Goal Setting

I just got back from a terrific weekend in Rochester, NY where I sat with fellow writers, editors and proof readers and discussed our business.

Mary Ann Shew, of Business Vitality was one of the presenters.

Her workshop provided a variety of tips and suggestions for growing your business – far too many to include in a post, but I wanted to highlight her thoughts on Goal setting as paraphrased by me.

We all know we need to establish written goals – spelled out in the SMART format (specific, measurable, attainable, realistically high, target date), but have you ever asked yourself what would happen if you DIDN’T achieve the goal?

It’s easy when you are talking about a personal goal – like loosing weight or quitting smoking. If you DON’T achieve the goal, then things stay the same or perhaps get worse.

But what about a business goal – growing your business through new customers, 2 new ones per month.

You guessed it – the same thing as with a personal goal: nothing happens or perhaps it gets worse.

The other question to ask yourself is, Who Sets Your Goal?

We’d like to think that we do, right?

Often we procrastinate and forget to set a goal or think that “I’ll think about that tomorrow.” And when we do that, frequently a goal is set for us. In the case of losing weight – our body can send us a large and scary message. In the case of our business, our accountant might set the goal for us “get off the pot and flush cuz you’re done, baby.”

Need to set a goal? Consider a pain in your life.

I don’t have enough business.

All my customer orders are small and dinky, I’ll never make it this way.

That employee is just not pulling their weight.

Now turn that into a positive statement.

I’m going to talk with 10 new people this week to work on growing my business.

Get out a piece of paper right now. At the top of the page write the thing that BUGS YOU THE MOST about your business.

Now, rewrite that sentence in a positive goal statement.

Underneath, write a statement that completes the SMART acronym.

Now, take action. What is ONE THING you can do in the next hour towards achieving that goal.

Thanks Mary Anne and all the folks at Communication Central for a fantastic weekend.


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