Do you currently set goals for your business? If so, how often do you review them? Revise them? Recommit to them? Are you currently doing goal setting? Do you call it goal setting?
I have come across people within my community who find the word ‘goal’ challenging. They have had so many -past experiences or beliefs about setting goals, goals they did not end up achieving. They feel that when they set a goal, they are setting themselves up for failure rather than creating a powerful tool that can contribute to their success.
Goal Setting is Challenging, yet Super Powerful
So, let’s talk about goals. Let’s transform your mindset or way about thinking about goals. Let’s take a look at how while goal setting is challenging, it is also super powerful for your business.
One of the really great things about setting goals is that it causes us to focus on what really matters.
We have so many ideas going on, and lots of things we are working on at a time. As solopreneurs, we wear all the hats, and are doing all the things. Having a goal will help us focus all of the distractions, all the to-dos, everything we are working on, and create very clear targets for us. Goals help us identify where we’ve been successful, and create clear metrics for us to be able to measure the success of our businesses. When you don’t have a goal in your creative business, you can often forget about the progress that you’re making.
Goals Eliminate Overwhelm and Burnout
Goals help you eliminate some of the overwhelm and the burnout. How, you may ask? It is because no matter that we are focused on, goals help us understand what matters, and what’s going to make a difference for us within our businesses. They also help us take a step back and look up from our daily grind.
Often times, we get so lost in our day-to-day operations that we lose sight of the progress that we make and the success that we achieve, and everything that we’ve accomplished. When you take a step back to look at the bigger picture and put them beside your goals, it helps you refocus.
This ability to refocus and look at everything we’re constantly doing, to take a look at our progress against our goals, it provides us with a really great idea of where we are going with our businesses. Without taking this step back to take a look at our goals, we can get caught up in the daily grind, doing the work, and losing track of the journey and how far we have come.
Goal Setting and Expectations
When we take a look at goal setting, we also need to understand our expectations, and how we should measure our success. When I set my goals, I also give myself an understanding of what a 10 out of 10 would look like. What a 100% achievement would look like. But it’s also important to be mindful that life happens, and because of this, there’s no possible way that we can give 100% to more than one area of our lives.
A goal is meant to be aspirational. It’s meant to be bigger than you actually feel capable of. A really powerful goal can scare you a little bit.
A really powerful goal can scare you a little bit. There’s still the place that you need to believe that it’s somehow possible, even if you don’t know how it’s possible. So, when we set our goals, we need to understand that we do not always have to achieve them at 100%. A goal is meant to be aspirational. It’s meant to be bigger than you actually feel capable of. A really powerful goal can scare you a little bit. There’s still the place that you need to believe that it’s somehow possible, even if you don’t know how it’s possible.
So, while we are clear on what 100% of our goal is, we should also be clear of what an eight out of ten would look like. What would 80% of your goal look like? That is your target. That is what you’re aiming for, and what is where you want to get. If you achieve 80%, you’re still winning, and it still counts.
Celebrate the 80%. What often happens is people see that they haven’t hit 100% and feel bad about themselves. That’s not what we’re after. 80% means you’ve made progress, and 80% is still a reason to celebrate. Don’t believe me? The 80/20 rule is a real thing, and you can definitely read up on it.
Goal Setting and Motivation
For me, I set goals that pull me through some of the lack of motivation. Those times where you just don’t feel like it? Reconnect with your goals. What I’ve learned is that if you set those goals up powerfully enough, it an help you stay motivated. It can help you to reconnect and feel more motivated.
If you wait too long to review your metrics, you might be missing out on opportunities to double down on something that’s really rocking.
Goals can help you to reconnect and get more motivated and pull you through some of those times when you just don’t really feel like it. Your goals will pull you through some of the toughest times. Feeling like you have decision fatigue? Revisit your goals. Having one of those days where you just aren’t feeling it? Revisit your goals. Having goals available to you can pull you through these tough times.
Set Your Goals Every 90 Days
I recommend that you set your goals every 90 days. Why every 90 days, and not once a year? Well, 90 days is the perfect amount to create enough consistency. Enough time passes in 90 days to get meaningful results, and get enough data to start to see patterns. 90 days is enough time to see what actually works and what doesn’t.
90 days of focus on any one area is pretty much the maximum human capacity for most of us. It’s hard to be laser-focused on something for a very long time, and so the shorter the duration of time that you have to sustain your focus, the more likely you are going to sustain that focus and energy on that thing.
Is 90 Days Enough Time?
I personally find that 90 days gives me enough time to see the progress I make and collect really good information and data since I started working towards my goal. It’s also not so much time that I lose focus and lose the power of having those compelling goals.
Another thing to reminder about having a 90 days schedule is that it pretty much lines up with most business years. As most of us run our businesses on either a fiscal year or annual year, we can take a look at our progress every quarter, and review what is working, and what isn’t. Every 90 days we get a chance to revise our goals and recommit to what actually matters in our lives.
Looking for more support with setting your goals for 2023? I am hosting my Focus. Clarity. Action. workshop geared towards setting clear goals for the next year. Join me on December 29th to discuss your goals and put them into action.
Want to chat about your goals? Book a call with me and we can discuss your goals and how they can help your business grow.
