42. What to do when your goals aren't on track

It happens to all of us from time to time. What can we do when that data tells us that we aren't on track to meet our goal? 

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Janice: Welcome back to Your Win-Win Teacher Business. In episode 42, we'll talk about what to do when you realize you are not on track to reach your current goal.

[00:00:37] Before we dive into this heavy topic, I just wanna say that this is normal. Data tells us the truth, and sometimes that truth is exactly what we wanna hear. Sometimes we're on target, sometimes we're ahead of our pace, and sometimes we're not where we want to be.

[00:00:54] There can be so many reasons that our goals are not on track. Sometimes we're lousy at setting realistic goals in the first place, and other times we're not strong at taking action to actually get us to the goal on the timeline we imagined.

[00:01:11] And so setting goals is a skill. Taking action on goals is another skill. Diving into the data to try to find out what the data's trying to tell us, that's another skill in your toolbox as well. And so it's exciting when the data tells us our goals are on track. But it's also good information when we find out our goal is not on track.

[00:01:34] So if you're pushing play on this episode with a lump in your throat because your goal is not on track and you're starting to spiral and feel really heavy emotions, I'm here for you. And I've got three ideas for you in today's conversation about things we're not going to do and three ideas for things we might want to explore.

[00:01:54] You know what we're not going to do when our goals are not on track? We're not going to beat ourselves up in that initial moment that you see the data, you already feel lousy. You already feel scared. It already feels heavy. We're gonna set a timer. We're gonna sit in our feels. We're gonna live in that moment for a little bit.

[00:02:13] But then we're gonna shake it off and we're gonna move on and make a plan. Dwelling and staying in this stuck negative space is not going to help us solve big problems for others, and it's not gonna help us turn the chart back in the right direction. We're also not gonna burn our business to the ground

[00:02:33] at the first sign that a graph is trending in a downward direction, or we're not seeing the results that we want. There might be a time where you decide to make a major shift in your business, but we shouldn't be making those decisions in this heightened emotional state.

[00:02:50] We shouldn't be making these decisions from a place of reaction. We should be stepping back, getting perspective, probably getting another opinion, trying things, and if we repeatedly see that things are trending in the wrong direction, that's when we want to get curious about the benefits of burning something to the ground.

[00:03:10] But it shouldn't be an impulsive decision that we make the first time we see data points that we're not happy with.

[00:03:21] And the third thing we're not going to do, and I hope this lands with love, but we're not going to do more of what hasn't been bringing us results. So if you have a schedule that's not getting you where you need to go, we shouldn't keep using it. If you have a tech stack that's not bringing you where you want to go, we shouldn't keep using it.

[00:03:46] If you have a team structure that's not bringing you where you want to be, we shouldn't continue on in that structure. Whether we wanna hear it or not, there's something about what we're doing right now that isn't getting us where we want to go. And so doing more of that is just prolonging the pain and it's just stretching out the path before we find what is working.

[00:04:11] And it takes a lot of bravery to get curious about what part of the machine is broken and make a change. And some changes work on the first try, and sometimes it takes a few tries to figure out the formula that works for our business and our goals. But when the data tells us something we're not excited about, it does no good to beat ourselves up instantly and reactively burn our business to the ground, or bury our head in the sand and continue on in the same way that hasn't been bringing us the results that we want.

[00:04:43] So what can we do instead? Well, three ideas we might wanna explore. The first one is pivoting to a slower or a smaller goal. Let's say you decided you were going to put out weekly long form content this year, and then the first piece of long form content that you made took you three weeks to create.

[00:05:04] Now you're already behind, you feel terrible, and you have no hope of getting this goal back on track. That's information, that's data. It's a bummer, but we don't have to let it spiral and take us totally off track and we don't have to give up on long form content all the way until the next year. It might show us that making a high quality piece of long form content takes us two to three weeks, and so we might wanna cut that goal in half, and instead of shooting for weekly content, shooting for

[00:05:37] two pieces of fresh content every month. And maybe once we have a goal that's a little slower, but still feels aligned to the reason we wanted to do long form content in the first place, maybe we'll start to feel better when we sit down to do that task and it won't feel so impossible and we can actually get the train moving again.

[00:05:56] Long form content still might feel really, really critical in this season of your business. It might just be that we need to slow that goal down and make it a little smaller. And once we get some momentum, you might find that you get to the end of that checkpoint ahead of schedule and you can over deliver and add a little bit extra in. And then you end up landing somewhere in between the small target and the big target,

[00:06:21] and that feels a lot better than shutting down and not doing it at all. Another option we might wanna explore is removing some of the pressure I. And I'll probably do a standalone episode on this topic, but I see a lot of stress right now in the TPT Facebook groups from people who went full-time TPT.

[00:06:41] So maybe at some point they were making more than their salary in the classroom and they decided to go all in because if they were making that number in a small amount of hours every week, imagine what's possible if they had their whole week to work with.

[00:06:58] And so just because you went TPT full-time and made that your identity and said to the world, my TPT business is going to be my full time job, it doesn't mean you have to stay in that situation forever. And if that no longer feels like a win-win, and the pressure of making that amount of money every single month is crushing you and making it hard for you to sit down and do the job, then it's okay to rebalance the pie and reevaluate your level of risk and remove some of the pressure on this business.

[00:07:34] So what could that look like? It could look like subbing. I know a lot of people have talked about subbing as an option or being a paraprofessional, moving back into the schools in a part-time role to have some of the stability of a regular paycheck and have that connection to education and the connection to other people, and also not be in the full-time role that they were escaping,

[00:08:00] also, having this creative adventure and this business that has scalable potential. And so there might be a way to rebalance the pie that removes the pressure. And you might not be ready to take that step yet, but it might be a good exercise to get curious about it and close your eyes and say, okay, maybe I signed up to sub and I did my background check and I applied and I got my fingerprints, and now I'm on the call list. When they call in the morning and say, would you like to do the business tasks on your desk for today?

[00:08:30] Or would you like to come in and sub in this classroom for the day? Do you have the information that you need in your project management system to help you make that decision each day? So putting ourselves in that scenario can help uncover a lot of what it would feel like if we ended up doing that.

[00:08:49] And you can discover a lot of clues through that process, without even taking the leap. Would you feel frustrated every time the phone rang because all the business tasks on your desk feel really critical, things you're really passionate about, and you really do want to sit here and get them done? Is everything on your desk an absolute needle mover, and you're so positive that it's gonna get you to your revenue destination, that you're better off staying here to do it?

[00:09:16] That task on your desk for today, what is the revenue potential associated with it? If you went to sub today instead, you know you'd make X dollars for the day. What is the revenue potential of the tasks on your desk? If you were faced with that decision two days a week or one day a week, would you have the data in your current schedule to help you make that

[00:09:40] decision? And if you can get your schedule aligned properly, you can make the most of each day in your schedule and make sure each day is profitable in a different way. You can remove some of the fluff. You can identify the true needle movers. And you might feel better on the days that you're in office working on your business after you've removed some of that pressure, getting some right now money in a different way.

[00:10:07] And I just wanna say that it doesn't have to be subbing. You might enjoy doing a shift at your local coffee shop every morning to get out of the house for two hours. You might wanna just be a crossing guard to get some vitamin D.

[00:10:18] You might just really appreciate knowing that a hundred percent of the income for your family doesn't have to come from a marketplace search bar. It might make showing up to your desk to do work a little bit more enjoyable if you could release some of the pressure that you're currently feeling. And then the third thing we might want to explore is a sounding board and a fresh set of eyes on the situation.

[00:10:43] And it's so much more fun to bring someone in to put eyes on the situation when things are going well. But in reality, the times when things are not working are the times where we need a fresh set of eyes the most. Because there's something about having a fresh perspective that helps us see the blind spots, helps us notice things we're doing that aren't helping, things we've been doing that aren't working.

[00:11:07] And so finding a sounding board that you can trust and asking them to put a fresh set of eyes on the situation and really being ready to receive the real talk, that can really escalate our progress, getting our goals back on track. You've probably got the building blocks of something really great and you're probably just a few tweaks away from moving things back in the right direction.

[00:11:30] And the sooner we're ready to get a fresh set of eyes on the situation, to get a fresh idea, to try something new and shake things up, the sooner we can turn things around.

[00:11:42] You also might be able to connect with a sounding board who has seen someone in this type of situation before, and they can bring in a fresh perspective about what's worked for other people. You're the boss of your business. You have the final say in what decisions that you make, but that doesn't mean you're responsible for knowing a hundred percent of the options on the menu and having to know everything about every part of running a business.

[00:12:06] It's okay to bring someone in who has a fresh perspective and expertise to lend a helping hand in these seasons when life feels really sticky.. So at the end of the day, just know I'm really proud of you for taking the time to measure progress towards your goals. It's so exciting when we're crushing those goals and celebrating, but to make it as a business owner for the long haul, you also need tools in your toolbox for making a game plan when the data does not tell you what you were hoping it would.

[00:12:34] Don't spiral into despair or hide under your desk in the fetal position. Take control of the situation and make an action plan. I hope this episode helped you take a deep breath and help you feel like you do have options and can turn this around. And if I'm the sounding board that you need and the fresh set of eyes for your particular situation, I'll leave a link to my strategy

[00:12:57] call calendar in the show notes.