Have you noticed a trip to the city or even a country town has been far more frenzied the last couple of weeks? As if cars have suddenly started multiplying on our roads?

It seems some sort of magnetic pull began six weeks out from Christmas and people have been panic buying (or at least panic window shopping) ever since.

Regardless of whether you think the true spirit of Christmas has been forgotten or not, I’d ask you to consider this:

• Do you plan your gift buying or is it more a scatter gun approach?
• Do you have a budget and stick to it or do you overspend each year out of desperation?

If the scatter gun, credit card lurch resonates with you does it reflect your approach to business and blogging?

Go on. Respond out loud.

Be honest with yourself. Acknowledge and accept your answers. Don’t judge them.

Do you think your business and blog would blast into 2013 with better planning?

Damn straight. It’s time to take ACTION!

You’ve got four weeks excluding Christmas to get sorted. Let me help you get started.

Planning Starts With Why

Before you can plan anything you need to know what you want to achieve and why. What is it that drives you to get out of bed each morning? What are you determined to achieve? It doesn’t have to be material. It could be financial security, freedom, fulfilment. Only YOU can answer what and why.

You need to clearly define your focus, goals, values. How you do this is up to you. Write it out and keep it somewhere you can easily refer back to. If you respond to images go with that. Simple is great. Look to other people for examples if you need some inspiration.

Facebook expert Mari Smith says:

While having a vision, mission, “SMART” goals, plans, milestones, and accountability are all components of preparing for success, I’ve found that by also selecting just one word as a theme for my whole year, all manner of new opportunities and experiences show up.

Author Kylie Ofiu prefers a visual approach using vision boards and graphs to map out the path to her definition of success. Her motivation wall and Tonga chart scream out for attention.

How To Plan

Now you know why you’re taking action and what you want to achieve it’s time to figure how you are going to do it. You need to set SMART goals and make an action plan.

Don’t take fright if you aren’t sure what SMART goals are. They are quite easy to create. This isn’t time to bury your head in the sand.

SMART goals are simply a way of articulating your intended path of action to get to the result you want.

S stands for specific. The more specific you are in defining your goals, the less room you will have for wandering off course, following the next shiny light or procrastinating in any other form.

M stands for measurable. Unless you make your goals measurable you will never know when you’ve successfully reached your target.

A stands for actionable. This means you want your goals to be something YOU can influence. Use verbs to describe how you will take action.

R stands for realistic. Do you believe the goals you’re setting are possible? Are they challenging AND achievable?

T stands for timely. You need to identify when you will achieve your goal by.

Here’s an example of a SMART goal:

I will increase my shop inventory by 20% by October 31^st some I’m prepared ahead of the Christmas rush.

Once you’ve defined your SMART goal write out each of the actions you’ll need to take to achieve it. For example, using the SMART goal above you’d have to:

• Identify your average inventory levels and calculate how many extra goods you need to make to achieve a 20% increase.
• Calculate and purchase supplies to make the goods.
• Set aside the time required to produce the goods.

Etc.

Have a go a creating your first SMART goal. Once you’ve created it check it against the letters of SMART. Is it specific? Measurable? Actionable? Realistic? Timely?

Keep On The Path To Success

When asked about goal setting one of the biggest challenges identified isn’t setting the goals but actually remembering and acting on them.

I know I’m guilty. Do you recognise this?

Now you’ve got your why and SMART goals let’s make sure you are successful.

An awesome way to keep on track is to establish a mastermind group or have an accountability partner. That way you have a group or someone keeping you honest in your progress. You also have a readymade sounding board whenever you hit obstacles or turbulence that might otherwise throw you off course.

Jaime Tardy of Eventual Millionaire says:

I always knew mastermind groups and mentors were an important part in becoming successful no matter what industry you were in. It became truly apparent when I started to interview millionaires. I’ve interviewed over 70 millionaires and over and over it came up again that a key mentor or a mastermind group helped their success exponentially.

Jaime put together a couple of brilliant FREE resources to help you establish your mastermind group and recently shared them on the Smart Passive Income blog.

Your Accountability Partner

I want to help YOU succeed and make 2013 your best year ever.  In the comments below COMMIT to COMPLETING this planning process by 31^st December 2012.

If you have any questions ask them too.

Let’s make your 2013 AH-MAZING!!!