iGo Sales and Marketing is celebrating the completion of their first year in business. Our blog normally covers marketing topics but at this special time we thought our clients might enjoy a blog post related to how to set and achieve goals.
What are Goals?
I’ve had conversations over the years about what exactly is a goal. I’ve had discussions about “targets” and “minimum acceptable” and “stretch goals”, etc. To be honest, I never really understood what a goal was until I started running. It made it crystal clear for me. A goal is something that you WILL achieve on or before a specific date. Anything else is just confusion. I remember the day I posted on my wall, “May 5, 2013 – Half-Marathon: 2 hours and 15 minutes. Like never before in my life I drew a line in the sand. That is what a goal is. If you want to have any hope of achieving your business goals, they need to be this crystal clear and time bound.
The keys to achieving your goals
The Why?
Almost as important as setting goals is “The Why?” Achieving a goal is hard work. It requires focus. It requires persistence in overcoming obstacles. It requires sacrifice. It requires you to make a choice to something over all else. If your “why” doesn’t outweigh distractions, the sacrifice, or more pleasurable activities, you will not achieve your goal. In a great speech on success by Eric Thomas, he questions “how bad do you want it?” and makes an analogy of drowning. When you’re drowning, the only think you think of is getting a breath of air. You’re not thinking about what’s on TV, what your friends are doing, what’s for dinner… nothing except to get a breath of air. If you really want to achieve your goals, this is how strong your “why” needs to be.
“Most of you say you want to be successful, but you don’t want it bad – you just kinda want it. You don’t want it badder than you wanna party. You don’t want it as much as you want to be cool. Most of you don’t want success as much as you want to sleep!”
– Eric Thomas
When I started running, I did it for my son. I had just turned 40, my son was 3. I did the math. I wanted to be there when he graduated high-school. I wanted to be there when he graduated University. I wanted to be there when he brings his own son into the World. I knew I had to make changes in my lifestyle and fitness. That’s when I set my goal to run a half-marathon, in a not-so embarrassing completion time.
Training for your first half-marathon is hard work. I ran over 500 kilometers in training. I ran in rain, snow, -25 Celsius temperatures; I ran on vacation, I ran when I was tired, I ran when I’d rather be doing something else. Every step and every mile was for my son. My “why” outweighed any excuse for achieving my goal. I was successful by the way, and ran my first half-marathon in 2 hours and 5 minutes.
The Plan
Once your goal is set, you need a plan. By asking yourself a few questions, your plan becomes obvious. Where am I now in relation to my goal? How much time do I have between now and when I plan to achieve my goal? Your plan becomes obvious. Break-down your goal in smaller milestones and develop a plan to meet each one. In my running example, I was starting from zero and had to run 21 kilometers. I broke down each week into 4 runs per week gradually increasing the mileage until I got to 21 kilometers a few weeks before the race.
Faith
There is some element of faith in achieving your goals. Whether that faith is placed in yourself and your abilities, the universe, or a higher power, faith that you will achieve your goal is crucial. Faith that there is a helping hand of “luck”, “a higher power” or “the universe” that wants you to achieve your goals really helps keep focus and your goal will be so much easier to achieve.
“Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”
– Napoleon Hill.
So true. With this kind of faith in achievement of your goal, you will see things work in your favor. You will see things serendipitously put in your path to help you achieve your goals. This is the kind of faith I’m speaking of. Not everyone believes in this kind of thing, but if you really have set yourself a goal in the way I’ve described, I’m certain you will experience this in your endeavor.
Just do it!
Set your goals now! Just do it. The feeling of success and achievement when you reach your goals is indescribable. Plus, it’s addictive. Achievement of your goals only makes you want to set and achieve more; elevating your life to a place where you would never have dreamed possible. Set your goals today!