Everyone knows the importance of setting goals. It’s interesting how few people really have specific, measurable, written goals. One of the reasons for that has to do with their prior experience setting goals and a failure to meet or achieve the stated objectives. In short, the process didn’t produce a winning result.
There are many reasons why people feel that setting goals has not been helpful to them. In my opinion, goal setting is no different than any other process. It doesn’t necessarily produce great results when you first begin. There is a learning curve involved. Often, perfecting the process of goal setting can take years. I’m not sure you will ever be able to say that you have totally mastered it.
Setting your goals too low is a common mistake. When you set your goals too low, you lose interest quickly because the benefits and rewards are not powerful enough to get you to change your actions and thinking.
I recently heard a podcast interview with Heisman Trophy winner and former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow being interviewed by Craig Groeschel. He explained the importance of setting a goal that was big enough and meaningful enough that it would give you reason to get out of bed early in the morning. That’s one of the ways you know if your goal is big enough – you are willing to make changes in behavior and thinking.
Grant Cardone, author of The 10 X Rule, has this to say about setting your goals too low. “I believe that one of the major reasons why people don’t stick to their goals and fail to accomplish them is because they fail to set them high enough from the beginning. People’s failure to think big enough usually means they will never act big enough, often enough, or persistently enough!”
My observation is that many people have a hard time thinking big enough. Years of conditioning have convinced them that their goals need to be realistic. What is realistic? Does that mean that you should only set goals you know you can accomplish? If that was the case, why even set goals?
Early in my career I had an opportunity to work for a company founded by the late Paul J Meyer. One of the exercises he suggested was to make a list of everything you ever wanted to do, have, or become in your lifetime. I was in my late twenties the first time I did this exercise. Because the timeframe was so expansive, I didn’t feel any limitations about how realistic the items on my list might be. Thinking about that list today, I’m amazed at how many of those items have been accomplished. The point of this example is that it encouraged me to set some really big goals as opposed to being limited by what I thought I could achieve.
Here are some good questions to ponder.
- What are your goals?
- Are they big enough that they matter?
- Are they written down?
- Do you have an action plan for achieving them?
Reach out if you want to have a conversation about setting and achieving goals. I would welcome an opportunity to connect.