The Secret of Successful Goal Setting

Do you find yourself setting business goals year after year, only to never achieve half of them?

You’re not alone. Goal setting is like art - if done well, you have a piece that is sought after worldwide. If not done well…well, it just sits collecting dust in a corner.

As an entrepreneur and small business owner with his fair share of challenges with goal setting, I understand the frustration when you end the year realizing you didn’t meet half of the goals you had set for yourself and your business.

Why set goals in the first place?

How do you know what path to travel without looking at a map?

Setting smart goals is imperative, and without some sort of goal setting plan, you’ll just spend your time spinning your wheels, jumping around from task to task with no final destination in sight.

I believe goals should go beyond just business. They should encompass what you want to achieve in every aspect of your life. Knowing that you’re focusing on goals that align with what you truly want, and will allow you to do what you’re passionate about, helps you remain accountable and feel fulfilled.

Setting short and long-term goals and smart targets is essential for ensuring you and your business stay on track. It gives you the roadmap you need as you progress through the year, providing checks and balances to ensure you’re not going off-course.

But first…you need to have a full strategic plan in place

But the reality is, setting goals is just one part of the equation. Having a broader strategic plan in place is imperative as it allows you to take a bird's eye view, ensuring that your goals align with your overall business requirements. After all, actually achieving goals is what we all aim for.

By having a full strategic plan in place, you set your overall goals for the year and then create your 30/60/90 day smart action plan centered around achieving these goals. Breaking down your goals into smaller chunks, including daily goals, allows you to stay more focused during your 90-day sprints without getting bogged down and losing sight of your objectives.

When developing your strategic plan and when forming your goal-setting procedure, your goals should be centered around each of the 5 core areas of business:

• Marketing and sales

• People and leadership

• Money and numbers

• Systems and organization

• Strategic planning and execution

With 70% of people failing to achieve their goals, this only further drives home the importance of having a plan to support and help you reach your goals. After all…why set goals if you can't achieve them.

To improve the chance of success, remember to look beyond the surface level as you work on your strategic plan and setting your goals. Making sure you create aligned goals will help you achieve freedom, peace, fulfillment and success.

“The elevator to success is out of order. You’ll have to use the stairs…one step at a time”

- Joe Girard

Short-term vs. long-term goals

I truly believe that setting goals should be based on what you want in life. It’s about starting with your end goal in mind, working backwards and asking yourself what you truly want to accomplish and be remembered for.

Creating short-term and long-term goals is essential, and your goals should excite you! Unfortunately, I often see people focusing more on their day-to-day and immediate-term goals, and they completely miss thinking about the end game.

Instead of haphazardly throwing together a bunch of goals, create realistic AND strategic goals that build off each other. You want your shorter-term goals to align with your final end result. Then, once set, ensure you have the proper systems and processes in place to support them.

The importance of mindset

If goal setting seems overwhelming, you’re less likely to create, let alone hit, your goals. However, segmenting them into smaller pieces and tying them into what you want to achieve can help ensure you’re choosing goals that are the building blocks to lead to your ultimate vision.

Your mindset is key as you sit down to get clarity on your goals. Fear, doubt and limiting beliefs are sneaky and can stop you from going after what you really want.

For instance, if you believe you can only achieve a certain revenue number, you’ll find yourself stuck within the mental barrier you’ve created. And your goals will end up reflecting this.

Releasing any negative and limiting beliefs (especially around money) can help you set realistic goals with a clear vision of the activities needed to produce and achieve your desired results.

How to set goals in 2023 - Learn from my mistakes

I thought I had a solid goal setting method in place. And heading into 2022, I jumped in and made my Q1 and Q2 goals with all intentions of crushing them. In reality, however, I headed into Q3 realizing I missed every one of those goals.

I want to share my smart goals and objectives examples, as well as goal-setting tips, in hopes that my learnings can help as you look to create your own. Here are some professional smart goal examples along with the reasons why I missed reaching my goals:

1. I didn’t have the proper process in place - when you’re unclear on what work needs to be done to reach your goals, it will be challenging to achieve them. Understanding what processes need to be in place to execute the tasks required is key.

2. My goal was too far in the future - the human brain has difficulty looking too far ahead in the future, causing us to procrastinate. Without a sense of urgency, sticking to what needs to be done can be difficult. Breaking down your goal into smaller weekly, monthly, and quarterly achievements will help keep you on the path to seeing results.

3. I had my goals but not the tactics to achieve them - it can be easy to set a monetary goal and say you’ll get more clients to reach it. But experience has shown me that focusing on providing more value to your existing clients will help you reach your goals much quicker.

As a business coach, I’m passionate about constantly learning and sharing my knowledge. Smart goal setting is a skill that I am always working on, and I’m taking my learning experiences and using them to propel my clients and me further forward.

If you need some help in planning out and solidifying your 2023 goals, or for more goal-setting tips, book your free consultation call:

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or connect with us at info@precisemgmt.net.