Rhonda's Rules: Set Goals
“You can’t reach a goal you’ve never set.” That’s one of Rhonda’s Rules. In order to reach a goal, you have to set a goal.
Right now, at the very beginning of a new year, take a bit of time (perhaps go out for a cup of coffee) and write down your business goals for 2008.
Now, this isn’t your annual business plan. Regular readers of this column know I’m a big believer in doing an annual business plan. In my company, we do one every year, and it’s been the single biggest contributor to growth.
But you may not have time right now to develop a business plan. After all, there’s all that work that piled up over the Christmas holiday season. But you do have time to come up with your goals for the year.
If you’re like me, you have a long list of things you’d like to accomplish. This list is a mix of big things (make more money, find new customers) and small things (install new software, return those phone calls). You probably write many of these down, especially the small, pressing tasks you have to accomplish before the end of the day or the week.
What happens, though, is that the big things often get pushed aside by the small things. Why? Our major goals, such as developing a new sales channel or finding a new trade show to exhibit at, are critical but not urgent. And the small things, such as responding to an e-mail or returning a phone call, are time-dependent even if they’re not very important.
As a result, we often feel unsatisfied even if we’ve managed to check off everything from our “to do” list. And that’s why at the end of the day, we often tell ourselves, “I’m exhausted but I don’t think I really accomplished anything.”
How can you break out of this cycle and achieve more of your overall ambitions?
Set your goals. You have to be clear about what you want if you are to have any chance of achieving it. This sounds easier than it is. It’s tough to ask yourself, “What is the biggest thing I want to accomplish this year?”
Make your goal specific. Sit down and think about all the many things you want in life and business. Our big goals are usually fuzzy feelings, along the lines of “I want to be rich,” “I want to be happy,” “I want to be loved.” Those aren’t really goals; they’re states of being. Instead be very clear, “I want to make $100,000,” “I want to spend at least one day a week with people I care about and who care about me.”
Make it positive. It’s usually easier to add something good to your life than to remove something bad. For instance, if I need to improve my employee relationships, it’s easier for me to set a goal of taking an employee to lunch once a week than to stop losing my temper at employees who make mistakes. Often, of course, it’s equally or more important to cut out the bad habits. Even then, try to state your goal in positive terms. Instead of “quitting smoking,” state your goal as “I’m going to take care of my health by getting free of my smoking addiction.”
Set a time frame. Your small tasks have deadlines; why not your important goals?
Make it achievable. You want to actually do this, don’t you? So choose a goal that you have a realistic chance of being able to reach. Don’t set a goal you’ve continually failed at; start fresh and give yourself a chance to succeed. Examining whether a goal is achievable also helps you start planning how to get it done.
Ask yourself which one to three big things would you like most to achieve by Dec. 31, 2008. Don’t choose more than three because you’ll never get them done. Then write those down and put the list where you can be reminded of your goals. Good luck!
Rhonda Abrams is the author of “Six-Week Start-Up” and “What Business Should I Start?”
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