Making Sure You Achieve Your Business Growth Targets

It’s that time of the year when people typically start to plan out their year ahead and begin to map out what they want to achieve.

If this isn’t you, then I strongly suggest that you take some time out from the day-to-day running of your business and put together what you want to achieve in the year ahead.

There is however a way of setting out your objectives so as to make sure you achieve them every time. Most people set resolutions, which is typically about what they are going to give up. But that for me is not the most motivating way of making change.

When we think of making resolutions, we think of the things that we currently love, with the aim of removing them from our life. That could be reducing our coffee intake, our chocolate intake, losing the few pounds from our waist that we so preciously took time to build up. And many resolutions are set with the best of intentions, while knowing that most aren’t kept by the time February comes, much less next week!

There’s also the method of setting SMART goals. While this is a good system, it’s a little out-dated at this stage, and many will have heard of setting Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time Bound aspects to our goals, whether they be personal or business orientated.

From my own perspective, there are a number of key aspects to setting goals or targets that will make sure you achieve them every time, and these are:

Make them believable.

If your subconscious mind does not believe your target will be achieved, then it’s highly likely it won’t, no matter how much work you put into it. You see, your subconscious mind, in my belief, is more powerful than your conscious mind. After all, it’s the part of you that controls all your muscles, keeps you alive and warns you – without you even having to think about it. So deep down within yourself, you have to determine whether you truly believe you can achieve the goal you’re setting out to achieve as well as to make sure you really want to achieve that goal. Your conscious mind might think it want’s to achieve the goal, but if you have a belief system that’s contrary to you getting what you want, then it’s highly likely you won’t achieve that goal. If it’s too big a goal to be believable, then break it down into smaller goals.

Have different levels.

Some years ago I learnt a system for setting goals and I’ve been sharing this same system with my clients in more detail and it’s a system that makes sure you achieve your goal every time. How? – by setting different levels for your goals. Say you want to have a website up and running by the end of March. How I recommend you set this goal is that you set a minimum level, a target level and an outrageous level to the goal. So for this month you might set that you will have the domain name registered as a minimum. This is a very easy process and can be done within fifteen minutes, and therefore is easily achievable by the end of the month. As a target you might set that you have a list of all the pages you want on the website, and as an outrageous you might set that you will have interviewed a number of providers and selected one that will build the site for you. In this way you always achieve your goal each month.

State them in the present tense.

You can trick your subconscious mind into believing you already have your goals achieved and to build the tension between you not having what you want, and having what you want. If you state your goals in the format of “I now have X on or before the (a future date)….” then this will increase the tension towards achieving your goal.

Review your goals daily.

There’s a number of ways of communicating with your subconscious mind, and one of them is through repetition. By reviewing your goals on a daily basis, you are maintaining focus on what’s important, maintaining the tension to achieve that goal, and throughout the day your subconscious mind will work on that goal.

Have fun.The most important thing is to have fun. It’s what you’re here to experience. If your goal seems like a task to be completed, then that’s how you will look at it every time, and who wants to complete tasks. Set a reward for yourself for when you achieve your goal. It might be going on a mini break or going out to a great restaurant for a meal. It’s not how big the reward is. It’s what will motivate you.

Prioritise.

Every day you need to be asking yourself “what is the one thing that will bring me closer to my goal?” and doing that one thing before anything else. If you’re doing everything else first, then you’re standing still.

Recognise your successes.

If you go from one goal to the next without taking any time to relish in its achievement, what fun is there in that. It’s an important aspect to recognise and be thankful for what you have achieved. Not only will it keep your momentum going for the next goal but it will also keep you in a positive frame of mind.

No matter whether you set personal or business goals, the above key points have worked for me time and time again. Let me know if there have been other key aspects to setting targets that have worked for you.