Setting goals can be an important way to encourage yourself and build a business. Many of us need those goals to dangle like carrots and keep us moving forward and staying motivated. Setting goals that are too lofty, however, or ones that are overly-ambitious or impossible can actually hurt us—they can keep us from moving forward and growing our business operations.
Setting reasonable goals—ones that require us to work and stretch in order to reach them, but not work endlessly without getting there—can be an important motivator. It is encouraging to be able to check things off our list and inspiring to move closer and closer to a declared goal. Once we accomplish a goal, it can be so encouraging and rewarding that it inspires us to get started working toward the next milestone. If we set goals that are impossible to achieve, we just keep working and working without getting there and that can be discouraging and dejecting.
Remember, there is a difference between a dream and a goal. I have a “dream” of where I would like to get in my home business and it is long term. My goals, on the other hand, need to be steps to get to where I’d like to be and the need to be attainable. For example, let’s say that I would eventually like to get my income to a certain number. To expect that I will go from $0 to my dream income in a year or two is probably unreasonable (granted it is a high income). I will just get more and more discouraged as I work hard and do not get to that million dollars a year quickly. Instead, I can set goals to get to first $2000 a month revenue or income, then $3000, then $4500. See how setting graduated and attainable goals can make more sense and be more encouraging. If you I say I want to get to $6000 my first month, I will feel like a failure when I don’t make that goal.
Keep goals real and keep them achievable. You can always set new, harder goals once you reach your initial ones.