Your Own Goal

Being a Scot and watching the Scotland team once more head towards their ‘heroic defeat’ at the hands of Italy there was plenty of talk about the importance of goals in the bars of Stirling where I spent the weekend. However, for most people the really important goals in life are forgotten. I’m talking of course about goal setting to achieve what you want from your business and your life.

It’s a subject very dear to me and one I regulalry cover at my marketing seminars - although it’s not really about marketing, I think it essential for every company to have clear goals in all aspects of the business including marketing.

Study after study shows that goal setting is the single most important factor in the success of an individual or a business. Those with goals succeed - and the more specific and well thought out the goal, the greater chance of success. If you do not have a well balanced set of goals, the results you achieve are likely to be significantly reduced. Ask people who are regular goal setters (they are the ones who tend to drive around in nice cars) why goal setting works and they might not be able to tell you. But they will tell you that it works well enough for them to keep setting them. Here’s a simple how and why guide to goal setting - and why it is so effective.

1. Balance. If you focus all your effort on one goal – say money – you are more likely to succeed in that one area. However, you are also likely to have an unbalanced life. My advice is to set ongoing goals in areas such as health, money, career, family and fun. You may come up with your own list, but please don’t set all your goals in only one area. Balance is the key; truly successful people lead a life that contains balance so that they are a success in all the important areas of their life.

2. Excitement. If you have a set of goals that does not fire you up and make you want to get out of bed in the morning, you are unlikely to achieve them. There are tricks and methods you can learn to keep your initial enthusiasm fresh, but this must be based on something genuine to start with. Work out how you can motivate yourself to achieve a goal (be it fear of not doing it, or a substantial reward for doing it) or simply re-frame the goal in your mind to make it more exciting.

3. Credibility. If you don’t believe that it is possible for you to achieve the goal you have just set for yourself, you will not take it seriously from the start. If you do not think that it is possible to lose 1 stone in the next fortnight, you are doomed to failure. Far better to set a goal that is a stretch, but not too much of a stretch to be believable. In this example, perhaps 5lbs is a more realistic target. Remember, if you can conceive it and believe it, you can achieve it.

4. Timescale. Any goal that is a serious goal and not just a daydream needs to have a deadline by which you commit to achieve. This means that you begin with the end in mind. So if you have decided you want to pay off your mortgage in 5 years, work out how many months away that is, then work out how much extra a month that means paying off. Now you know when you want to finish and what you need to do to get there. You just have to work out the ‘how’.

5. Support. Even a top striker is unlikely to score a goal by themselves. You need your support team around you. They will give you back up, console you when things don’t go well and when the time is right, celebrate with you. Having people around you can trust and share your thoughts with is very important. But remember that making your goal happen is ultimately down to you.

The best definition of success I have ever heard is one by Earl Nightingale. He said that ‘a person becomes a success as soon as they start to work towards a worthwhile goal’. So go on, decide what you want out of life. Decide when you will achieve your goals by, and start working towards them. Achieving small goals will lead to bigger things and you’ll look back upon today as the day you turned your life around.

Finally, to go back to the football theme for a moment, when David Beckham was at primary school, he wrote down that he wanted to be the captain of Manchester United and England. Whilst many school boys have that as a dream, he set it as a goal and put in the long hours of practice to make a schoolboy hope a reality. Your goals won’t just happen overnight, but by knowing where you want to end up, you give your life the purpose meaning and direction to get there.

The Ideal Marketing Company supports Leicestershire and Northamptonshire companies as well as companies from across the UK with marketing, PR and direct mail. The Ideal Marketing Company helps support companies with marketing consultancy in order to help them win new clients and maximise sales from their existing clients.