Goals are something I take pretty seriously in both my personal life and my business. They define how I structure my day, what tasks I focus on, and essentially how I live my life. There’s a misconception that by setting goals you set yourself up for failure, or that you’ll make your life stressful trying to achieve them. In reality, nothing is further from the truth. In fact, goals allow us to structure our life around the things that are important to us, instead of allowing ourselves to be pushed around by whatever happens in our day, week, or month.

Numerous studies have shown only 3% of the population set goals and only about 1% actually write them down. (LinkedIn)

In this post, you’ll find out why it’s important to set goals, how to work backwards to figure out what those goals should be, how to track your progress, and what to do if you fail to reach the goals that you set.

WHY SET  GOALS?

Setting goals is like having a destination for your road trip. It’s impossible to know where you’re going (and how to get there) if you don’t actually know what “there” is. Having yearly goals in terms of how much income you want your business to make, how you want to spend your free time, and your priorities are essential if you desire long-term success and coherent direction. Having goals allows you to map out the best way to reach them, too. Some people are afraid of having goals because they don’t want to “fail”. For example, you set a goal to read 60 books in one year and only read 48. You still probably read WAY more books that you would have without having that goal to begin with. Being afraid of “failure” and not trying means you’ve already FAILED. Setting a goal and trying to reach it knowing that if you fail, it’s not a big deal (more on that in a bit), allows you to actually have aim in your life! 

HOW TO WORK BACKWARDS TO SET YOUR GOALS

The very first thing you should consider when setting goals is YOU. Think about what's most important in your life and base your goals around your priorities. If you feel it's important to expand your knowledge, set a goal to do a course or take a class this year. If you want your business to grow, set a goal to make $100K this year. If family is your top priority, plan family vacations or a weekly dinner out in order to make sure it happens in your life. Goals don’t actually have to be what anyone else thinks they should. You goal can simply be to take a two-week vacation this summer. That’s a totally legit goal! Because your goals are your own, they can be anything you like and you can truly focus on the areas in your life where you feel like to need to advance, push yourself, and be better.

THE SMART GOAL MODEL

I remember when I learned about SMART goals in my corporate job. While I understood the appeal, they never made much sense to me as an employee since I had so little control over the work I did in the end. But as a business owner, SMART goals are actually quite useful. Here is what the acronym stands for…

S: Specific

M: Measurable

A: Achievable

R: Realistic

T: Timely

The biggest takeaway from the SMART goal model is that you need to clearly define your goals using dates, deliverables, and your own best judgement. So instead of writing down “Get more clients this year”, write “Have 5 clients booked by March 31”. Make sure that you’re setting goals for the result you want, too. So instead of “Spend more time with family”, your goal should say “Book 2 vacations this year”. Remember, be SPECIFIC.

TRACKING YOUR GOALS THROUGHOUT THE YEAR

I use the Full Focus Planner in my business and personal life to keep track of goals and daily tasks. Having a system that works for you is important, whether it’s on paper or digital, as is setting and tracking your goals throughout the year. For me personally, it helps to write things out. To spend time each week creating tasks that will get me closer to reaching my goals (I break my monthly goals down into weekly to-dos).. and also to put anything that’s further out or that needs to be shared with family (or anything that I need a reminder for) on my digital calendar. There’s no one system that will work for everyone, and don’t try to force yourself to use something that a friend or business mentor swears will change your life. Find what works best for you, but know that no matter what, you have to check in and track how you’re doing on your goals in order to have any hope of reaching them.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU DON'T REACH YOUR GOAL

The biggest resistance when it comes to setting goals is the fear of not achieving the goal we set. It fills us with incredible anxiety and trepidation to think that we might fail at something, and that’s perfectly natural. Realizing that this is all part of setting a good goal is important (after all, if a goal isn’t scary, then you’re definitely not pushing yourself enough).

The next step is understanding that the feelings we feel are ultimately the worst thing that will happen if we don’t reach our goal. When you beat yourselves up over a perceived failure, that is a choice you are making. You can just as easily decide that you tried your best, shrug it off, and move on to try again next year. We are our own worst enemy when it comes to the pressure we put on ourselves and the moment you realize that, the less that fear will have control over your actions.

One thing you definitely shouldn’t do is adjust your goal down just so you can meet it at the end of the year. These goals aren’t going on some balance sheet for someone else to review. They are for you and you only. There’s no reason to try and cheat yourself or pretend, being honest and taking a real look at your life is what will allow you to move forward.

I didn’t always set goals for myself, or even care that much about them. After all, when you have a full-time corporate job, what’s the point. But after everything I’ve learned by being a small business owner, I’ve grown to realize how important having goals really is. So I encourage you to start. Don’t wait until January 1st. Don’t mull things over for months. Just write down the things that are important to you and push yourself to improve the specific areas you want. It can actually be really fun and enjoyable because it allows you to take control of your life!

Let me know what you think about goals, why you set them (or not), and whether this post helped you in any way in the comments below. I would love to hear from you!