This post on goal setting for weddings was written by Jordan Nelson, creator of the Next Level Goal Setting System. For more information on how to set and keep better personal and professional goals, click here.
Planning a wedding? Buckle up, because this may be the single biggest event you ever plan in your life. Knowing where to start when it comes to creating a schedule, floor plan, music playlist, and more for your big day can be an absolutely daunting task. With the endless barrage of vendors and details that need to be sorted out, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and struggle to know where to begin. Luckily, by applying a few simple goal setting principles to your wedding planning, the whole process can be much smoother. In this article on goal setting for weddings, we'll share a few great tips to get your started.
Break Down Your Tasks Into Manageable “Bites”
You probably have the overarching goal of “having an unforgettable wedding.” To reach that goal, however, you’ll have to accomplish many smaller objectives like finding a venue, choosing a caterer, and creating a floorplan. Even these more manageable goals can seem difficult at first, so it’s always helpful to break things down even further. For example, you could break up “finding a venue” into 3 phases; researching options, touring locations, and placing a deposit. Then, plan to focus on each phase one at a time, perhaps limiting yourself to a couple weeks or a month for each. In this way, previously large tasks seem much more approachable.
Goal Setting For Weddings - Utilize SMART Goal Setting
SMART goal setting, which stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely, is a way to transform vague goals into something more tangible. “Have an unforgettable wedding” is a fantastic objective, but carrying that out requires more directed objectives. To illustrate this principle, let’s walk through SMART goal setting for choosing a caterer.
For the first category, specific, we can say that we would like to choose a caterer who offers our favorite type of food (we’ll go with Italian). We can also say that we would like to spend X amount on that caterer. Measurable means that we want a way to know whether or not we’ve accomplished our goal – when it comes to wedding vendors, this usually means a signed contract or a deposit paid. Attainable means that the goal is within our reach, so the search for a caterer should be within our budget. No need to sift through a dozen options that are outside your price range!
Relevant is straightforward – does the goal align with my ultimate wedding vision? If you pictured a more laid back wedding with light refreshments and dancing, maybe a full blown catering company isn’t what you’re after. It’s helpful to sit down with your significant other and express what it is you’re looking for if you haven’t already. Lastly, timely means that you should have a definitive end date that you want to accomplish your goal by. If your wedding is in 1 year, it’s reasonable to say that you’d like to have your catering company selected no later than 6 months before the big day.
Keep Track of Goal Progress
One thing that is especially difficult when planning a wedding is keeping track of all the details while simultaneously going about your normal day-to-day life. The world doesn’t stop when we get engaged, and so we have to work on planning a wedding alongside our normal daily tasks. Because of this, it’s easy to plans to slip or be caught up in the chaos. As a visual, hands-on person myself, I’ve found it helpful to physically write out my goals and place them in a location where I will see them often. This could be an office desk or a bathroom mirror – wherever it is that the goals will remain top of mind.
If you’re less inclined to leave a piece of paper somewhere, you can always use a reminders or notes app in your phone to keep track of your progress. However you choose to track your goals, organize them in a way that the highest priority tasks live near the top. This way, you will be aware of what needs to be completed most urgently.
These are just a few ways that you can use goal setting techniques to help ease some of the stress of wedding planning. For more goal setting tips, visit nextlevelgoalsetting.com
