Alan@AchievingGoalsInc.com |
October, 2007 |
3 Goal Setting Flaws That Guarantee Failure
by: Alan W. Goff
We have all been taught, and I use that term lightly, to some extent about goal ‘setting’ but never really about goal ‘achieving’. Do you find that you get frustrated with never quite reaching the goals you set? Well you’re not alone. Currently the national North American average states that less than 3% of the goals people set actually get achieved. That is a startling and horribly low statistic… but it no longer surprises me.
I remember the first time I went to see one of my heroes, Zig Ziglar live on stage. I was so excited; all I wanted to do was learn how to be a millionaire and the last thing to enter my mind was goal setting. I sat in the second row, first chair, on the centre isle. I swear I could see my reflection in Zig’s shoe. If you’ve ever seen Zig, he gets down on one knee in a crouch sort of pose, sticks his arm out in front of himself like a child crossing the street and says you've got to set goals. On this day, I swear he was looking right at me as he performed his famous pose and instructed me to ‘set goals’. I remember thinking, “Yeah right… whatever, just tell me how to be a millionaire.” He just kept saying “You've got to set goals... you’ve got to set a goal” and quite frankly he was making me mad. One of Zig’s famous questions is “Are you a meaningful specific or a wandering generality?” He goes on to teach us that truly most of us are just wandering generalities simply because we don't set goals. Or if we do set goals, we just don't know how to set goals properly.
Most people think they know all about goal setting and how to set good goals. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of good speakers, trainers, coaches and the like that teach us methods for goal setting, but I’m convinced that if we were really honest with ourselves most people could write down everything they know about goal setting on the backspace of a postage stamp. While we know we should at least write our goals down and if we do we have instantly become one of the few to do so and that act alone sets us up for more success than at least the ones who don't. Other than that we don't know what to do with our goals besides posting them on our refrigerator.
The reason the masses never achieve their goals in the first place is because we set them incorrectly. There are three main flaws with the way people set goals and although they are universally accepted as logical goal-setting techniques all three of them will generally set you up for failure.
I'm 42 years old and if no one ever bothered to take the time and teach me how to tie my shoe when I was a little boy, I would still be wearing slip on shoes today. Just because I’m older now doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll one day “get it” on my own. Is it any wonder why people really don't know how to set a goal properly when nobody has really taken the time to teach us anything different than what we've come up with our own?
The first flaw in the way people set goals is that they think in reverse and set a goal based on what they know they can do. They look at their current circumstances or their current results and allow those conditions to control what they choose for the goal. As an example, let's say a company is generating $1 million a year in gross revenue and based on what they know, meaning based on their current results and circumstances, they'll set a goal to do $1.1 million next year based on current sales. It’s something they know they can do because they’ve done it before.
I was working with a lady once who was involved in a direct selling company helping her achieve her goals for the year. Her ambition was to earn the use of a new company car. Upon my questioning, she admitted that she had already once earned one of the highly sought after company cars, but had ‘lost it’ because of lagging sales quotas. I informed her that this was not a good goal for her as she had already accomplished the goal once before and therefore already knew how to achieve it again. She needed a new and bigger goal.
Again, people set goals based on what they know they can do. The problem with going after a goal you know you can do is that it's not inspiring… It isn't challenging enough to keep you going.
There are two criteria to properly setting any goal. The goal should big enough to excite you and scare you at the same time. It's really a call to action. If you're going to have to do some things that you've never done before or think in ways that you’ve never thought before or behave in ways that you’ve never behaved before, which is what's required to achieve big goals, you'd better have something that excites you. It's what keeps the motivation and you need that criteria otherwise you'll be derailed at the first obstacle. The goal should also be large enough to scare you so that it constantly pushes you to break new ground in your life and forcing you to grow onward and upward truly achieving new standards and new levels. It’s what keeps the fire in your belly burning.
The second flaw in the way people set goals is that they look at their current results and set a goal based on what they think they can do. They set up all kinds of elaborate plans based on what they think has to happen for them to achieve a particular goal. They'll come up with all kinds of scenarios and say things like, “If our current customers stay the same” or “If customers buy an extra 3% this year”, or “If gas prices stay the same”, or “If the housing bubble doesn't pop and interest rates don't go too high”… then I think we can accomplish the goal.” They forget that the world is constantly changing. They'll set goals in a snapshot of time without any real projection and meanwhile the world continues to change around them and the elaborate schemes and plans don't work out… so they surrender the goal. This is usually what happens with New Year's resolutions.
The third flaw people make when setting goals is they get hung up on the word ‘HOW’. They will not move to the next step in the setting of a goal, not to mention the achievement of a goal unless they know exactly how they should or think they should progress to the successful completion. As a society are so afraid to move. What if I make a mistake? What if I fail? What if I step out in the direction of my dream, and tell all of my friends and family… what will they think of me? What other people think of you is none of your business. What you think of you is all that matters.
‘How’ has never mattered and should never matter when we are setting goals. If you're going to set goals but you're not going to move in the direction of your dream until you know exactly how you're going to achieve them, you may as well stop right now because it's never going to happen.
You don't need to know ‘how’; you just need a big enough ‘why’. ‘Why’ is all that matters. ‘Why’ will always connect people to where they want to go in the achievement of their goals and the fulfillment of their desires… always.
What’s your ‘Why’?
Your Achievement Quotes - by some of ‘The Greats’
FOLLOW-THROUGH
"I had rather do and not promise than promise and not do." -- Arthur Warwick
"Have the dogged determination to follow through to achieve your goal; regardless of circumstances or whatever other people say, think, or do." -- Paul Meyer
"There is nothing so fatal to character as half finished tasks." -- David Lloyd George
"The elevator to success is out of order. You'll have to use the stairs... one step at a time." -- Joe Girard
FORGIVENESS
"I believe the time we really look big in a child's eyes is when we go to them and apologize for our mistakes and we say, 'I was wrong. Will you forgive me?'" -- Kevin Leman
"Never does the human soul appear so strong as when it foregoes revenge, and dares forgive an injury." -- E. H. Chapin
"Our friends are those who know their own faults well enough to forgive us ours." -- Moulton Farnham
"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong." -- Mahatma Gandhi
THE FUTURE
"The future comes one day at a time." -- Dean Acheson
"At the center of the universe is a loving heart that continues to beat and that wants the best for every person. Anything we can do to help foster the intellect and spirit and emotional growth of our fellow human beings that is our job. Those of us who have this particular vision must continue against all odds. Life is for service." -- Fred Rogers
"Goals are a preview of future events and experiences in your life." -- Mark Victor Hansen
"When you focus on what might have been, it gets in the way of what can be." -- Patricia Fripp
I know, I know… is this book ever coming out? I must apologize for the delay, but the publisher tells me they “temporarily put my project on the back burner” while finishing up on a large multi-publishing project deal that promised a conglomerate of authors completion and delivery of their books by a deadline date in October or would be held liable for expensive penalties. They assure me that I will have a finished product in my hands for delivery no later than the second week in November.
Thanks for your patience, please hang in there… and I’ll get you your copies ASAP.
CLICK HERE -> TO PRE-ORDER YOUR ADVANCE COPY OF PATCH NOW.
Looking for a POWERFUL Keynote Speaker for your next event?
Click here: http://www.achievinggoalsinc.com/speaker.html
Pursue Your Passion… Not Your Pension!
