Using the Good, Better, Best Method for Goal Setting & Partner Buy-In with Megan Hale

Episode 281: Show Notes

Hello listeners, and welcome back to The Strategy Hour Podcast. Today we are so lucky to have our friend Megan Hale with us to chat about the newest goal setting method she has adopted! What better time to talk about goal setting than November as we reach the end of another busy year and look forward to the next one. If you haven’t already started planning for 2019 then this episode is a great place to start! Megan found a way through one of the most challenging and action-packed years of her life and somehow managed, through all the commitments, to have her most successful and profitable calendar year yet, which we think is just crazy!

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Having a baby at the beginning of January and her husband leaving on military deployment soon after was not quite the comfortable start to the year many of us might hope for. Let’s just say that with her business to boot, she had a lot on her plate! Anyway, prompted by this chock-a-block schedule she decided to start laying out some goals and what followed, quickly became her Good, Better, Best model, which immediately helped Megan achieve and exceed her minimum goals. Sound great? We think so! Megan does a great job of unpacking all of the juicy and useful parts of this. So stay tuned to hear how you can get a complimentary template from Megan to start you off!

An Overview of All the Things Megan Had Going On This Year

When Megan had a baby right at the beginning of the year it was just another big demand on her already packed calendar. And like so many of us, her baby was obviously right at the top of her list but she did not want to let her business wither away under the pressure. She had a lot to maintain and this was compounded when her husband left for military service soon after. Wow! In retrospect this was not really the year to try and grow a business as life seemed to throwing all it had at her right from the get go. Despite this, her business grew more than ever before and she came through the storm victorious and all the better for it. Go Megan!

Megan is very clear that her success is all down to the model she created to get through this stressful time and she is going to share it all with us! When she was about to go on maternity leave in October last year she felt that she needed to just maintain her current rate of business and not really try innovate too much beyond that. Megan laid out her minimum or good goal. This was based on the least that she needed for things to still be ticking over and profitable. From there she looked at what the next step up would be from that and then the best case scenario and voila, her model was born. What was interesting to her immediately was how this framework made the higher levels of her goals more achievable by breaking down the one below them. It basically made even the dream goals more manageable and she quickly started seeing good results in the new year.

Figuring Out the Numbers for Each Version of the Goal

We all have our own personal goals that are attached to our ambitions and specific lives. They are also directly linked to our money motivators and these can be getting out of debt, saving, spending, or generosity for example. Megan reminds us that knowing what your money motivators are can really help you on the path of what your Good, Better, Best goals are. For Megan, getting out of the 30k of debt was her biggest motivator at the start of 2018 and this helped her to see what her foundational goal would be to start her list. After that she was dedicated to saving more money and just knowing these motivators carried her some distance in setting these goals out. She also says that it is so helpful to know what you need for your personal life as well as for your business. Money really does make all the different parts of our lives possible and treating the different areas of your commitments with equal care can lead to a clearer picture of what you should be aiming for. Remember your business needs to serve you, not the other way around. So get proactive and get to grips with these variables and you will be ahead of the game!

Can This Model Be Applied to Marriage and Relationships

As most of us in serious relationships and marriages know, spouses’ lives can be very different. This of course is not always true but is not uncommon. If, like Megan, you find yourself with a spouse going off to another country or in a profession vastly different to entrepreneurship, it is just so important to be on the same page about your goals and dreams. This doesn’t mean you have to share each and every goal and feel the same way about them but there must be some understanding and communication around these things! Megan offers that sometimes keeping it simple and scaling back your dream to the short term can make this mission a little bit more realistic if there are differences in the way you think about the future. She also shares a useful phrase she and her husband have, which is “Don’t be a mallet to my dreams.” It is a reminder to the other person that when someone is dreaming big, it is not helpful to shoot holes in their ideas. We fully applaud this idea, so thanks Megan! We should all be in relationships where our victories can be celebrated together even if there is some separation between visions.

The Actual Process of Doing the Work with These Goals

Megan believes money and budgeting is much more manageable on a monthly basis and so when you are starting to set out your plan think about what you need for each month. It is also useful, even when setting minimums to give yourself a tiny bit of room to breathe. But you need to be clear on needs versus wants and the ‘good’ is definitely based on needs rather than wants. Again, this is where money motivators come into the picture as well as the idea of timeframes. Goals are almost always contingent on a particular timeframe and using inspiring and realistic due dates on goals can be a great way to help you along your way. Megan’s Excel spreadsheet has all this information on it and it is the financial hub of everything she does. It is where she can factor in each part of her business, her goals and what she wants to achieve and when. Having this system can really help you step into a new role in your business, one in which you are in charge and getting things done and achieving the highest levels of your dreams! Megan is hosting a workshop on this exact process in December, where she will helping her clients plan in this way for 2019. You can get this super-helpful spreadsheet when you sign up for the workshop on her website, so you know what to do!

 

Quote This

Money loves mindfulness and it loves to have meaning.

—Megan Hale

 

Highlights

  • An Overview of All the Things Megan Had Going On This Year. [0:04:45.3]

  • Implementing This New Method in a Business. [0:07:59.6]

  • Figuring Out the Numbers for Each Version of the Goal. [0:11:03.8]

  • Can This Model Be Applied to Marriage and Relationships. [0:22:45.3]

  • The Actual Process of Doing the Work with These Goals. [0:31:35.6]

#TalkStrategyToMe [0:37:50.3]

  1. Create Budget

  2. Dream Big!

  3. Make Good Goals

  4. Imagine Better and Best Goals


ON TODAY’S SHOW

Megan Hale 

Website | Instagram | Facebook

Megan Hale holds a Masters in Clinical Counseling and a Bachelors in Psychology. She maintains a Board Certified Coach credential and has extensive experience with spiritually oriented psychology, positive psychology, mindfulness based psychology, cognitive behavioral psychology, and interpersonal psychology.  She specializes in self-confidence, self-love, cultivating courage and alignment, building authenticity, and creating harmonious, fulfilling, soul expanding relationships. She has a special interest in helping women and couples create their own kind of beautiful life where they feel empowered, happy, and free.

KEY TOPICS

Goal Setting, Lifestyle, Implementation, Dream Space, Spreadsheets, Number Crunching


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