Up Your Business is an exclusive GEARS Magazine feature in which I share stories, insights, and reflections about business and life.
By the time this is in your hands, you most likely have already written your goals for the year. It seems to be something most of us do as we enter a new year. Some goals are little more than New Year’s resolutions or platitudes that make us feel good until we soon abandon them. Others are complex with detailed action plans and timelines, including benchmarks, rewards, and consequences. On the other hand, some people don’t set any goals or make resolutions at all. Regardless of which category you’re in, there’s something in this article for you.
Volumes of books and articles have been written over many decades about how to set goals and presumably accomplish goals. Many experts maintain that success depends on consistently setting and achieving goals.
However, as I reflect on my career, while I habitually labored over setting comprehensive annual business goals, I often failed to achieve them. Despite missing some goals and experiencing personal setbacks, at the risk of sounding boastful, I feel that, overall, I’ve enjoyed a successful life.
Furthermore, I’ve come to believe that goals accomplished, in and of themselves, are not the keys to success, nor does achieving them mean you’re successful. In fact, I’m willing to go so far as to say that most genuinely successful people do not accomplish all or even most of their annual goals.
Before you accuse me of being on the verge of “goal heresy,” I want to clarify that I am a proponent of setting goals, but in this article, I’m going to explain why setting goals doesn’t guarantee success even if you achieve them.
To help you get your head wrapped around this idea, let’s define success and how it relates to goals.
WHAT IS SUCCESS?
For over half of the 20th century, Earl Nightingale was a radio personality, writer, speaker, and author on motivation, character development, excellence, and meaningful existence. Known as the Dean of Personal Development, he offered perhaps the most concise and complete definition of success, “Success is the progressive realization of a worthy predetermined ideal.” This definition is why I contend that traditional goal accomplishment doesn’t determine success. Success is pursuing and progressively realizing your worthy ideals.
The word “ideal” is often replaced by the word “goal” by many experts, but to me, this dilutes the originally intended meaning of Nightingale’s definition. An ideal has a deeper, more profound meaning than a goal. Ideals are never completed. They’re timeless with no deadlines and serve as our guidance system. Goals occupy a specific time in space. They have deadlines and conceptually are completed, changed, or abandoned at some point in time. Ideals provide ongoing guidance toward a purpose, and while progress can be observed, success is subjective. Progress toward goals can be objectively measured, and goal accomplishment is determinable.
So, I believe the most significant reason that setting goals doesn’t work is that goal accomplishment doesn’t mean a person is successful. You can successfully achieve goals, but that doesn’t make you successful. Likewise, failing to achieve goals doesn’t make you a failure.
THE PURPOSE OF GOALS
If achieving goals doesn’t make us successful, why set goals? It’s because setting and achieving the right kinds of goals leads to success. It’s up to each of us to decide what success means for us and then select goals that will lead to progressively realizing whatever that is.
There’s no right or wrong – success means different things to different people, and categories include combinations of family, friends, spiritual, money, career, power, security, freedom, possessions, peace of mind, legacy, and so on.
Regardless of the defining characteristics you choose, your goals need to align with your ideals. That’s how you’ll progressively realize your worthy predetermined ideals.
GOAL SETTING ESSENTIALS
If you’ve stuck with me to this point, thank you, and let me assure you that I know you’re seeking the keys that will unlock the doors to setting and achieving meaningful goals that will lead to success for your business. I just wanted to help you avoid some of the pitfalls with goal setting. So, let’s get down to business.
Here are eight steps for setting achievable worthwhile goals.
- Begin by clearly stating what you want to accomplish. The “how” will come later but be very clear on the “what.” Be concise and specific with tangibles like size, shape, quality, and quantity. This is the intellectual component of your goal.
- Test your “what” to make sure it’s in alignment with your ideals. This is the intuitive aspect of your goal. Ask yourself, “Why do I want it?” Consider things like purpose, belief, morals, ethics. How will you feel if you accomplish it? What does your intuition tell you? Does this lead to the progressive realization of my ideals? If not, consider alternatives that will.
- Once you’ve determined that the goal meets the first two criteria, make a list of the obstacles that potentially impede achieving the goal. The more apparent potentials include things like money, manpower, equipment, market constraints, facilities, and time. However, the less apparent and most often overlooked obstacle is belief. You must believe the goal is achievable. If you don’t, you will likely abandon it in the face of obstacles and challenges. In the event you don’t believe it can be done, you need to adjust it. A word of warning on this is don’t confuse a realistic view of the difficulty as a lack of belief. Goals often require extraordinary effort.
- Take an inventory of the resources you’ll need to use to achieve the goal. The list of obstacles will assist in this step. Simply identify the resources that will help to overcome each obstacle. Don’t forget to include outsourced resources like professional advisors, consultants, and assistance from organizations like the SBA, Chamber of Commerce, and ATRA. Often the most overlooked resource in your team. Enlist your team’s support by making them a part of the process. The significance of their buy-in and involvement can’t be overstated.
- Related to resources but worthy of its own step is to determine if you and your team have the necessary knowledge and skills to not only reach the goal but to sustain it after you achieve it. For instance, if you’re adding general repair services, do you have sufficiently trained techs to perform the work on a level that is consistent with your ideals? Or if you’re creating an Outside Sales Program, who will do it, and where will they get training?
- Set a deadline for completing the goal. It’s been said that a goal is a dream with a deadline. Make the deadline realistic and allow for unforeseen delays that are beyond your control – things like building permits or availability of your resources.
- Make an action plan. A well written action plan includes a clear description of the first five steps. Establish objectives. Objectives are timebound benchmarks that are measurable in both terms of quantity and quality. When sequentially accomplished, objectives will lead to on-time goal achievement. Break it down to targets – incremental steps. Generally, you’ll need a combination of targets to meet each objective. In a nutshell, your action plan and will clearly identify who will do what by when.
- Monitor, measure, and adjust as needed. Hall of Fame baseball player, coach, and manager, Yogi Berra, famously observed, “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.” Of course, his observation has to do with the ebb and flow of a baseball game or even an entire season, but it also applies to this discussion. The goal is to win the championship, but winning games is the objective. Just as a baseball team changes pitchers, uses pinch hitters, or bolsters a defensive position in the course of a game, you’ll need to make changes and adjustments as circumstances dictate as you proceed toward the goal. How does a baseball manager know when to make a change? He has statistics, and he uses those statistics to guide the changes. You should also use statistics to monitor, measure, and adjust.
Even if you’ve already written your goals for this year, it’s not too late to make some changes. Review them in light of this article and make whatever adjustments are needed. Consider this article your first review, and if you make a change, it’s just your first adjustment.
So, what if you don’t make it? It just means you need to continue to monitor, adjust, monitor, adjust… Sometimes you just need an attitude adjustment. If you really want it and believe it, you can achieve it.
About the Author
Thom Tschetter has served our industry for nearly four decades as a management and sales educator. He owned a chain of award-winning transmission centers in Washington State for over 25 years.
He calls on over 30 years of experience as a speaker, writer, business consultant, and certified arbitrator for topics for this feature column.
Thom is always eager to help you improve your business and your life. You can contact him by phone at (480) 773-3131 or e-mail to coachthom@gmail.com.
