, you'll want to invest time into growing your relationships with the people around you. And making it to the important events, carving out the time for date nights and celebrating birthdays - that's what makes life complete. 

Step 2: Make Self Care A Priority

One thing many goal-getters forget to do in the middle of all their planning + executing + #winning is taking out the time to care for themselves. I've fallen victim to this plenty of times in the past where I get so busy with work and running around that months will go by that I haven't spent any time just caring for myself. 

This could be in the form of a massage or glass of wine while reading a book after I put my daughter to bed. 

Self care is important if you want to maintain your sanity so schedule it in. I walk for about 40 mins in the morning, journal + read for about 30 minutes to an hour after my work day ends. I also have a strict no-work policy on Fridays and Saturdays so I can spend them completely to myself or with family and friends.

Figure out what activities make you feel relaxes and rejuvenated, schedule them in on the calendar and finally say buh-bye to burnout. #NotSorry

Step 3: Break Your Monthly Goals Into Small, Actionable Steps

Ok, now that you have your important dates + self care time on the calendar. Schedule in your action items. 

I like to break my monthly goals down into 4 goals and schedule one goal to be completed each week. Depending on how large the action item is and if it's my first time doing it, I'll spread goals out over a few days, giving myself enough time to do research, hit road blocks and double check what I've done. (Because nothing leads to more mistakes than plain ol' rushing.) 

Putting your action items on the calendar ensures that you'll stay on track in completing your goals.

Step 4: Set At LEAST One Mini Goal In OTHER AreaS of Your Life

Your life is not just work, eat, goals, sleep (though it can really seem like that sometimes). You have family and friends to shoot the breeze with, books you might want to read, a workout routine (and whatever else that makes you your best self.

Try to set one small goal in some of the other areas of your life: fitness/health, education, career, travel/adventure, relationships, personal finance,etc. 

This step ensures that you're not neglecting other areas of your life in pursuit of your larger goal. The beauty of this step is that you only focus on what you want to, depending on your interests and what time you have left over. 

This could look like working out 2-3 times a week, reading that new book you've been planning to read or asking your boss for that raise. 

Related: How To Set The Right Goals In All Areas Of Your Life

Step 5: Put It On The Calendar

If you're used to taking notes about your life on scratch paper or any available napkin, it's time you get a little more legit and put it on a calendar. It doesn't matter if it's a paper calendar, electronic calendar or dates typed up in Evernote (that's how I'm doing it these days because I like to search my notes). 

The point is... WRITE IT DOWN. 

Once you have a place that you can go back to you can refer to your goals on a weekly basis, you can track your progress and you can see visually what your next month will look like at a glance. There's no rumbling to find that napkin you scribbled your to-do list on, no forgetting your best friend's birthday, no guesswork... just grade-A planning. (Oh, and lots of #winning.)

Want To Start Planning Your Vision Board Party? 

1. Download the FREE vision board party planning checklist.

2. Craft your inspiring vision board workshop talk with our FREE High Impact Storytelling Journal Prompts. 

3. Plan, promote & host your first (or next) professional & profitable vision board workshop with our signature course, Sold Out Vision Board Parties.

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About the author

Cyrene is a fun and accomplished workshop facilitator, learning and development guru and Human Resources professional. Being at the helm of Thrive Lounge has been a long-time dream. Through vision board workshops she plans to accomplish two-way learning. Sharing her vast years of knowledge to motivate and encourage others; while simultaneously getting the reward of great energy, ideas and questions to ponder back from each group. A super win-win. Please join our Thrive Lounge community so you too can benefit!

How To Set The ONE Goal That Will Change Your Entire Life

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

I want to start of with a story of failure. 

Not regular old failure. 

This story starts with a college graduate, that couldn't get a job, single mom working as a receptionist, freelancer AND waitress that STILL couldn't afford to put food on the table. In fact, I'd feed my daughter a full course meal while I'd survive on the free office pretzels at my receptionist job. The days when the executives had leftover sandwiches were a blessing for me because I'd actually get dinner. 

I want to start there because at that time in my life I hit rock bottom and couldn't find my way out.

I thought I needed money. 

I thought I needed time. 

I thought I needed to get a master's degree to figure my way out of it. 

In reality, I needed all of those things, but there's a fixed amount of time in the day - for everyone. I couldn't go out and print money. I couldn't work any more hours. I also couldn't get a better job without going to school.

I would have to choose one thing to focus on if I wanted to change my life.

So, how would I prioritize? 

That is what this post is all about.

You can figure out what's the best goal for you to pursue right now. Even if you're at rock bottom, if you fix the absolute biggest pain point in your life, you'll find that the rest of your life becomes significantly better without even trying. 

Here's what you need to do:

Evaluate Your Priorities

The most difficult thing about rock bottom is that EVERYTHING feels like it needs to be solved right now. Additionally, it's more difficult to make decisions from a state of failure. It's more difficult to make good decisions when you're afraid of not feeding your family. It's difficult to be creative when you're not sure if you'll have a home tomorrow. It's hard to make the right decisions when you have a million things on your mind, a million pain points that all keep you up at night in perpetual thought. 

The first step is to determine what your priorities are in your life. I like to split my life into six key focus areas: 

1. Family/Relationships

2. Travel

3. Personal Finance

4. Fitness/Health

5. Education

6. Career

Spend some time thinking about each one of these areas in your life and decide rank them 1-6 in order of importance for you. That means the area of your life that is the most important  to you right now in your life should be rated a 1 and the area that you don't care that much to focus on right now should be rated a 6.

As an example from my life, when I was struggling to put food on the table for myself and my daughter, traveling was NO WHERE NEAR the top of my list of priorities. (Seriously, I could've rated travel a 10 on a list of 1-6. I was HUNGRY. I ain't have time or money to visit nobody's country.) Similarly, I love my family, but they were not at the top of my priorities list.

We needed food (period). I needed to get my personal finance in order. So I ranked that #1 on my list. 

PS. You must rank all of the areas so you can only use the numbers 1-6 once. #NoCheating

Rate Your Satisfaction

Satisfaction is one thing that no guru, inspirational social media quote or online course can figure out for you. This one comes completely from how you feel about your life. 

Now that you've carefully laid out what's important to you by ranking each area of your life, I want you to take that same list of 6 life areas and rate exactly how satisfied you are on a scale from 1-10. 

I completely stole this strategy from my 9-to-5. Every six months, we walk through our priorities and satisfactions with our job. I'll rank my job, my team, the pay, my workload and my client in order of which is more important to me to optimize. Then I'll rate my satisfaction in each area. The point of this exercise is to pinpoint where in your life you have a need that's incredibly important to you that you're not totally satisfied with. 

You can easily see where you need to put your energy when you look at your life by most important and lowest satisfaction. 

set the goal

Once you've rated your satisfaction in each area take a step back and find the area in your life with highest importance that has the lowest satisfaction score. This is where you'll want to put your energy into fixing.

Find one goal that you can set in this area of your life that will increase your satisfaction. (Side note: If you have no idea what goal to set, start reading books and blogs or listening to podcasts on it.)

For example, I was obviously struggling with finances the most. That was my highest ranking AND lowest satisfaction so it was clear that personal finance is where my energy needed to go.  

I needed to fix my personal finances BAD but I needed some help getting started. I read every book I could get for free at the library on personal finance and downloaded every podcast on money.

My breakthrough came when I read the simple yet oh-so-insightful stories in The Richest Man In Babylon. I realized the reason I was so unhappy with my personal finance. I didn't have enough money but I was surrounded by stuff. I had a car, an apartment and bills stacked up to my head that kept me working all the time and paying bills ALL THE TIME.

I was breaking the first rule of finance - spend less than you make. 

I needed to restructure my life if I wanted my life to change. Rather than focusing immediately on education or making more money (these would be great goals for education or career areas of my life but I was ONLY focused on money), I decided that I'd focus on taking away the bills. I did a voluntary repossession on my car, turned off my cell phone and moved out of my apartment and back in with my parents (taking away my rent, utilities and internet payments).

Suddenly, I had money for food - without increasing my work load, without going back to school or getting a better job. I could finally breath. I could FINALLY move forward with a clear head. Most important, I was FINALLY happy. 

This strategy helps you set goals based on what's most important to you right now AND where you're the least satisfied. This really works because it allows you to FOCUS your energy in the area of your life that will move the needle and make a noticeable difference in every other area of you life.

Want To Start Planning Your Vision Board Party? 

1. Download the FREE vision board party planning checklist.

2. Craft your inspiring vision board workshop talk with our FREE High Impact Storytelling Journal Prompts. 

3. Plan, promote & host your first (or next) professional & profitable vision board workshop with our signature course, Sold Out Vision Board Parties.

---

About the author

Cyrene is a fun and accomplished workshop facilitator, learning and development guru and Human Resources professional. Being at the helm of Thrive Lounge has been a long-time dream. Through vision board workshops she plans to accomplish two-way learning. Sharing her vast years of knowledge to motivate and encourage others; while simultaneously getting the reward of great energy, ideas and questions to ponder back from each group. A super win-win. Please join our Thrive Lounge community so you too can benefit!

How To Get Things Done Like A Billion Dollar Company

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

When it comes to our day jobs it seems like we can deliver any report, PowerPoint or insert random solution here on time and high quality....

BUT when it comes to our goals in life (money, side hustle, weight loss, etc.) we will sometimes let our goals fall flat and due dates come and go without moving one step in the right direction? 

Maybe it's because at work we have a team that's depending on us. 

Or there's a project manager setting clear due dates and check points. 

Or you really, really, REALLY want that promotion - so you know you have no choice but to get this work done. 

Creating a life you want through earning more money, creating a thriving side hustle, becoming healthier or spending more time with family and friends is like giving your entire life a promotion. You know you can benefit from them in the same way... so it's time to start taking them just as seriously as you do your day job. 

Here's the deal, you can give yourself a good ol' life promotion using the same project management tactics you do at your 9-to-5. 

Here are the steps I use to totally crush every goal I set (and I stole them right from my project manager - she's a certified goal-crushing boss) ... 

Side note:This strategy will not turn you into a goal-focused robot (because real bosses leave time to be spontaneous wallflowers or hit up a bottomless mimosa brunch at a moments notice). Instead, it'll help you master the goals that matter - the ones you want to keep BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY.

Have someone to hold YOU accountable.

At my 9-to-5, our project manager will call us, email us, and send us instant messages on the day something is due and make sure that we deliver.

Now I'm going to be very clear - I aint got that kinda money to do this in my side hustle. BUT I do have a Facebook group that holds me accountable and makes sure I get my life together and commit to my projects. We regroup every Sunday to talk about our goals for the week and we even will kick each other in the pants if we need a bit of tough love. 

When I was creating The Vision Board Planner, I was hesitant to post it and wanted to do yet another additional round of edits or one additional design change before releasing it on my site. That's when one of the members said "PUT IT OUT ALREADY!" and reminded me that I'd put hard work and effort into it to make it great. At this point I'm just afraid to put it out there - and there was nothing stopping me from re-editing and re-designing it later. End result? I hit my goal. 

Make sure you have someone - anyone - to hold you accountable. And if you friends are a bunch of party animals that spend more time thinking about the next club than their next goal, join a Facebook group.

Set a concrete due date for your end goal.

You know in your day job, your boss always says "Can I have this by (insert date here)" when giving you a new project. 

This is where goal setting in life gets tricky. You can give yourself a due date all day long, but there is no one you have to "deliver" it to except your future self. It's also much easier to sit on the couch watching Netflix and convince yourself that you can always do it later. #TheStruggleIsReal

If you want to get results like a boss, you're going to have to set goals like them, too. Set an end date for your goal - one that doesn't give you too much time or too little - and then communicate that to your accountability partner (or your Facebook group).

Setting your end date will also help you with planning out your steps and making sure you're ready on time. 

Brainstorm every step you'll need to take to get from where you are to where you're going.

At your 9-to-5, you'll make sure that you spell out every step of your project before you get started and get clarity from co-workers, mentors and bosses. 

In life, it's tempting to just wing it. That's one way to get it done, but you're more likely to complete your goals if you take the same brainstorming approach before you even get started. 

Breaking your goals down into small steps is an important part of the goal setting process because within each goal are small projects that must be completed. For example, if you're going to lose weight, you'll need to get your eating habits in order. You may have to research different diets and choose one. You might have to find a gym that you like and create workout routine.

Keeping all of those steps in your head and overloading your brain will probably give you a major headache (and even keep you from ever getting started). Instead, think about every tiny step that needs to be done and then write them down.

Your goal becomes less daunting and much more approachable once you can see the small steps outlined in one list. 

Estimate how many days it will take to complete each task.

Now let's get to the important part in planning out your goal.

You'll need to put all of the steps you'll need to complete your goal in order. Then, write down how long it will take you to complete all of your small projects if you do them WELL. (That means you're giving yourself enough time to deep dive into the project, research it, complete it and then check it to make sure it's right.)

In other words don't think about how much time will it take to complete your goal if everything goes perfectly right and you don't hit any road blocks.

Let's get one thing straight...

Real Life = Random Things Happen = Plan For It!

Once you have your plan laid out it's much easier to see the journey you have to take from start to finish.

Add in your vacation + self care days.

To piggy back on my rant, a good project plan also adds in your vacation days and your self care days. While it may seem tempting to "hustle hard" or join the #TeamNoSleep movement, I wouldn't plan it into your work schedule.

Imagine if you planned to pull an all-nighter to write your book AND YOU ACCIDENTALLY FALL ASLEEP (blasphemy!). That would immediately put you off track and inhibit you from reaching your goals. To have a good plan, be realistic about your habits and your me time. Build in Christmas, Easter, birthdays and whatever else is important to you into your schedule. 

I'll be really honest about my life... I don't work on Friday nights or Saturdays. It's actually pretty difficult sometimes to NOT work (because I'm really excited about my work and want to work in my free time) but building in that time to spend with family and friends is important for my sanity. It also allows me to approach my work the next week with a fresh mind and super excited about tacking the week LIKE A BOSS. 

Take note of the holidays, weekends and the days you spend with your family. Your plan should work for you - not the other way around so build that time into your plan!

Put it all together into one view.

Now that you have a plan on each step you need to accomplish your goal AND how long it'll take you to do each one, it's time to plan out exactly how you'll get from where you are to where you're going by task and by date (including your self care days).

Planning out your goals with this system will make sure that you stick to your goals all the way through AND have the right checkpoints in place to accomplish your goals the right way and on time - just like you do at your 9-to-5.  #winning

Want To Start Planning Your Vision Board Party? 

1. Download the FREE vision board party planning checklist.

2. Craft your inspiring vision board workshop talk with our FREE High Impact Storytelling Journal Prompts. 

3. Plan, promote & host your first (or next) professional & profitable vision board workshop with our signature course, Sold Out Vision Board Parties.

---

About the author

Cyrene is a fun and accomplished workshop facilitator, learning and development guru and Human Resources professional. Being at the helm of Thrive Lounge has been a long-time dream. Through vision board workshops she plans to accomplish two-way learning. Sharing her vast years of knowledge to motivate and encourage others; while simultaneously getting the reward of great energy, ideas and questions to ponder back from each group. A super win-win. Please join our Thrive Lounge community so you too can benefit!

The EASIEST Goal Planning Strategy To Make Your Dreams A Reality In Exactly One Year

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

At the beginning of each year, I become the old grandma that you want to avoid at Thanksgiving dinner. You know, the one that’s constantly asking you "how's school going" (when you spent way too much time drinking and may have to drop a class or two) and the unavoidable “what’s next for you” question you’ve been ducking by quickly stuffing some turkey in your mouth.

My favorite question to ask by far is not the typical “What are your new year’s resolution?” No, it catches people much more off guard than that.

I have the audacity to ask people something they have not thought about at all…

What’s your plan to do that?

You see, I’ve learned one thing about New Year’s Resolutions (and goals in general). People LOVE setting goals at the beginning of the year but they don’t create their plan at the beginning of the year.

However, if you add this one, simple step to your goal setting process, you’ll be able to better determine what you need to do to accomplish your goal.

Thinking about your goal in terms of the goals you have to accomplish on  a quarterly basis and then breaking that down further into the smaller goals you must accomplish monthly does a few things for your brain:

• It let’s you know that your big goal IS POSSIBLE.

• It helps you understand EXACTLY WHAT IT WILL TAKE TO GET THERE

• It puts you in a mindset that your goal will be accomplished OVER THE COURSE OF A YEAR

That third point is the most important because it transforms your mindset from having a goal – to having a long term goal that you are not prepared to dedicate yourself to.

Now let’s get to the fun part… How do you break down your large goal into quarterly goals and then monthly goals?

Before you get started breaking down your goal, you need to have one LARGE goal to work with. If you're still nailing down your big goal (or still searching for some mental clarity in your vision, check out How To Create Your 5-Year Vision (even if you don’t know where to start). 

Once you have your big goal, it's time to break it down into the tiny steps you'll make over the next year to make this your best year ever.

CREATE YOUR QUARTERLY GOALS

As a child, I was a serious gamer. (I actually had an entire birthday party where I asked my friends to show up with their Gameboys to play Pokemon together.) I would get super excited when I hit a checkpoint and now I could do no wrong in the game. No matter what I did, I was not going back to square one.

Think about your quarterly goals like a checkpoint in a video game. Once you've crossed one of these large hurdles, you're well on your way to completing your goal. 

What four huge milestones do you have to hit to be able to accomplish your goals at the end of the year?

For Example, if you want to write a book you may want to:

• Quarter 1: Create the book outline and the characters.

• Quarter 2: Write the first draft of the book.

• Quarter 3: Get feedback.

• Quarter 4: Write the final version of the book.

(Side note: Before you legit writer’s start judging, please know that this is my loose – very loose – interpretation of what it would take to write a book. I understand everyone’s process is different.)

Now that you know exactly what you want to do for each quarter of the year, you have already achieved one massive benefit: You don’t have to focus on everything all at once. That means that while you’re creating your outline, you don’t have to concern yourself with writing the book. In fact, you can clear your mind of the next steps entirely because you know exactly what you will do – and when you’re going to do them.

BREAK DOWN THE GOALS INTO THE MONTHLY GOALS.

With three months in each quarter, we’re going to take the quarterly goals and break them down further into three bite-sized goals.

Let’s take the Quarter 1 Goal from the first example.

Quarter goal: Create the book outline and develop characters

• January: Create the outline for the book

• February: Develop the plot, conflict and scene

• March: Describe the characters look and personalities

By breaking your goals down in this way you can celebrate your small wins each month, while still having a legitimate plan to get to the rest of your goals. You can also work on one goal without the pressure of feeling like you have to do "it all" right now.

With that mental weight off your shoulders you can fully immerse yourself into what you're working on right now. You can slowly think through exactly how you want your book to flow (or start your weight loss journey with eating one less piece of fresh-baked sugar cookies or reclaim your time by NOT letting Netflix force you into an additional episode of Stranger Things) knowing that you'll get to the next step of the process shortly. #GoodLuckWithThat

Taking some time to develop your largest goal into an annual plan will help you map out your goals and ensure that you complete them by the end of the year.

Happy Goal-Crushing!

xoxo

Want To Start Planning Your Vision Board Party? 

1. Download the FREE vision board party planning checklist.

2. Craft your inspiring vision board workshop talk with our FREE High Impact Storytelling Journal Prompts. 

3. Plan, promote & host your first (or next) professional & profitable vision board workshop with our signature course, Sold Out Vision Board Parties.

---

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cyrene is a fun and accomplished workshop facilitator, learning and development guru and Human Resources professional. Being at the helm of Thrive Lounge has been a long-time dream. Through vision board workshops she plans to accomplish two-way learning. Sharing her vast years of knowledge to motivate and encourage others; while simultaneously getting the reward of great energy, ideas and questions to ponder back from each group. A super win-win. Please join our Thrive Lounge community so you too can benefit!