Goalsetting

When I first went into business, I had only heard of the word ‘goals’ with regards to certain sports.

When you look at the word goal in the dictionary, it refers to it as an act of scoring in soccer, hockey, rugby and a few other games. It says it’s normal for a pair of posts linked by a cross bar and typically with a net between forming a space by which the ball must be sent through to score.

The second explanation is an individuals ambition, aims or desired results.

My success very rarely comes to me through accident or good luck; it comes from hard work.

I heard a story once about a young man fascinated by his mother’s hairpins as they kept falling out of her hair. This was a major problem with hairpins at that time. This young man had an idea, he took his mother’s hairpins and put kinks into the legs on one side. Resulting in the pins staying put. This young man realised that his idea was original and provided a needed solution for the end-user; he went onto patent his discovery and it resulted in him making a small fortune.

During our human existence, through history, we have had some amazing and outstanding inventions, like electric power, the radio, and television. Other helpful inventions include cats’ eyes, zip fasteners, ball point pens, velcro, and hundreds more, all of which in today’s society we take for granted. What would life have been like without the inventions?

This has resulted in success for the inventor. Interestingly though inventions aren’t the only way to achieve success.

So, let’s look at the significant other roads to success. You need to find the right tracks to run on to be able to run to your success. Let me as you this, on a trip do you set out on your journey to the destination without the knowledge of where you are driving too? Most of us today use a Sat Nav or have a map which we follow.

Most people when they start in business and life have got no clue where they are going and no plan, they just aimlessly drift through life. Remember this is not a dress rehearsal this is your life and your destiny. Take a few minutes to sit back in your chair and seriously ask yourself, do you know where you are going? Do you have a plan for your life? Are you in charge in a meaningful way of what is happening to you?

It is important that you have answered yes to these questions. This is vitally important if you planning to achieve success. Some of the readers reading this blog post may be in a dead-end job with no prospects and working for someone else. I believe you will stay in that situation while you leave the decisions in someone else’s hands. There are literally millions of people that wake up in the morning and drift along, on a familiar worn-out path, with the sole aim of getting the wages or salary paid into the bank. Today most people do not even get the satisfaction of seeing the hard-earned cash in their hands, as it’s paid directly into the bank or building society. Sadly, they do not even get the satisfaction of seeing and feeling the physical crisp pound notes in the wage packet.

These people often start the day with a rushed breakfast and listen to the depressing and negative news on the television or the radio. Then the day starts, with the journey to work, which today can be incredibly stressful, and we live in a high-pressured world. The pay has been scaled down and there is no longer a job for life. Job-security is certainly becoming a thing of the past. The person at the top is making the big fat profit.

Your job can start to feel boring and repetitive with no excitement. When you are bored the clock slowly moves, the only thing you look forward to is time to clock off. Then you face the battle of getting home, with the congestion of traffic and the rush on public transport, and sometimes you are lucky to get a seat and end upstanding.

By the time you get home you’re exhausted and you collapse in front on the television. You are physically and mentally exhausted, with no time or energy to ask any other member of the household if they had a good day. Somehow you manage to drag yourself into the kitchen to make something to eat or phone for a takeaway, and you are in a physically and mentally exhausted household.

It is even been reported that children are feeling the high pressure with school, with all the high expectations that they feel and they are expected to achieve.

Of course, I have painted the most despairing picture here of what your life may look like, and how you feel.

So, let us look at those questions.

• How are you going to know where you are going?
• How are you going to plan your lives?
• How are you going to take charge of what is happening to you?

A famous outstanding successful businessman by the name of John Paul Getty had a six-point plan.

John Paul Getty’s Six-Point Plan

1. You should be in business by yourself.

2. Your product and/or service should meet a need.

3. Map out your business goal and start with the end in mind.

4. Set a budget and track your return on investment.

5. Model the success of your competitors and become the best.

6. Review each week what you have achieved and what needs to be worked on.

Also, side-note, you should make sure you adequately reward anyone that has helped you on the road to success. One way to do that is by sending them testimonies which helps them to success.

All this might sound time-consuming for you; “it would be impossible to run a business single-handed without help and support”.

The important thing to remember is this point – every one of us is to do our own thing which we excel in. The jobs that need to be completed are steps. The end goal needs to be planned first. If you are in business how much money do you want to earn in twelve months? Or if it is a new car you want, ask yourself what is the car? What does it look like? What will it feel like to drive? What does that engine sound like? If it is a new property again describe how it looks like and feels etc…

Put the date on when you want to achieve your goal, and then work backwards.

Make The Plan

If you are on the treadmill of life or feel like you are on a hamster wheel, step off long enough to really have a good look at what is happening in your life. You must decide what you really want to do with your life. Sit down and relax with some peace and quiet for an hour or so with a pen and paper. The pen and paper are the most important weapon in this exercise, because as you go through this exercise you are going to write down whatever comes to your mind! The reason you write down is so you don’t forget anything either accidentally (or on purpose if you are feeling the fear).

Here is an activity! Are you ready to ask yourself:

1. What are you doing with your life? – To get the best results, write down your timetable at work from getting up to going to bed. This will help you to focus and see where your energy is being taken up.

2 Who is the most important person in your life? – Think hard about this answer! It could even be “I am”.

3. What will I be doing in 3 months time?

4. What will I be doing this time next year?

5. What will I be doing in 10 years time?

6. Am I happy with my answers to the above questions?

These are just some of the questions you can ask yourself. Remember if you are in a relationship, include the family in this goal setting exercise. It could become a discipline that the whole family could participate in and achieve, as sacrifices may have to be made for long term gain.

This technique has been proven to work time and time again. It is widely recognised, especially in business.

Failure to develop a business plan will probably result in a business without a future. These techniques can be used however in every area of your life. Most business and organisations use long term strategies to achieve their outcomes.

In the long-term strategy, there will be some intermediate or short term goals which may be performance targets for this year, next year etc. In the life of a salesperson for instance, sitting and achieving small targets is fundamental in improving on larger targets and improving overall performance.

Setting Goals

Remember, when setting goals, make them officially known to the people that matter. Remember to grab that pen and paper to track your progress and evaluate how far you have come. A great friend of mine, Nigel Campbell, in his fantastic talk ‘Love Sales, Hate Selling’ says how important it is to know your numbers.

By having the goal officially known, your tribe will become your cheerleaders and can help, support and encourage you when the going gets tough.

If your goal were to earn £2000.00 a month in January, but by the end of March you only have £1000.00, you will know something isn’t working in your strategy and plan, and need to rework it in order to improve on the target. Either you need to devote more effort into your business, improve your skills or change your techniques. The writing is on the wall for you and without change, you are going to miss your target again in the future.

After writing down your list you will soon come to realise that this will influence the whole of your life, not just business. You can revolutionise your own life just by setting goals for yourself and following your plan.

Hey, and you never know, it might really excite you to write and spark a passion undiscovered!

My Goal

I am going to share a personal/business goal of mine with you, to encourage you to be open and honest with yourself and support you in feeling free to ask for more out of your life.

Goal Setting Example 1: It is 2026 and I am earning £100,000.00 a year. I am living in my dream house with no mortgage. This house is built on 5 acres of land, has 10 bedrooms (all with en-suite bathrooms), a family bathroom and three reception rooms, with a large kitchen and a conservatory. From the house, you can also see the sea. There is also room to have a relaxing training room and a coaching room for my business, and parked outside are two Rolls Royce Cars and a Jaguar Sports car. I also will be able to afford two exotic holidays a year.

Now, this is a realistic goal if I had a load of credit cards and debt’s, but then I would be worried about every bill that comes in. This is achievable for some but not in this time frame, and not from where I am now. So here is my more realistic, more achievable goal for that time frame.

Goal Setting Example 2: It is 2026 and I have achieved my goal and I am totally debt-free and owe nobody any money; I never have to worry about what bill is more urgent to pay, and money is flowing into my life easily.

Please know, you do not need goals just be focused around money or finances. It can be in any area of your life: from students wanting to get good grades; someone wanting to work on their weight loss, or someone wanting to improve their performance in a sport.

Unrealistic goals will result in a fear of failure, so please be realistic. It is important that it is a sensible and achievable so that you can put a plan to achieve it because if you don’t achieve your unrealistic goal (based on what stage you are at!), that will cause many more issues in your future endeavours and mindset.

If you are feeling a bit lost or overwhelmed, it could be a good idea to invest in a good lifestyle coach, business coach, or an accountability buddy, as they can help you to focus your mind and keep going when the going gets tough.

Dreams are more personal; goals are more concrete.

If you do not want to invest in a coach at this stage, I will share a helpful technique below. You will need self-discipline though, so keep that in mind!

First set aside at least one hour to look at where you currently are and where you want to go. A lot of my clients find this a big challenge to set an hour aside for them. This however I promise you will save valuable hours in the long run. Running around, always busy like a headless chicken gets you nowhere, so this will save days, weeks or months of unplanned drifting.

If you want to take control of your life you are going to have to put some effort in taking control and having self-discipline, it does not happen by accident.

So right now, take out your calendar and mark out an hour to take control of your life. This is where you review what happened yesterday, last week or last month, in case things need to change. This schedule will be checked daily to keep your foot on the pedal!

There are some good stationery shops that sell wonderful to-do lists – but don’t let the old notepad you have to hand stop you!

When it comes to your to-do list, never put the jobs that you do not like doing at the bottom of your lists, eat the biggest and dirtiest frog first. Put just five things on your list and make sure that they all move you towards your goal in someway, even if only a small step! Here is the part where you will hate me! I am sorry but do not close the office door and leave the office until all your tasks on your to-do list are done. Obviously, you can also leave the office early if all five things have been done! Bonus!

Long Term Goals

Your long-term goals should still be ambitious, but make sure that they are also realistic and achievable within your time frame. Sometimes our goals are so big we need to plan them in detail and this is fine too!

Side note: Sometimes we focus on the obstacles in our way instead of what we want.

Example: For the purpose of this example I am using a house that needs a lot of work doing to it! It needs repairing, modernising, and decorating, and you think ‘let’s be realistic, we should be able to have it looking the way we want it in two years.’ So, you start in the lounge on the first month of the renovations so that you have somewhere you can come and relax in after work. The second month may be the bathroom; shower, toilet, sink etc.

All the tasks will be written out like this, so you have a plan of action, and prioritise what job is the most important to get done. Have a plan written out like this, breaking the goal down into step by step actionable tasks

In conclusion, if you are dealing with business or your family, setting goals will keep you on track, and it will increase your levels of success.

Things To Remember

1. Take time out to understand what you want to achieve.

2. Write down the conclusion of these achievements.

3. Take time out each day to plan and reflect.

4. Take each of your long-term goals and break them down into a series of small, short-term goals

5. Be realistic, but at the same time be sufficiently ambitious for what is achievable.

Remember, if you are not satisfied with the way your life is now, the responsibility lies with you to do something about it.

Thank you for reading a take care. Please look out for next months article on honesty.