Work-At-Home Goals for the New Year!

Are you committed to working at home in 2008? Now is a great time to set you goals and make a plan so that this time next year, you’re not dreading returning to work after all the holiday fun. Here are some tips to getting started:

1) Why do you want to work at home? What is that working at home will get you? More time with the family? More money? Out of a job you hate? Write down the life that working at home can provide you. Don’t skip this step, as it is the fuel that will drive your desire to work at home when your goal becomes difficult to reach.

2)     Write your goals down. To be powerful, goals must be:

Specific – Don’t write, “I want more money.” Instead write the amount. “I want a million dollars.”

Measurable – This is related to being specific. You need to know that you reached your goal by having a measure for it such as a dollar amount.

Challenging — You must challenge yourself to step out of the comfort zone to achieve your goals.

Timed – You need to set a clear and definite deadline for each goal such as, “I will be home full time with the kids by June 2007.”

Written – There is power in writing your goals so write them down.

3)      Now that you know what you want, how are you going to get it?  Jot down all the ways you could work at home. There are thousands of ways to work at home, write down as many that you think you could do based on your skills and experience and interests.4)      Research the options from #3 and select the one that you believe you can commit to for the long haul.

5)      Make a plan. Determine what steps you need to take to get your work-at-home program started and running. Write down all the steps that are required and post them in your planner or in your office.

6)      Commit to the plan. Many people are able to get through the first five steps without much difficulty. But within a few days or weeks, they are back to their old ways and not doing anything to reach their goals. One way to avoid this is to schedule time everyday to work on your goal. By doing small things everyday you’ll see bigger results faster than haphazard effort every now and then.

7)      Celebrate your success. Once you have reached a goal of working at home, celebrate. So few people really ever achieve their dreams. The fact that you have means you have put in the work and stayed the course despite all the obstacles. That deserves a party.

Much like sensible diets work better than crash diets, so too do work-at-home plans. Its much easier to reach a work-at-home goal by taking small steps everyday, instead of big steps occasionally. So make working at home a part of everyday, like brushing your teeth. Challenge yourself, but be realistic. And most of all, never give up.