The Short of It

Staying in is helping me refocus on my goals. This self-isolation time is allowing me to think more about, well, everything. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared, I am. I try to keep a positive focus. I've seen some uplifting articles and that is encouraging. I'll try to be encouraging here, too.

The Short Term

If you're following my posts [start here], you likely figured out that Short-term goals support the Mid-term goals. Think about the things you need to accomplish over the next month to six months to get closer to your Mid-term goals. Short-term goals are clearer but again, you may not have all the skills or information you need at this time to accomplish them.

As you start accomplishing the Short-term goals, the Mid-term and Long-term goals become clearer and may even change a bit. It's ok to make adjustments along the way. In fact, I encourage you to do so.

Write it Down

Look at your Mid-term goals and think about the things you can do over the next month to six months to reach them. Next, right down three to four short-term goals. Let's look at the example of my dream to design quilt patterns, four long term goals, four mid-term goals, and four short-term goals:

• THE DREAM: To be a quilt pattern designerwith an online shop, wholesale sales, retail quilt shop presence, and maintaina membership site. To write quilt books based on my patterns.
  • Long Term Goals to support and reach thedream (1-2 years out)
    • Create a list of pattern wholesalers to meetwith at Quilt Market
    • Send my pattern catalog to additionalwholesalers and retail quilt shops
    • Have a booth at Quilt Market
    • Create a web shop on my website and market mypatterns
  • Mid Term Goals to support the Long TermGoals (6-12 months out)
    • Research wholesalers in the industry
    • Assemble a physical and digital pattern catalogof my offerings
    • Create 3 quilt patterns and sample quilts
    • Create regular social media and blog posts toengage my community
  • Short-Term Goals to support the Mid-Term Goals(1-6 months out)
    • Study other quilt pattern designers that arecurrently doing what I want to do
    • Create a standard template for my pattern designs
    • Learn Adobe InDesign and Photoshop
    • Learn how to use social media platforms (likeInstagram, Pinterest, Facebook) for business and marketing

Things are getting clearer. Remember we’re still workingbackwards from the Dream. Next, I’ll share some tips on creating the dailytasks we need to work on so we can start checking off those goals.

How are you doing? Are your goals starting to take shape?Let me know what you're working on. I'd love to hear about your BIG Dreams andGoals!

Until next time,