I attended an excellent seminar a few years ago about Goal Setting and I had an epiphany. I had been setting goals for myself for years and I did not realize that I was doing it all wrong. I wasn’t setting goals. I was setting desired outcomes.As we ring in the New Year, some people are setting New Years Resolutions, while others have lost faith. They feel discouraged due to their lack of follow through on last year’s resolutions.
Let’s face it, most resolutions are merely a wish list. People talk about losing weight, quitting smoking or making more money but they have no plan in order to make that happen. Obviously, with no real goals or plans they are destined to fail. However, what about the people who are serious?
For serious people who set real goals but still fail, maybe this will help you.
For the last few years, most of my goals have been dependent on other people. I had goals to grow my business to a certain income or to increase my presence as an artist by landing gigs in specific bars. The problem is that those goals depend on me convincing other people to do something. As we know, other people are unpredictable. So when things don’t work out as expected, what happens? I become discouraged and set another “lesser” goal. Of course, this does not make me feel confident and productive.
A goal is an action that you take that is only dependent on you. Otherwise, it is a desired outcome.
That means that my desired outcome was to increase the profit of my business. The actual goal would be to make 20 prospecting calls per day. If you rely on statistics, then by accomplishing your real daily activity goal, you will likely hit your desired outcome. However, the important thing is that you do the best you can to hit your activity goal.
In sports, you rarely hear professionals talking about how they are going to win the game. Typically, you hear them say that they will “go out there and perform at their personal best”. This is a goal. If they end up losing the game, there is no reason for them to feel bad about themselves as long as they performed at their personal best. The desired outcome is out of their control but the activity goal is completely within their control.
I found this new way of looking at goals to be very liberating. I can now focus only on what I can do in order to move forward and reach my potential. When I set an activity goal and I do my best but still fail to achieve my desired outcome, then I know that I have to increase my activity. However, if I fail to take the action then I have only myself to blame. There are no excuses. By setting goals that I can control and by taking action to the best of my ability, then I will hit more of my desired outcomes and feel better and more productive regardless of the outcome.
Something to think about!
