Business Finds

Setting Priorities

You don’t need to set a ton of different goals. Fewer is better. It’s better to achieve one big goal than to set 20 goals and fail to achieve any of them. Setting too many simultaneous goals will just dilute your focus.

A goal is a decision. If you set lots of goals at the same time, you haven’t made any real decisions. You’re just playing the field, hoping you’ll find the time to squeeze everything in. But there’s no commitment. What you have is a quagmire of potential distractions. One goal is clarity. Ten goals is confusion.

If you want to succeed in achieving your goals, pick just one or two at a time, and stick with them until they’re complete. You can also set new goals afterwards.

Try limiting yourself to one major personal goal and one major professional goal at a time. Stick with these priorities until they’re 100% complete. You’ll achieve your goals much more quickly if you do this.

One of the reasons I had such a great 2008 was that I was very clear about my primary goals. Going raw was my #1 personal goal. Finishing my book was my #1 professional goal.

While these goals were on my plate, I worked hard on them. They never slid under the radar. I couldn’t forget about them or ignore them. And since these were goals I really desired, I was inspired to take a lot of action.

If you have a goal that’s too big to stick with until it’s 100% complete, break it down into phases. For example, I broke my book project into different phases like creating the outline, writing the first draft, editing the book, and then promoting the book after it was released. That way I could work on other projects between phases to fit the schedules of others I worked with.

When you think about your New Year’s goals, try setting just one personal and one professional goal. Then commit to sticking with them until you’ve achieved them. If you aren’t willing to do that, then you’re just playing games with yourself. If the goals are really important to you, then you should get them done quickly and directly by minimizing distractions and obstacles.

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Goals by Business Finds