Many of us are back to work following a well earned festive break. I always claim that a holiday is great to focus the mind and bring new motivation. Hopefully you’re experiencing this now, with plans for change or improvement both in your personal and business lives.

What’s less common though, is the structure to ensure those changes or improvements happen with results. In my blogs this month, I’m sharing my two crucial stages to turn that around.

Don’t curb your potential!

In this first post, I’m looking at effective goal setting. You have to have an end goal before you can achieve it. Otherwise how do you know what to aim for; or what’s a good or bad result?  For example, a runner may want to improve their time; but without a definition of by how much, there can be no plan and without a plan, the potential for improvement will be curbed.

Step 1 – the personal goal

Aligning business and personal goals is pivotal to your well-being. If the business has hit its targets but you still haven’t enough money to get the new car or pay off the mortgage, then as a business owner you’re likely to be left feeling dissatisfied.

So for effective goal setting, it’s imperative to work out first of all what you want from life. This may be a long term retirement plan, or it may be a medium term plan to pay off the mortgage. For some of us, there may be more immediate, short term life goals such as the new car.

Step 2 – the cost

Once you have the personal goals defined, you need to know the cost. Do your research and work out exactly what’s required. If it’s a new car, don’t forget to include insurance and road tax. Maybe you want some cash saved for wear and tear on tyres or a monthly valet. Get it all down.

Step 3 – the business goal

OK, now you know what you want the business to achieve for YOU, and what it will cost. It’s time to set the business goal to help you create the reality.

For medium and long term personal goals, you’ll likely need to break the overall goal down into annual targets. From your annual target, monthly targets can be set.

With effective goal setting done, you can move onto the plan. Read on to my next post for the detail on how to ensure you can achieve the targets you’ve set. As ever, if you need any help with your goal setting, contact me for a free 2 hour business review.