Setting goals is probably the cornerstone of every great achievement. Whether it’s a sports team setting the goal to win a championship or an individual who sets the goal to save $20 000, our biggest ambitions don’t happen by accident but because of planning every step of the way.
While setting big goals is a great way to be innovative and creative, this tends to overwhelm us so we end up achieving nothing (in most cases). For example, you can say that you want to have enough money to travel to Greece but you will do so much better at making this happen if you break this big goal down into smaller steps and milestones like saving $200 every single month to go towards that trip. When you set goals it’s important to rewire your mind so that you focus on smaller milestones that ultimately brings you closer to that dream. A writer completes a book by writing a first chapter and then building up on it by adding more chapters until they have a finished book. This is how you should approach your goals, in smaller bites, you will be surprised at just how much you can achieve this way.
What stands in the way of people who could be succeeding in business? Oftentimes it’s the way they go about achieving the goals they set. Entrepreneurship isn’t an easy field and people tend to get disappointed or discouraged when that great vision doesn’t happen. It’s therefore better to take the business day by day, small win by small win until you find that the going is easier.
Always remember that business excellence, along with ambition, are marathons and not sprints.
When you have to split your time between motherhood and business, setting smaller goals becomes even more crucial. Your days can be unpredictable so it’s important to set smaller goals around what you can achieve in one day or one week so that productivity becomes a habit for you. Your business idea might be to start a blog for moms like you to find information and buy helpful products. Don’t think about the big idea of the blog but rather break down the smaller concerns so that they are much easier to achieve. Ask yourself what small thing you can do every day that will contribute to the greater goal. Write the small milestones down and start working. This could mean doing blog research, writing the first post or sorting out the design. Whatever they are these small goals are the key to making the bigger achievements happen.
How to do it?
Think about the big goals: start my business
Break it down into four smaller goals: Plan/ Research, Get Financing, Set Up and Launch.
Start breaking down the planning and research phase so for example
Do one page of industry research
Find 10 social media experts in my niche
Write first 2 chapters of my business plan
With a few bullet points, you managed to break your big goal into actionable tasks that you can do in a couple of days. Continue this with the other 4 smaller goals. To avoid getting overwhelmed, break down each section as you go along instead of spending hours breaking every part down.
Let’s say your other goal is to balance work and family better. Break this down into smaller daily actions like;
Finish working by 4:00
Take the kids to the parkGo home and make dinnerPlay with the kids before their bedtimePlan for the next day of work
While you’re doing these things it will feel like you’re achieving small wins but ultimately you have spent precious time with your family and this actually gets you closer to achieving your goal.
Having a dream for something you really want is the first step in the process, the next thing that you need to do is start setting achievable goals for yourself. It’s human nature to be intimidated by larger goals, so it’s so much easier for us to achieve smaller goals. Get the best out of being a planner and a dreamer by breaking your larger aspirations down into smaller goals that you will find are much easier to turn into realities if you approach them this way. It’s basically like walking; you can say you want to walk 5km but the only way you get there is by taking steps until you find that you have successfully reached your destination.