You’ve made your vision board and determined where you want to eventually end up as an entrepreneur. Now it’s time to get to the work of reaching those long term goals that you’ve carefully thought about and written down. Even with your vision board and a personal development plan, you might feel like your goals are so far off in the distance that it will take forever to reach them. However, there are a number of tools you have at your disposal to make your far off goals possible.
Here are some tips on how to reach your goals so you can stay motivated along the way until you eventually reach the personal goals that you have set for yourself and your business.
1. Commit to a Timeline
Just saying that you want something is not enough to get it. You’ve really got to put in the work in order to achieve your life goals. As the old adage goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day. You may not get there next week but you can plan out concrete milestones that help you realize you’re on your way to achieving success.
Commit to a timeline for your personal goals and check in with yourself regularly to make sure that you are on track. Be flexible with yourself when it comes to your timeline. Life happens, so be prepared to adjust accordingly.
Even if you don’t get the big wins, you can always break down your goals into smaller, more manageable and achievable milestones.
2. Break Down Your Giant Goal Into Smaller Milestones
Smaller milestones along the way to your bigger, overall goal are great markers for how you’re doing and when you can expect to reach your ultimate goal. Examples of good milestones include things like participating in community development meetings, getting to know investors that are influential in your community, and partnering with other businesses to get your name out in public.
Your milestones can also be more tangible, such as hitting higher quarterly profit numbers, hiring a certain number of employees, sticking to your morning routines, and landing a specific number of new clients every quarter.
Breaking down your big goal into smaller, more easily achievable goals helps you stay focused and keep the faith while working towards your ultimate prize.
3. Celebrate Every Milestone
Each milestone that you reach is just another marker of success towards realizing your set goals and your overall vision for your business. When you achieve your milestones, it is a clear sign that you are on the right track and making the appropriate moves to expand, grow, and succeed in your field.
While every milestone might not require a bottle of champagne, you can still find ways to pat yourself on the back and celebrate your success, no matter how small. Maybe you landed a client that could change the outcome of your entire year. Or perhaps you and your team went an entire quarter with nothing but five-star reviews. Celebrate achieving your milestones by taking your team out to lunch, hosting a happy hour, or taking an early Friday afternoon off. You deserve it!
4. Learn From Past Success
Each time you reach one of your milestone goals, take note of what worked and what didn’t, and how long it took you to get there. What did you have to learn in order to achieve your goal? What would you have done differently if you could go back in time?
Take time after every goal achievement and celebration to sit down, check in with your personal development plan, and write down what you learned. Keep your notes in a single document that is easily accessible and revisit it often. Write down how you were feeling while you were working towards your goals and exactly what steps you took along the way so you can reassure yourself in the future.
If you get stuck on future goal achievement, return to your notes to see if you can learn from your past self. You are your best teacher when it comes to building your business and achieving your set goals for the future.
5. Be Flexible But Keep Your Eyes on the Prize
Hiccups and roadblocks happen. It’s important to be flexible with your goals and refocus your efforts to achieve success. Remember that challenges are a part of growth and not a cause to throw your hands up in defeat.
If you run into several roadblocks on the way to achieving certain milestones, it could be a signal that you need to refocus your efforts. Take note of what you and your team are doing. You can always change a milestone goal to suit your needs as long as it gets you a step closer to your big-picture goal.
There’s no shame in backtracking if you need time to focus and teach yourself a new skill that will help you along the way. Just don’t let your roadblocks become permanent excuses to quit altogether. Keep your eyes on the prize, and keep moving forward.
6. View Your Goals As Potential for Growth
Think about every success you’ve ever had. When you’re in the thick of it and really working towards something great, it can usually feel like you’re not getting anywhere. The key is to realize where the real work is happening, and view your goals as potential to grow and learn.
While it’s great to have goals that are rooted in monetary or influential success, you want to view them as a means to growth rather than a complete end-all-be-all of your business. Setting goals for yourself and your business allows you to move towards building a better business.
Without goals and milestones, you may get bogged down in the day-to-day cycle of running a business. A big-picture goal gives you and your team something to strive for in the long run, and makes working for your business more rewarding in all facets of your life.
Takeaways
Goal Setting is essential for your business. It gives you a destination and a purpose to work towards individually and collectively. If you commit yourself to a timeline, set smaller milestone goals along the way, stay flexible, and celebrate and learn from your successes, you will be on the way to your big-picture, top of the mountain goal in what feels like no time at all.