How Do You Go About Setting Goals?

[Scottish Business Owner]

Ok so this is a questions type post. Are you someone that sets yourself goals or are you just not in to that?

Here's an interesting post about focussing less on goals and more on a process http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/230333

Be great to hear your thoughts on what you do and what works for you.

Do you think the author in the article has a point?

 

[Liz @ Human Nature]

Very interesting article. I like James Clear. It actually fits very well with my goal setting process in some ways (and I run workshops in which I teach similar things),but I disagree that goals aren't important in business.

It's true to say that your system, as he calls it, is vitally important. If you have a goal and you don't have the system in place to get you there - the regular, consistent action that will gradually move you in a direction - then you will never reach it. A big goal on its own is as good as useless if you haven't worked out what realistic, practical action will actually get you to it. On the other hand, if you don't have some sort of goal, some sort of direction, how do you know what system to employ? You can end up aimlessly doing random things that don't really get you anywhere.

For some people, having a goal at all times is actually what keeps them motivated. This is, I think, especially true for creative people - the people who get excited about the idea, or the development phase. Without a big goal to work towards, they can become frustrated and bored and demotivated. So when you hit the first goal, you immediately set yourself another one so you can channel your creativity into how to get there.

Perhaps the problem is that many people focus so hard on their big goal, they forget about the system. They forget about the small daily tasks they need to do to get them closer to it. For me it's all about balance.

 

[Gemma Rowlands]

I have always been the type of person who needs to set goals in order to thrive. I will always have two types of goal - financial and achievements. The financial goal is purely to increase sales, as it any business, but I will set a percentage at the beginning of each year that I would like to improve on the last. The achievements goals are more personal - for example that I want to attract a certain number of clients, I want to receive X number of feedback.. but I am always driven by goals, and find that they are absolutely essential for my success.

 

[Scottish Business Owner]

This is another area I just can't seem to grasp. Lately though I've been starting to feel as I've i'm just meandering along and I think it's because i'm maybe not doing things with a goal or purpose in mind.

I have to be honest though I find setting goals and stuff a bit "wooly" but I think I need to comehow try and convince myself they're essential to making progress.

 

[Liz @ Human Nature]

If it's not presumptuous to mention, I do goal setting webinars from time to time, as well as the one-to-one coaching which is a more tailored-to-you option. Might be helpful? The webinar might be quite a good starting point for you in terms of how you regard goals - it also covers some common problems/reasons why people don't like to set goals, or why they might feel a bit wooly. Please do get in touch if you think it might be at all helpful, and I can let you know about upcoming dates for webinars etc.

You can think of goal setting like this:
Imagine you're standing in a forest clearing, and you need to hunt some food. You stand in the clearing, randomly firing arrows in various directions, in the hope you'll hit something you can eat. Eventually you run out of arrows and you're still hungry.
Alternatively, if you've decided what you're aiming for (a deer, perhaps),you can make sure that you're only firing your arrows when you've seen a deer. You'll be looking in the right sort of places, specifically tracking deer, and all your efforts are directed towards that one thing. You don't waste your arrows, and you're far more likely to be successful at getting something to eat.

 

[Scottish Business Owner]

Hi Liz,

By all means get in touch. I think this is something I need to get much better at

Could I ask one further question? How does procrastination fit into setting goals? I'm probably a world champion at putting things off. Is this something that needs to be tackled seperately? Just interested to know really.

 

[Liz @ Human Nature]

Great question. Yes, procrastination is absolutely a factor - if you are good at putting things off, then you're going to be a champion at finding other things to do instead of setting your goals (let alone working out how to get there). So in your case if I was working with you on an individual basis I would probably suggest that we do a bit of exploration into what procrastination means for you and how it manifests itself (everyone's a bit different, but there are patterns),so that you can be more aware of it moving forwards, not just for setting goals, but also for anything else you're trying to get done!

My goal setting webinars are more generic (obviously, as they are catering to a general audience rather than a specific one),than one-to-one coaching, so they do touch on procrastination and provide some insight, but don't go into depth with that, and if you concentrate on goal setting without understanding your tendency to procrastinate a bit better, then you might just be learning strategies that you don't feel able to implement! Hope that makes sense.

 

[Gemma Rowlands]

This is another area I just can't seem to grasp. Lately though I've been starting to feel as I've i'm just meandering along and I think it's because i'm maybe not doing things with a goal or purpose in mind.

I have to be honest though I find setting goals and stuff a bit "wooly" but I think I need to comehow try and convince myself they're essential to making progress.

They're absolutely essential for progress! If you don't have goals, how do you know if you're doing well? How do you know what you can improve? Sure, you might be going alright, but imagine how much more driven you'd be if you had something that you were actually working towards. I totally understand the meandering feeling, I have it regularly, but setting goals can help improve my motivation and also keep me driven.

 

[Branded Merchandise]

Very interesting article and also interesting to read your comments Liz, particularly the forest analogy!

I'm similar to in the sense that I have always found setting goals to be a bit wooly too. I used to work for a corporation who had a lot of training sessions around goal setting and similar things. I rarely found myself wanting to pay attention! I do recognise the importance of goals but I think my issue is that I set unrealistic goals which then demotivate me. However, if I set small goals, I almost get bored because they don't excite me enough! Hard to find a happy medium