September is the start of a new season.

When we were young it meant the start of a new school year.

Now that we’re older it’s the signal that we have four months left in the calendar year. Eek!

Someone once said to me that the two most productive days of the year are the day after Labour Day in September and the first Monday after New Years Eve.

So let’s capitalize on this season of focus.

Here are three ways to increase your focus and help you achieve your goals before the end of the year.

Just imagine what could be possible by December 31, 2024 if you put these in place? The sky truly is the limit!

1. Be Outcomes Focused

Before we start adding anything to your to-do list, it’s important to understand your goals. If you had a chance to visualize your goals back in January, now is the time to pull those out and take stock of where you’re at.

Use this moment to…

• Celebrate how far you’ve come
• Cross off any goals that aren’t relevant anymore
• Identify areas of focus

Once you narrow in on that area of focus, you’re getting closer to creating your game plan.

The number one reason that people fail in achieving their goals, is that they don’t become specific enough about what they’re trying to achieve.

For example, if one of your goals is to grow your network… that’s a great goal to have, but it’s so vague.

We need to define what this actually means.

• Were you successful at growing your network if you chat with the grocer down the street 2x a week?
• Does success mean getting to know colleagues in other departments?
• Or are you looking to build professional connections with people at target companies that you’d like to work at?

All three of these points = networking

But they all have very different outcomes.

So the first step is to define what you’d like the outcome to be.

2. Get Specific About Your Actions

Once you know what you’d like the outcome to be, it’s much easier to break down the steps you need to take to achieve this goal.

For example, if your goal was to build professional connections with people at target companies, then here’s how I’d go about making that goal happen.

First, we need to define what “target companies” mean.

If you were working with me as a client, you’d know the way I define target companies is a list of 15 organizations that you’d LOVE to work for.

To develop this list, it’s important to do your research. It’s not enough to say, “I want to work for Google or Amazon because they’re great brands.” You need to know more about WHY these companies are so interesting to you personally and to your career progression.

Secondly, we need to define what “professional connections” mean.

This could mean meeting someone at a networking event and following up on LinkedIn.

Or it could mean taking someone out for coffee to learn more about their role.

Or something else entirely.

Finally, let’s add some numbers to these actions.

I like to define the number of people I’d like to meet with and within what timeframe. Once I know these metrics, it becomes much easier to focus my efforts.

3. Work Your Plan

Now, we all know that planning is great. It helps us define the right activities to focus on and how to accomplish our goals.

However, planning also has a BIG downside.

It’s easy to stay in “planning land” and never execute. Or execute without consistency. Both of these scenarios will lead to failure.

Now that we know the type of person we want to connect with, how many connections we want to have and the timeframe we want to achieve this in, we can start moving.

Here’s the best way to proceed:

Let’s say I want to have 10 conversations with professionals I’ve never met before to learn about the Media & Entertainment Industry and I’d like to have this completed by November 1, 2024.

Research indicates that on average, 30% of cold outreaches turn into meetings while 80% of warm introductions turn into meetings.

Since I’m not closely connected in the Media & Entertainment industry, I know that I’m going to rely a lot on cold outreaches so I assume that, on average, 40% of my outreach messages (both warm and cold) are going to turn into meetings.

That means I need to find and message 25 people to hit my target of 10 conversations (10 / 40%), holding that my outreach message is strong.

Now that I know I need to outreach to 25 people, my first step is to create a list of people who I’d like to speak with and then draft messages to each of them.

Given my timeline, I set a mini-goal of completing this step within three weeks so that I have enough time to schedule meetings. I can further break this down into a daily goal of 2-3 outreach messages per week day.

Finally, I schedule an hour per day to execute these outreach tasks so that I know they’ll be done.

What's Next?

Now that we’ve walked through an example and the steps to plan, define and execute your 2024 goals, take 2-minutes and pull out the Notes App on your phone.

Write down your First Step and set a date / time as to when you’ll complete this first step.

Congratulations! You’ve taken the first step towards hitting your final 2024 goals.

Your Results

Once you’ve finished your first step, send me an email! I’d love to hear how this approach worked for you.

If you’re looking for some extra help, I have three coaching spots left in my September programs. Let’s book a call to chat about your goals. You’ll leave with a plan and clarity on your next steps.

​Grab a spot in my calendar and book your FREE meeting HERE. ​

Thanks for reading and see you next week!

When you’re ready, here are some ways I can support you:

​Book FREE 1:1 Intro-To-Coaching call with me Make 2024 YOUR year by setting and achieving your important career goals.

​FREE DOWNLOAD ​The Job Search Playbook Fix the 3 mistakes that are holding you back from finding and landing a new role you love.

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