Whether you are an entrepreneur or not, achieving your goals is challenging. In my experience, many people fail to achieve their goals because they are afraid of progress. I get it. Progress is scary.
As I’ve covered in a previous post, the goals of my organization changed drastically as the COVID-19 pandemic ramped up in early 2020. Like many of my colleagues, any goals I had in January were put on the back burner while my team and I worked to adjust.
Through the dedication of my team members, we worked together to accomplish our goals and still managed to progress further than I could have dreamed in this current climate. While it helps that my organization operates in the digital space, what really allowed us to progress was using six basic guiding principles that I have used throughout my career.
Today, I want to share them with you in the hopes that they will help you accomplish your goals and achieve success.
Limit Your Goals
If you’re anything like me, ideas and goals are constantly bouncing around in your head. It’s easy to have a long list of goals you want to accomplish. That’s great. However, the more goals you write down, the more overwhelmed you probably get.
A lesson I have learned from years of hindering my own progress is that limiting your goals is the best way to accomplish them. Now, each year, I set one or two bigger attainable goals for myself that I know I can accomplish. Not only does this let me dive deeper into those goals, it allows room for growth and adjustments.
I’ll use my organization as an example again. At the beginning of 2020, my goals were to grow and expand in a fairly rapid way. But as you know, that all changed.
Our goals quickly shifted into focusing on delivering the best possible content to our clients despite the current turmoils. For me personally, my goal shifted away from expansion and toward relationship building and leadership skills.
Find the Connections
Whether you realize it or not, your goals are often connected. For example, let’s say your two big goals for 2021 are to scale your business and improve your sales processes. The connection between these two is simple. You improve your sales process; you make more sales, and then ideally, you can scale your business. Now, connections won’t always be that simple, but it’s important for you to connect your goals.
Why is it important? It’s almost like killing two birds with one stone. You avoid overwhelm and burnout by working on both goals at the same time.
Set Weekly Objectives
So if your goal for 2021 is to scale your business, how exactly are you going to do that? Do you want to scale your business as a whole or focus on particular departments? Where is the extra revenue coming from that allows you to grow?
You can answer all these questions by setting weekly objectives. Every Monday (or whatever day your week starts), write down your big goal, and set a few objectives to accomplish that week to move toward that goal.
Think of it as planning your workouts. If your goal is to lose 50 pounds in a year, you have to exercise every week to accomplish that goal.
Write Them Down
As redundant as this sounds, you need to write down your goals. If you go into any entrepreneur’s office, you’ll probably see a big whiteboard or sticky notes pasted everywhere with goals written on them.
Writing down your goals keeps you accountable. No matter what other projects come your way this year, you have a constant reminder to always come back to working on that goal.
Use this to prioritize your goals. While you focus on your main yearly goals, keep a separate list to write down secondary goals that you can revisit when you’re ready.
Weekly Review
As your week comes to a close, it’s vital to reflect. Whether you practice meditation or write in a journal, finding a healthy way to reflect on your week is something that I highly recommend for all of you. That is especially true as your goals progress.
As you set your weekly objectives, it’s crucial to come back to them to see if you’ve accomplished them. If you haven’t, then you need to figure out why.
Ask Yourself, “Why?”
It’s one thing to have goals. We all do. But the most crucial part of accomplishing them is knowing WHY you chose those goals.
Why do you want to scale your business? Obviously, you want to make more money. But, as you all know from my previous posts, money isn’t everything. Are you trying to diversify your clientele? Are you trying to open more franchises? Does your team need more support?
The more clear you are about why you’ve set those goals, the easier it is to come up with a plan.
I hope these golden rules will help you find new ways to achieve your goals. Let me know what you think in the comments below and contact me with any questions. Here’s to your success!