Traditionally, goal setting involves looking at a combination of short, medium and long term targets to aim for. Examples of longer term goals may be to compete in the Olympics, or to become a architect, or for us mere mortals, it may be simply a goal to become debt free. These goals start with the end in mind and then you work backwards, setting short and medium term goals to put you on the right path.

Right now, many of us can’t see what the next 6 months will look like – never mind the next 6 years, so the traditional goal-setting methodology is out the window. You may be currently on furlough – not knowing when or if you will return to your role. You may be self-employed and have no visibility of when income levels will return. Or you may be a key worker – head down on not much else other than supporting the community. None of these circumstances make it easy to set a goal – even though you can still keep a conceptual goal in your mind.

This is the beauty of a 90 day plan – it looks up past the end of the day and the week, but doesn’t stretch as far as the horizon. It means that you can put together a strategy to spend the next 12 weeks working towards a medium term goal, scheduling in small steps on a daily or weekly basis and tracking progress.

For example, it may be that you pick a fitness goal such as working towards running 5km, or a writing goal such as writing the book or course you’ve always wanted to – like I did recently with The Financielle Playbook.

Or for finances, it may be to save your £1,000 emergency fund, or pay off your smallest debt. All your energy and focus goes towards hitting those achievable short term goals. The satisfaction that can come from hitting 90 day goals and the momentum that these achievements can create will put you in a much stronger position to take on any greater goals in simply 3 months’ time.

It was perfect timing that this week, I participated in a virtual Professional Retreat which was focussed purely on this. Cat Rainey, Founder of The Professional Retreat says:

“To navigate our way through the rest of lockdown as it continues, we all start to lose focus, motivation and discipline. Let’s make the most of the time we have now and get ourselves, our businesses and our family in the best possible shape mentally, physically and professionally.”

We will be working towards our 90 day goals during this period and will share our progress on our Instagram page. Please share yours with us too! You can still watch the session on The Professional Retreat’s Facebook page and have a go at the session yourself.