A quick message from The Business Owner’s Executive Coach on the top 3 reasons NOT to set goals.
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Managing Yourself with Specific Measurable Results.
TRANSCRIPT:
Hello, I’m Tony Mayo, the business owners executive coach. In the next few minutes, I’ll share with you the top three most common excuses, I mean reasons, that I encounter for not having an up to date written set of specific life goals and how you can overcome each one of them. Stay to the end and I’ll tell you an amazing hidden benefit of goal setting. Starting from the bottom, reason number three, a history of ignoring goals. Have you fallen into the set it and forget it trap? Carefully writing out goals that you never look at again? Hey, it’s natural to get distracted by life. The urgent obscures the important, we get lost chasing the next shiny
hey, look, it’s a squirrel.
(chuckles)
So how do you overcome this excuse? Three steps. That’s a big surprise, accept, diffuse, and choose. Step one, accept. You get bogged down in the routine, the everyday, so accept that you’re human. Distraction is normal especially for you know, intelligent, creative, ambitious people like you and I. Step two, defuse. You can’t do everything and you’re going to be doing something. So step three choose. You may as well be doing something that supports a carefully considered committed goal. All you do is when you notice you’re off course, choose to reengage again and then again and again. And again.
You know, just like meditation. What? You don’t know how to meditate? Well, here’s my free, easy how to guide on meditation for managers. Check it out. Meditation helps with many aspects of your life. Okay, reason number two, thinking you have the wrong goals. The big mistake I see here, over and over, is people assuming that not taking action is proof that you don’t want the result. Not taking action only proves that you haven’t taken the action, yet. Just ignore that.
Instead, watch what you do do and how you feel about that result. Is it fulfilling? Does working at it make you feel more like yourself? More like you’re expressing the person you aspire to be? What I’m talking about here is the foundational importance of getting clear about your deepest values. And revising your goals to express and support those values. Just being who you are.
Here it is, the number one, most popular reason, and my own favorite excuse for not writing out my goals, a history of failure, of missing the target, of not achieving our goals. This barrier emerges from a misunderstanding of the purpose of goal setting. Years ago, when I took a position selling project management software, I started by reviewing my competition’s marketing materials. All of it came down to one simple promise, using our software tools will make sure your project comes in on time and on budget. But, that’s a lie. Software can’t do that. The purpose of a plan is not to guarantee that things go exactly according to the budget schedule, but so that when things inevitably go off course you notice it and have specific details to help you get back on track. Airliners and container ships are off course most of the time. They’re not moving directly toward their destination, and they arrive at the right place anyway. Tolerance for being off course, and a willingness to adjust are keys to success. Remember, plans are not predictions. If everything goes smoothly every step of the way, you’re not working the plan, you’re wearing a rut. Well there you go, the three most common excuses for not having an up to date, written set of specific life goals. Ignored goals, wrong goals, and missed goals.
Now, the amazing hidden benefit of goal setting, people can only help you get to where you want to go if you let them know where you want to go. Otherwise they’ll help you go where they’re going. As with so much of life, it’s all about communication. Particularly one specific communications technique, the powerful request. A free class on how to do that is available here. Find that and much more about goal setting by visiting my blog, starting with this URL. Http://tiny.cc/smrs, Http://tiny.cc/smrs,
Good luck with your goals.
(chuckles)
All right, I guess that’s it, I managed to do it without using the word teleology.
Oop, there it is, oop, there it is, oop, there it is, oop, there it is, oop, there it is, oop, there it is, and that’s that.
(fast paced orchestra music)
Well here’s my quick, non-denominational how to guide.
(stammers) (laughs)
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