The bottom line on goals is bleak: Nearly 92 percent of all goals are never met. But despite how others struggle, it doesn’t mean that you can’t achieve your goals.
[quotes]Successfully reaching goals is all about starting out right – setting your goals correctly.[/quotes] And, the best way to set reachable goals is to ask yourself the right questions when you're thinking about what you want to achieve.
Do you want to achieve professional success? Are you interested in achieving goals that can improve your personal life? Here's what you need to keep in mind when you're working on improving yourself or your business.
It Starts with Clarity
A fuzzy view of where you want to take your business or yourself personally will sabotage your planning. It takes a crystal-clear vision of where you are and where you want to be in the future to create a solid foundation from which to plan how you will reach your goals. You and your team must be brutally honest and accurate in your appraisal of yourself and/or your company, where you are performing excellently. and where you need to improve.
What is your vision for the future, can you describe it so it feels real and quantify it with hard numbers and more human subjective outcomes? [quotesright]Until you have the clarity and vision of the present and future, you’re at best as myopic as Mr. Magoo. [/quotesright]
Are These SMART Goals?
This section may be the most important part of this post. You can turn anything you can think of into a goal. But if you want to succeed, you need to make sure that you're setting SMART goals.
There are a variety of interpretations of what the letters in SMART can stand for. But if you want to set the right goals, make sure your goals are:
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How to Improve Your Strategic Planning Process the Easy Way
Gaining understanding and a clear vision is not always easy. Being brutally honest, even being able to identify your company’s areas of strength and weakness are very hard from within. Personalities, habits, assumptions, and limited vision make even the best of us somewhat like Mr. Magoo when viewing our company and its industry.
You don’t have to do it alone, we bring the tools and processes that will take your strategy, plans, and results to a higher level while building resilience in your company.
Sound interesting? Have questions? Let’s set up a time to discuss your situation. Brian Tracy USA: 877.433.6225 Email Me
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Specific. Vague goals are difficult to achieve because they aren't well defined. Think about the who, what, when, where, why, and how of the goal you're trying to meet. Make your goals very specific and easy to determine if they have been met. “Increase new tractor sales by 8 percent by November 1, 2020” beats “Increase sales of tractors by a mile.” The latter, you can achieve by selling just one more tractor in a year, for example; it’s not likely to move the needle the way you hoped it would.
Measurable. As Gino Wickman said in his book Traction–Get a Grip on Your Business, “What gets measured gets done.”
It shouldn't be difficult to measure your progress when you're working toward achieving your goal. Don't assume that feelings of success or confidence are measures of success. Think about concrete data you can use. Measure what matters.
Attainable. It's okay to want to shoot for the stars, but your goals should be something that are within your reach.
Becoming a millionaire one year after you launch a small business is very difficult to do. Creating a sustainable business that breaks even after one year is much more reasonable.
Relevant. Don't set a goal just for the sake of having one, see how it'll affect your life or business. Will this goal help you achieve something that can drastically help your career or your business?
Timeliness. Timeliness and usefulness are required for any goals you set for your business. To be useful, goals must be time specific. That means setting deadlines to accomplish your goal. By Nov. 1, 2020, sales of tractors will be $20 million, up 12 percent over the same period last year. No wiggle room. Yoda would say, “Do or do not, there is no try.”
Where Do Goals Help Achieve Your Vision for Your Company?
When you're setting goals, keep in mind how the goals play into your overall vision for the company.
You've always envisioned having a company that could change the way people in your industry conduct business. Does your goal help you create more innovative products or services? Will it set you up as thought leaders in your industry?
When money is your motivating factor for reaching a goal, ask yourself if it'll help you bring in more money over the course of the next quarter, next year, or several years in the future.
When your goals are tied into the vision of your company, you can know that you're setting the right ones and that they can help lead you to success.
Who Should You Involve in Setting Goals?
[quotesright]It's rare to set a goal where you're the only person involved. [/quotesright] That model pretty much died out with monarchies. If you want to achieve your goal, consider who you need to involve in your strategic planning process.
If your goals are based on employee performance, it's time to bring in the management team so they can help you set realistic benchmarks and carry back the right messages so all your employees understand why the goals matter and get everyone working toward your goals.
Finance-based goals should involve your accountant, your business analyst, and anyone else who helps you forecast and plan for profit.
When you plan goals without other people, it can be easy to miss the mark. When you have the opinions and expertise of others on your side, you can make sure you're on the right track.
We cannot stress enough how making people part of the process makes them part of the solution, not the problem. They have had a say in what was done, made their points and better, helped the company develop SMART goals.
How Do You Know it's a Goal?
According to the business dictionary, A goal is an observable and measurable result having one or more objectives to be achieved within a more or less fixed timeframe.
If you're struggling to determine if your goal is a true goal, refer back to our SMART goals section. All goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely.
[quotesright]If your "goals" don't meet those five criteria, it's possible that you have more of an aspiration than an actual goal. [/quotesright]
Aspirations are centered around things or qualities you wish you had. They're things you want, but you don't have a solid plan to achieve. Goals are much more granular and are designed to lead you to a specific result.
You may aspire to be a leader in your industry, but a goal that can lead you close to that may be giving a talk at a big conference or getting published in an industry magazine.
If you find that most of your "goals" end up being more aspirational or mushy than concrete, take the time to think about smaller things you can do that could help you achieve that aspiration.
How Long Term Should a Goal Be?
Once you have your goal defined, it's time to start planning out the steps you need to take to achieve it. A big part of planning those steps is to set out a reasonable timeline for yourself that can help you achieve your end goal.
[quotesright]A lot of people struggle knowing whether or not they're on a reasonable timeline. [/quotesright]You know that it takes time to achieve certain goals, but how long is too long to be working on one?
We find that the easiest way to set a timeline for goal achievement is to think of things in terms of a series of short-term goals and long-term goals.
The length of time it takes to achieve a short-term goal will vary. There are some goals you may be able to achieve in a matter of months, and a few can take days or weeks. They have the advantage of giving you a short-range benchmark that can be measured and either met or missed, giving you time to take corrective action before it’s far too late to get the boat back on course.
For instance, taking a professional development course or hiring a new person could take two to three months. Your short-term goal of organizing files could be done in a matter of weeks or even days if you have help.
Long-term goals won't be completed in a matter of months. These are the kind of achievements that will take years to complete. Establishing yourself as an industry leader, opening five new locations, or doubling your staff size can take a long time.
In those cases, you're going to need to rely on a series of short-term and long-term goals – each building on one another – in order to reach your ultimate goals.
Plotting out a series of short-term goals can set you up for success and help make sure that you're staying on track.
Think of your long-term goal as the ultimate end result, and the short-term goals as steps you'll need to take to achieve your bigger goal.
Create Activities You Can Measure and Achieve in 90 Days
Working through a series 90-day periods makes it easy to identify what you can accomplish over a short period of time and allows you to focus on what matters the most to reach your long-term goal.
[quotes]The 90-day period also gives you set points to check in on your progress, makes it easy to see where you need to improve, and helps hold you accountable on what you want to achieve.[/quotes]
As soon as you can start to visualize and plan your goals, you need to start working on your 90-day schedule.
The best way to do this is to sit down and plot out the short-term goals you need to complete your long-term goals.
Let's say your goal for 2020 is to be a keynote speaker at one of the largest regional conferences in your industry. Think about the short-term goals you will need to complete in order to achieve that goal.
In this example, one of the first short-term goals you can do in the first 90 days is to sign up for a public speaking course. Once you complete that class, your goal for the next 90 days can be to speak at a smaller industry event or meet up group. By planning this way, you know almost immediately if you are on track to accomplish your goal.
Your next goal can be to build up your industry presence by submitting thought leadership pieces to niche publications and building your social media followers.
Now, your last 90-day goal would be to work on submitting a great talk topic to the conference where you want to speak.
Your Next Steps
[quotes]When you ask yourself the right questions, you're setting yourself up to meet successful goals.[/quotes] If you follow what we outlined in this post, you'll be on your way to achieving the goals you've always dreamed of!
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