Setting quarterly goals is a great tool to help keep your business and your life on track. As we enter Q4, we have an excellent opportunity to review our year so far and set ourselves on-course for a successful year-end.
Why Setting Quarterly Goals is Important
Setting goals helps you build a framework for your year. Your yearly goals are your “big” goals. Quarterly goals help you focus on what steps you need to take over the next three months to get closer to accomplishing your yearly goals. For Q4, ideally you are poised to cross the finish line for your big goals. You may not perfectly complete every goal you set quarterly or annually, but by setting goals, you are setting your intentions and creating a framework for success.
How To Create Good Goals
Not all goals are created equally. There are two keys to creating good goals.
- Good goals are measurable. If you set a goal but can’t measure your success, you’re likely to feel discouraged or frustrated – and you’ll probably give up. Abstract goals leave too much room for uncertainty. Make sure that instead, there is a concrete way to define your success. At the end of the year, you want to be able to definitively say whether you met your goal.
- Good goals are attainable. Never set impossible goals. Setting goals that are completely out of reach is setting yourself up for failure. While you may not always meet your goals, that shouldn’t be because the goal was never reachable in the first place.
Setting Quarterly Goals Personally AND Professionally
Setting quarterly goals can benefit you on multiple levels – both personally and professionally.
- Personal Goals. There are lot of opportunities when setting personal goals. Breaking things down into categories makes it easier to set complimentary goals across your personal life that build on each other.
- Family and Friends. Do you feel like you need to prioritize more time for your family, friends, or both? Maybe you feel like you spend enough time with your family, but you want to work on making that quality time. Consider the past year (or quarter!) of your social time. Are you satisfied or are you ready to make a change?
- Personal Time. Are you dedicating the time you need to work on YOU? Do you have individual dreams that have been hanging out on the back burner? Setting quarterly goals is an opportunity for you to look at your personal development and decide if there’s a goal you can focus on this quarter to advance yourself personally or professionally.
- Health and Wellness. Are you eating the way you want to? Are you working out? Have you made time to go in for your annual physical? Q4 is often defined by the hectic holidays, when it’s easy to forget to take care of yourself the way you deserve. Be proactive in setting manageable goals to keep you feeling good into the new year.
- Professional Goals. It’s more common to think about your professional life in terms of “quarterly goals” so this shouldn’t be a foreign idea. From an accounting perspective, your most important professional quarterly goals focus on your finances. Financial stability has a huge impact on stress levels and overall well-being. Make sure you’re on track to meet your yearly goals by setting quarterly check-ins to review your financials – or reach out to your accountant or financial planner for professional input.
Planning Prevents Panic
No matter where you are in life, setting goals for where you want to be in the future is advantageous. Life is busy and sometimes completely overwhelming. Setting goals helps you avoid overwhelm so that you can actually prioritize and accomplish the things that matter MOST.
Whatever goals you set, just make sure they’re measurable and attainable so that at the end of quarter, you can celebrate your success. If you need guidance on how to set financial quarterly goals, Encurio can help! Set a meeting with us here.