As January 2009 nears an end, it’s almost a month since many of us excitedly set our goals for the year ahead.
How are you going with yours? Are you still on track to achieving all you set out to for the year? Are you managing to keep up with all the small steps you need to take along the way?
I enjoy setting goals and taking the action to achieve them. However I coach a lot of small business owners and some of them really struggle with this area, or they set the goals but never seem to achieve them, or at least none of the major ones.
There can be a number of reasons for this but two of the main reasons are:
1. Not taking action; and
2. Not setting the right goals.
Goals are all well and good, but it’s no use saying you want something if you’re not prepared to take the action needed to reach that goal. If the overall steps required seem too difficult or challenging, try breaking them down into more manageable, bite sized pieces.
As for not setting the right goals, you need to make sure you’re setting goals that YOU want, not what you think you should achieve or what your parents, children, spouse, friends or counsin’s ex-brother-in-law-twice removed thinks you should achieve. It’s also important to know what your true values are and to make sure that your goals are in line with those values. Sometimes we don’t even realise that our goals are out of alignment with our true selves and we subconsciously sabotage our plans to achieve them.
For example, you might like the idea of travelling around Europe for a year, or trekking through Nepal. But part of you may have a fear – a fear of the unknown, a fear of flying, a fear of leaving your friends and family for some time. If you don’t actually achieve your goal, then you don’t have to face your fears, do you? In setting goals that are right for you, include a step in your plans to actually look at anything you may not be comfortable with and deal with that early… or change your goal.
So… what goals have you set for 2009? Are you still on track so far? Feel free to share your goals here and we can help keep each other motivated and committed to making sure we Shine in 2009.
Warmly,
Donna-Marie
Simplifying Small Business…
