Goal Setting is Not Always the Best Way to Achieve Your Goals
After hearing several pieces of advice from different people when it comes to business leadership, one common advice is to always set a goal. If you want your business to succeed, you need to know how to set a goal. Your plans and everything else that you do along the way is anchored on the goals you have set right from the start.
Let’s challenge this idea for a second and realize just how counterproductive goal setting could be. This might be an unpopular idea but this could be the reason why your business does not succeed still.
Impossible goals
One of the reasons why you are always frustrated is because you have set yourself an impossible goal. There is nothing wrong in being ambitious. You can set big goals if you want to, but you should have a clear path on how to get there. If you can’t see that path and you proceed with the said goal anyway, there is nothing that you do along the way that can help you reach the top. You will keep falling until you get too exhausted.
You will only know what you want along the way
This is true especially for those who have not run a business before. You don’t yet know what you want from your business simply because everything is still an abstract concept right now. As you run the business though, you will start to see what it really is for. You will gradually find your place in the industry. From there, you can create a more realistic set of goals. Besides, even if you have set goals from the start, the first few months or even years are still the exploratory periods. It does not make sense to create fixed goals at that point.
There is less pressure
Another problem with goal setting is that you create a self-imposed deadline. You pressure yourself into doing something that you might not be able to achieve. Without these goals, you can just do whatever you want and experiment on various possibilities. Whether you succeed or fail, at least you’ve tried. You also did not put intense pressure on yourself along the way, so you will just focus on doing what you think is right.
Furthermore, in any business, creativity is key. The problem when you are pressured is that you are unable to think better. Your creative juices don’t start flowing. There are obstacles stopping you from bringing out the best in you. Removing this pressure will surely propel you to success.
Final reminder
Challenging the idea of goal setting does not mean you can just run your business like a wild dog. It means that you don’t impose too much pressure on yourself. It also means being more realistic with your plans for the business. Don’t be obsessed with these goals from the beginning but formulate them along the way.
Photo Attribution:
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2nd image from https://livelitigation.com/news/s-m-a-r-t-goal-setting-tips-and-strategies-for-court-reporters/
