Big Goals Need More Than Motivation: They Need a Strategy

It sounds small. But it's part of a much bigger plan. 

I have a slightly random goal right now.

I want to get to 200 followers on Instagram.

At the time of writing this, I am at 173.

Now, 200 followers isn't exactly going to break the internet. 😂

But it is actually part of a much bigger strategy, and I thought I'd share some of that because it links perfectly to something I talk about a lot: creating a vision for the life you want, then actually building a plan to make it happen.

One of my biggest personal goals is financial independence.

But financial independence, on its own, isn't a strategy.

I can't write “be financially independent” on a vision board, keep doing exactly what I'm doing today and expect it to magically happen.

I need a plan.

Mine has a few different strands.

My corporate career is one. I enjoy my career, I'm ambitious, I want to keep learning and progressing, and right now it provides the majority of my income.

My pension and investments are another. They're building wealth for later in life, and I'm deliberately investing for that future. But, I can't access these for another 20 years. 

So, I also want to create income and options in the years before I can access that money.

That's where things like property and my coaching business come in.

I sometimes think of this as building my own runway.

I'm not trying to dramatically escape my job or sacrifice everything today so I can hopefully enjoy my life in 20 years. I'm trying to build options, steadily and sustainably, so that over time I have more choice over how I work and live.

And one strand of that plan is growing Elsa Hogan Coaching into a proper, sustainable business.

Which, it turns out, is bloody hard. 

I know how to coach. I know how to help someone step back from the noise, work out what they actually want, identify what's getting in their way and build a strategy to move forward.

But building an online business?

Sales? Marketing? Algorithms? Creating products people actually want to buy?

That's a completely different skill set, and I'm learning it as I go.

I've loved working with people 1:1, and I want to continue doing that. But my ambition has always been bigger than the number of people I can personally coach.

I want to build a community of kick-ass people who are taking ownership of their futures.

People who are ambitious, but don't want achievement to come at the expense of their health, relationships or happiness.

People who want to build financial security and more options for their future, while still enjoying their life today.

People who aren't necessarily looking to quit their jobs, sell everything and move to Bali... they just want to feel like they're in the driving seat of their own life again.

And if I want to build products, resources and eventually a community that genuinely helps those people, I need to understand them.

Not just what I think they need.

What they actually need.

And importantly, what they want.

Because those aren't always the same thing.

I might believe someone needs a five-year strategy, for example. But they might be lying awake on Sunday night thinking, “I can't do another Monday like this.”

If I only talk about the solution I think they need and never understand the problem they're actually trying to solve, I'm probably not going to be very helpful.

So a big part of building this business is listening, testing, learning and adjusting.

Which brings me back to my seemingly insignificant goal of 200 Instagram followers.

There was a feature on Instagram called Trial Reels that I wanted to unlock. It would give me another way to test content and see what resonated - and what didn't - so I could learn what people genuinely found useful and create more of it.

And right now, I have 173 followers.

So my next milestone is 27 more people.

And that's the bit I find interesting.

Because yes, I want to hit 200.

But the bigger goal was never really the number.

It's learning how to build something genuinely useful for the people I want to help.

And perhaps there's a little lesson in here for your own strategy too.

Your big goal might feel enormous when you look at it from where you're standing today.

Financial independence certainly does for me.

Building a successful coaching business does too.

But I don't need to achieve either of those things today.

I just need to know what the next milestone is and what I can do to move towards it.

Sometimes that milestone might seem almost laughably small compared with the ultimate goal.

That's okay.

Because those small milestones start to stack up.

And that's how a strategy moves from something written on a piece of paper to something you're actually living.

So think about the big goal you're working towards right now.

Then forget about the enormity of the end goal for a moment and ask yourself:

What's my next meaningful milestone?

And, more importantly, what can I do to move towards it today?

Elsa x