The Guts of the Strategic Planner—Goal Setting for Creatives, part 2 of 4

Pre-Flight Announcement

This post will make even more sense if you download the spreadsheet I’m referring to. Plus, the spreadsheet contains a bunch of specific details from my actual 2010 Strategic Planner. In case you want to know how much weight I’m planning to lose as a Health strategy….ugh. Or, if you’re curious how I’m going to paint all those 1008 paintings? I’ve mapped it out…and will stay accountable here.

pdf: beam-2010-strategic-planner1

xls: beam-2010-strategic-planner1

I’ve also created a .pdf for those who want to look, but might not have a spreadsheet tool. The .pdf has three pages: notes, the spreadsheet, and the 1008 Painting Project example.

This process works fine as an outline, but I’m allergic to outlining (thanks to my 7th grade English teacher) so I use spreadsheets instead. Whatever it takes, right?

If you’re just landing here, check out the first post in this series for tips on how to get started with this process.

Guts of the Strategic Planner—The Strategy-at-a-Glance

I use a spreadsheet as a way to outline my goals. Since I work non-linearly, I can jump around to the cells that need to be filled in as inspiration strikes.

Goal Categories
The top of the spreadsheet lists my goal areas, Creativity, Wisdom, Courage, Health, Beauty, Wealth. If you want to know how and why I arrived at these categories, see the first post in this series.

Choose the appropriate categories for you, based on your initial work with the Getting Started Journal Prompts (shared in Post 1).

For each goal category, I answer the following journal prompts. This year, I did this right in the spreadsheet, and it really made the process go much more quickly than previous years.

Journal Prompts:

What it means to me
This is where I define what the goal area means to me for that year. Since the goal area of Creativity, for example is so large, this is where I narrow the focus. Last year, the area of Courage had to do with making my business more visible online. This year Courage is a completely different topic: nurturing a love relationship.

Hopes & Desires
Here I brainstorm some specifics on what the achievement of this goal would look like.

Frustrations
This is a synopsis of how I have felt unsuccessful at attempting or succeeding in this area previously. Using a spreadsheet for this is a fantastic way to keep this charged topic from growing out of proportion.

Successes
What I did do well in the past year in this category. I’m always surprised by how many successes there are to add. Acknowledging just how much we’ve done and how far we’ve come is an act of compassion. Hell knows we need that when we are rigging up our big dreams and plans for the coming year.

Next, Get Specific
The Objectives, Strategies and Tactics sections outlines (at-a-glance, not in minute detail) just HOW you’re going to get from A to Z. The key is to think strategically and act tactically.

The best way I’ve found to describe tactics: they’re the things on your to-do list. Make sure your to-do list is made up of stuff that’s fulfilling your strategies. I go into significant detail on this subject of Objectives, Strategies and Tactics in The Creative Entrepreneur.

Detailed project pages are created that map out strategies and tactics. I’ve included a sample in the spreadsheet. It’s a behind the scenes look at just how I’m approaching getting the physical work of completing 1008 Paintings done on deadline. Wish me luck…!

Affirmations/Intentions
I happen to get good results from working with focused intention. Skip this if you have an allergic reaction to affirmations and setting intentions.

Inspiration (or 911, as needed)
This is where I make note of websites, people and links that relate to the goal category and where I’m going to go when I need inspiration or am just plain freaking out at the mountain in front of me. I’ll talk more about this important subject in the final post in this series on tracking goals and monitoring progress.

Once I have the spreadsheet reasonably mapped out, I begin constructing the actual Strategic Planner (my portable, visual booklet that keeps me on task). I’ll show you how to construct one next post.

Related posts:

1. Goal Setting for Creatives: My 2010 Strategic Planner, Part 1 of 4
2. Strategic Planner Tutorial—Goal Setting for Creatives, part 3 of 4
3. Goal Setting for Creatives: Staying (or Getting) on Track with Your Goals, Part 4 of 4
4. 50 New Works + A peek inside my project journal: 1008 Paintings Update #10
5. Daily (Good) Habits: An online experiment in Daily Actions