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A Practical Guide to Checking in With Your Goals Using 3 Steps

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We all have goals. Whether they're business goals, health goals, fitness goals, or something else entirely. 

Having goals for yourself is incredibly important. Without goals, you wouldn’t have a compass to navigate your business and life. 

But something I’d noticed with many of my clients is that many people set goals, but very few continuously check in on how they’re doing with said goals. It’s easy to completely lose sight of whether or not what you’re doing is actually working, and leading you down a path of achieving results.

I totally get it! It can be easy to lose track of your goals when you've got too much going on and are caught up in everyday life.

So what can you do to make sure you’re on the right track to accomplish your goals?

The ritual I like to practice to help is called the stop, start, and continue approach

In today’s post, I’ll be sharing with you this super simple, 3-step ritual I do regularly when checking in with my goals.

This is a powerful tool to help you figure out where you need to shift, where you might need to pivot, and what you should continue doing.

Why I use the stop, start, and continue approach 

This is my monthly ritual to try and figure out whether or not I'm on track with my goals. It helps me stay on top of what I'm looking to achieve in my business!

It also acts as a check-in point for some of my goals, giving me an opportunity to see if they’re still aligned with what I’m trying to create for myself. If they no longer apply, this process allows me to pivot if necessary.

Some of the activities I do for this ritual include:

  • Monthly reflections to make sure I’m doing everything I can to reach my goals

  • A focus on my emotions and how I’m feeling in my business and life

  • Spending time doing activities that I enjoy 

  • Looking at quarterly projects, goals, and things that popped up in terms of what were highs and lows 

Take a look at your goals and activities. Are you on track with your goals?

Checking in allows you to see how far you've come, or where you need to shift gears. By seeing my progress, I also stay highly motivated to keep working towards my goals. 

In business, it’s sometimes easy to lose sight of how much work we’ve been doing. 

By going through this ritual, not only will you be able to assess what you’re doing, but you might surprise yourself at how much you’ve been able to achieve, accomplish, and make progress towards something.

For instance, let’s look at hitting a certain amount of money benchmark you’d like to make in your business, like $5K. Using the stop, start, and continue approach, you’ll be able to assess:

  • How do you need to show up?

  • How do you need to behave?

  • What type of actions do you need to take?

  • What do you need to feel?

  • What would you need to believe to achieve this?

This ritual approach helps you stay focused and keep with the momentum.

Now let’s break down each part of the process. 👇🏾

The Stop Process

The first step in my ritual is brainstorming the question, What are some things I think I need to stop doing to achieve my goals? 

At the stop phase, you’re looking at some of the behaviors that may actually be holding you back from achieving your goals. 

For me, in order to follow through on my goals, I had to examine how I was creating content. What I realized was that my behavior in creating and “showing up” on social media actually made it difficult for me to “show up” in other parts of my business.

Creating content is HUGE for my business. My business needs to reach people like you in order to create a community of ambitious leaders.

But if I’m spending too much of my time on content, I might be neglecting other things I need to be doing in order to keep my business running, like sales and business development, for example. 

So I brainstormed the activities that I needed to STOP that were keeping me from achieving my goals. They were:

  • Stop creating content daily. I do a lot of batching with my content, but I still spend time creating content spontaneously.

  • Stop messing with my website and constantly editing things

  • Stop engaging with people that potentially won’t lead to business

Ask yourself, what are some of those activities, behaviors, and ways in which you show up in both your personal and professional life that might be hindering you from achieving some of these goals you're looking to achieve?

Remember, every time you spend time on something, you’re taking away time from other areas of your business. This is the principle of opportunity cost. 

There is a cost to everything in business, so make sure you are spending time on the areas that matter most. 

The Start Process

The next thing I look at is what actions I need to START. The start phase includes evaluating my actions and answering the question, What are some of the things I want to start doing with trying to achieve my goals

I’ll be honest - I get ambitious here. What happens is once I've started something and it becomes a habit and a routine, and I’ve built a ritual around it, I will place it in the continuing process. 

Placing certain habits in the “continuing” process allows you to reinforce the building of these new habits and helps you celebrate the change, shifts, and evolution you’ve done throughout the whole process. 

Human beings must see this to help build momentum and have positive reinforcement.

But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s clarify the START process. 

What does this look like in your business? 

Well for me, I mentioned earlier that I was creating too much content spontaneously. To save me more time and energy, something I wanted to START was to produce only one piece of content per week, then repurpose it for additional content to use for that same week. 

This way, I’m working smarter, not harder! And can put more of my focus towards actions that will help me achieve my goals.

As a busy business owner, more time saved by doing one thing means more time to do the things that matter.

Here are other examples that were in my START process. Maybe they will give you inspiration for things you’re looking to start for own business:

  • Starting a Youtube channel. I've been investing a lot of time in learning more about YouTube. My goal is that by producing only one piece of video content a week, I'll have more time freed up to focus more on my sales, and generating income in my business. Also, unlike Instagram and other social media, YouTube is evergreen and searchable meaning it can bring you results for years to come!

  • Clubhouse and IG live conversations. Showing up on these 2 platforms was something I wanted to start doing to grow my community. I decided I wanted to develop my speaking skills and get comfortable talking on the fly. I've been able to start incorporating this and will move this to my ‘continuing bucket’ simply because it’s a good ritual I’ve established. 

Creating and starting rituals like these helps you decide where you want to strategically put your focus.

The Continuing Process

The last step is the continuing process. I get excited about this part!

At this continuing phase, you’re celebrating that you’ve built these cool systems and rituals around things in your business and personal life. You’re giving yourself a pat on the back for being able to do these things consistently.

And as a Leader, it’s important to be consistent. Consistency is a key characteristic that all successful people have in common. 

For example, here are some of the things that I do consistently during this continuing process:

  • Following up with clients. This is one of my major goals. I’m able to easily continue with it because I have a CRM system that allows me to easily keep track of my database of contacts.

  • Putting tasks and responsibilities in my calendar. This is something I've been able to get better at as well. Again, because I have the CRM system set up, a lot of my tasks have to do with emails, so a lot of my work is through email. But putting things in my calendar lets me know exactly when I should be working on something and allows me to be more productive!

  • Investing in other coaches. One of the things I put in the ‘continuing phase’ is to consistently apply the things I’m learning in other coaching programs as soon as I can. It’s easy to invest in coaches or programs without doing the work, so I’m proud of my ability to consistently follow through on the key actions I need to take when it comes to other coaches’ teachings!

Having an established ritual you do consistently, is one of the most important factors in reaching your goals both personally and professionally.

Leaders, I share with you my 3 step ritual process that you can use as a guide to check in with your goals. By implementing this process, you’ll be able to STOP feeling like you’re falling behind or slipping on your goals. 

This ritual is one of the best ways I continue building momentum in my business and helps me make sure I’m on track for the goals I’ve set for myself.

At the end of the day, having a process like this is going to allow you to be a high-performing leader. You can either do this for yourself in terms of how you're showing up in your personal and professional life, or you can do it with your team, and focus on what you all need to do together as a unit.

Did any steps stand out to you? Let me know which goals you’re working on in the comments!

Let me know by tagging me in a story and include the hashtag #AskAkua. I will also share a special little gift for you! 

Want to dive deeper into developing a 3-step process that will help keep you track of your goals as a visionary leader?

Learn more about how to work with me 1:1 and get back on track for your goals here.

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