100 Days To Be a Better Eventprof: Start Today!

Setting goals makes you a better eventprof and we all know that when we set goals for ourselves it keeps us focused, productive, and helps to avoid procrastination. 100 days is the perfect time period for making sure you can achieve your goals. If you keep thinking “I really want to do this” but you haven’t begun yet, then setting a goal with a nice round number attached to it can kickstart things.

100 days is a happy medium between being too far in the future that you lose motivation and far enough away that your goals are actually achievable, after all, it’s almost a third of a year and you can do a lot with all that time.  You are more likely to be successful with timed goals and situations such as:

• Finishing a work project
• Losing weight or a personal fitness goal
• Short courses or workshops
• Planning an important event

All of these can be achieved within a 100-day time period. That being said, it takes a little more than just saying, “okay, I’ll do this in 100 days” and there is definitely more planning involved. If you invest around 30-60 minutes now, then you are well on your way to implementing your plan for later!. Goals that may feel impossible are fully achievable, and here’s where to start:

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Mapping Your Plan

Choosing The Right Goals

You’d think that choosing goals would be relatively simple because you know what you want right? That might be true but do you know how to get there? A goal is more than a dream and you need to set yourself up in order to achieve it, so it is time to break your goals apart and look at them in stages.

What do I want?

What is the end goal? Are you looking to progress your eventprof career, or perhaps you want to branch out and start your own event business, or something more personal like a lifestyle change? Having this clearly in your mind sets you up perfectly for the next question.

How do I get there?

What are the little steps and achievements that you need to do in order to reach your goal? Don’t forget you will need to know what milestones you have to achieve so that your goal is attainable. For example, if you are setting up your own business, you’ll need a name, website, logo, potential clients, social media channels, a business plan (to name a few) – all of which will help you during planning and execution. Knowing exactly what you need will help keep you focused and avoid you going off track halfway through.

Once you have answered these, you’ll be able to move onto the more quantifiable aspects of planning that will include:

Is it worth it?

Sometimes we want things that aren’t good for us, or simply, we aren’t reaching high enough. You are going to be devoting 100 days to this goal, so make sure it’s something worthwhile that is worth the time and effort you are putting in!

Is it realistic?

There’s a fine line between a challenge and a losing battle. You need to be honest with yourself about what you realistically think you can achieve versus what you want. Some goals can take years but you can chip away at a larger portion. Just scale down and increase your specificity of what you want to achieve.

From the other perspective, don’t be afraid to challenge yourself as goals like this tend to drive us more! If a goal is too easy, it’s not going to motivate you at all.

How will I know I have done it?

Make It measurable in some way. Whether it’s setting a limit (e.g. a running distance you want to achieve or even sales goals and targets), having a quantifiable element lets you know officially whether you have gotten there or not.  

Question Your Motives

It’s important to understand what is driving you to achieve this goal because finding out that it isn’t actually something that you want halfway through is going to be a complete waste of time. Look at the underlying reasons of why you may want to achieve what you want. For example, if you are looking to start an event business, is it because you have a burning desire to create your own brand or because you crave more money. If it’s the latter there are probably easier ways to go about this that don’t involve the lengthy (and difficult) processes of setting up your own business and you may find you are easily demotivated.

Focus on the reasons behind your goal and constantly question yourself, asking yourself why you are doing this, what are your motivations and what are the long-term ramifications of this. Also, consider what you will do next once it’s achieved. Is it part of your longer term life plan or is it something you just want to do? Strip the goal down to basics and if you need to, go away and come back after considering the implications of what your goal is going to take and if you are really prepared to get there.

The three questions that can help you do this are:

• Why should I do this?
• What will it help me achieve?
• Is it what I truly want?

Set Checkpoints

Now you know exactly what you want, you’ve decided on your goal in its entirety, and have questioned your motives behind it.You also know that it is going to take you 100 days so it is now time to form a plan about what this will look like.

A checkpoint or milestone helps to keep a sense of achievement and allows you to mark your progress as you go along Your checkpoints should be miniature goals that work towards your larger aim that need to be attained in that timescale. Reaching these checkpoints puts you one step further to your goal and helps break it down into manageable chunks. Starting at 100 days away, set big milestones and small ones. For example, you can break up your goal into 30-day markers with a final 10 days at the end and then in between this, offer smaller goals to achieve each week.

You can have these saved as notifications on a large written calendar, your bullet journal or on your phone’s calendar. Whichever your preferred medium, have your goals in clear view as a reminder of what you are working towards.

Specific Scheduling

This is often the part that most people forget because they are too busy looking at the bigger picture of what they want to achieve, that they don’t realize they need to take steps each day to get there. In each of the 100 days you will be putting in the grind and effort towards your goal and this can be daunting, particularly if you hit a snag or it seems like too far away so this step is very important.

Fill in ALL of the days in between your checkpoints so that you have a clear idea of where you are starting and what you are doing each day, without wasting time on tasks that aren’t useful. Remember that you are fitting your goal around your daily life and it’s unlikely that it will become all-consuming so ensure that you don’t put too much pressure on each day otherwise you will find yourself burnt out before the 100 days ends.

Also, don’t be afraid to schedule some downtime or a day off (particularly with fitness goals) because everyone needs a break. You may find that certain days are more open to productivity than others so you schedule more for those days and less for others. Just remember to be realistic, you are not a machine!

Analytics

Tracking daily progress is equally important for guiding your goals and plans. You can’t be expected to foresee all issues that might arise which means your plan may have to be adapted to suit. Finding this out sooner rather than later is key to avoiding disappointment and failing to reach your checkpoints. If you meet your goal for the day, great! You should have a reward system that helps highlight this but if you didn’t then you need to ask yourself several questions:

• What prevented me from achieving my goal?
• How does this affect my progress overall? (can you adjust somewhere to make up for it?)
• Is this a recurring problem and will it happen again?
• Has it changed a checkpoint? (for example, you may find out that some things are no longer possible and will need to adjust your overall goals or checkpoints accordingly.)

Noting your progress also helps to keep you accountable and allows you to check in with yourself to be present and not fall into that autopilot we all tend to experience from time to time.

In Conclusion

It’s important to put the time into forethought and pre-planning because if done incorrectly, a lot of time and opportunities are going to be wasted. This level of structure can be applied to any aspect of your life, from your business to your health as long as you consider the implications and what you really want before you start. Using this method can help you achieve anything and everything and meet your eventprof goals.