Goal Setting for Business: Reflect and Project
December 31, 2008 by Katie Skow
Filed under Biz
You can’t help it. The end of December signifies not only the end of a calendar year, but the opportunity for a new beginning. It’s a time for both reflection and projection. You ask yourself: What did I accomplish this year and what do I want to work on or change for next year?
Think of goal setting as an extension of your business plan. You wouldn’t drive from California to New York without a road map, would you? You might eventually get there, but why waste valuable time, money, and energy blindly navigating. Make a plan, it’s your roadmap to success.
Goal setting is important for setting the tone and path to life and business. Think of it as future vision. Stating your goal and/or vision will keep you on track and keep the distractions at bay as you navigate through the jungle of life.
Carve out time and space to set your goals. Today, tonight, tomorrow, or this week. Do it all at once or in several short sessions. Some need a quiet place with ambient music whereas others are perfectly content goal setting in the middle of a wild party with Dance Dance Revolution and Beyonce blasting in the background. Whatever floats your boat, just do it and don’t wait.
Before looking to the future, it’s important to reflect on the past. Goals met should be celebrated in a big way while failures need to be examined. If you don’t assess what you’ve accomplished and what you’ve put on the back burner this past year, you’ll waste your energy in the upcoming year when old patterns repeat.
If you have goals or visions from this time last year, pull them out and examine what you wrote. If you didn’t write anything down, start brainstorming and thinking about what you did or didn’t do over the past year.
Write, write, write. We’re so glad the Egyptians wrote on pyramid walls because we have a record of what their lives were like and how they lived. Same goes for you. Write down your goals/vision so you have something to look back on, celebrate, or change. You don’t know for sure unless you have a record.
Look to the future and dream, but keep it realistic (I know, The Secret followers will have my neck at this one). I say this because I care and don’t want you to be disappointed. Think big, but more importantly think in manageable baby steps.
Put your mind to it and believe in yourself. It’s one thing to write it down and say that’s what you want or should do. It’s a completely different thing altogether to actually believe in your power to accomplish your goals (which is another reason why you should keep them realistic).
Take action. Each day is another moment of living your vision or stepping toward your goals. Without action, nothing happens. That’s the real secret and it works for me.
All great objectives listed above, as defining your goals is the only way to create a road map to success. My take on the “keep it realistic” angle is to make sure your immediate goals are attainable. They most likely will require you to stretch a bit, but they can all be accomplished.
For longer term goals, however, I do advise people to “think big” and imagine what is possible in a few years time – a business that is ten times its current size, a fabulous relationship, a new home. With full understanding that it will take a lot of work to get there, envisioning such a future will serve to shape many short term decisions – preparing a foundation or leaving a door open or simply keep a connection alive.
I also tell people that those long term plans should be flexible – you were thinking New York, but now Chicago seems like a better fit. Thought you wanted a house at the beach, but now something inland with a bit more space sounds appealing. Let the plan flow, but never let it go. Dreams may not always come true, but the do create possibilities.
Thanks for your comment!
For long term goals, thinking big is a good idea. It’s in the short term that people run into problems. Example: Person wants to make $150,000 this year when they’re barely making $25,000 doing what they do. Possible? Perhaps, but the majority of people live in disappointment when it they don’t come close to the goal. Or, they end up doing nothing to get to that goal because it’s what they WANT but not REALISTIC for them at this point in time.
For me, the more realistic approach would be: I’m going to make $50,000 this year by doing A, B, C. NEXT year, I’m going to turn that $50,000 into $85,000 by following A,B,C up with X,Y,Z. And guess what? If you make $100,000 in your first or second year…SUPER!
It’s also important to establish how fast you want to grow your business. Some prefer slow and steady whereas others prefer fast and furious! KNOW THYSELF.
Do imagine your business 10x the current size in the future. Do picture that perfect home on the beach. BUT, have an action plan as to how you’ll get there. The best things in life happen when least expected… but have a plan in the meantime.