5 Mistakes People and Business Owners Make When Setting Goals

Those who fail to consistently set goals as a part of their success planning are-by default-gambling their lives away. In other words, choosing not to set goals is the equivalent of intentionally leaving everything up to chance. High performers know that they have to be intentional in the areas of life they find most important to them: from our finances, to our careers, our health, and our relationships, nothing important or significant should be left to chance.

That's why goals are an important part of living a full life. From our finances, to our careers, our healthy, and our relationships, high performers know that simply the act of writing goals down increases the likelihood of achieving them by nearly 1.5 times. That’s why daily goal setting should be an integral part of any successful routine because it allows us to weigh and analyze just where we stand on a day-to-day basis.

Would you like some guidance and inspiration to accelerate your success and achieve life's biggest goals? Check out my GOAL SETTING MASTERY guide. 

In business, goals help you gauge your success and help you stay motivated to reach those goals. Some people don’t embrace the planning stages of business or project building. But even those who prefer the “fly by the seat of your pants” approach to running their business have specific goals in mind. Whether at home or growing a business, goals help to accelerate success; not having goals is equivalent to being on a hamster wheel going nowhere.

Take a few minutes and think about what you want to accomplish in your business and make sure you’re not making any of these mistakes in your goal-setting process:

1.  Procrastination: Poorly Managing Moods with Self-Defeating Behaviors  

We’ve all been there: putting off doing something important in lieu of something more appealing like, well...organizing that messy desk drawer that’s been catching your attention or alphabetizing your spice rack. 

While organizing might sound more appealing, it's a slim chance that it will result in you being more productive or leading you closer to accomplishing your goals.  And yet, we do it anyway. That makes it a double-whammy in our personal lives, and a business killer for entrepreneurs. 

According to Dr. Piers Steelm, author of “The Procrastination Equation: How to Stop Putting Things Off and Start Getting Stuff Done” when we procrastinate, we’re not only aware that we’re avoiding the task in question, but we’re aware that doing avoiding the task is probably a bad idea, too. 

The research into procrastination is fascinating; we’re discovering more and more about how we cope with challenges and obstacles. Indeed, a 2013 study found that procrastination is one way in which we attempt to manage our mood, what scientists call  “short-term mood repair”. In lay mans terms, we now perceive procrastination as a coping mechanism linked to managing a negative mood and comes at the expense of stifling immediate movement towards our goals.

So, how do we move past procrastination? Well, that can be complicated. 

Sometimes procrastination comes about due to a lack of clarity around what the next step should be. Or it could be that your current goal is larger than any other you have attempted to achieve, which in itself can be intimidating. If a clear plan isn’t in place, it becomes a challenge just to get started. That may feel scary and or of reach, which might cause a hesitation to take the first step.

When it’s simply a matter of just getting started, try gamifying your approach with something like the Pomodoro Technique. Research shows that this can be a very effective time management technique that can really help to motivate you, especially when you don’t feel like getting started right away. 

On the other hand, if it’s the size or complexity of your goal that seems overwhelming and is causing you to procrastinate, you might need to look a what you are really aiming to accomplish. Is your goal too lofty or ambitious? 

2. Setting Overly Lofty or Ambitious Goals. 

Sure, you should dream big when envisioning the lifestyle you want or getting that key account you’ve been chasing, but if you set a goal of making six figures this year when you haven’t reached the $50K mark, six figures most likely won’t happen – at least not this year. 

Businesses routinely fall into this trap, overestimating projections for upcoming earnings. This is  especially true for newer business. So take care in setting your goals from the very beginning.  In a word, be realistic.  By realistic, I’m not suggesting you limit yourself to goals that won’t push or challenge you. That would be counterproductive and potentially dangerous! Rather, identify your long term goal and reverse engineer it, breaking down the large goal into smaller, more manageable and achievable goals. 

Now, I’m not telling you to break your large goal into small steps. Rather-and this is key-I’m telling you to set smaller goals that in alignment with your bigger one.  This is especially true when it comes to business goals because clarity of purpose and outcome tend to get diluted as the size of the goal increases.  

Another reason for smaller goals is simplicity. As a recent Forbes article explained, you want to build momentum-what leadership guru John Maxwell calls, the Big Mo’,  in his masterpiece, “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership”. And nothing else builds momentum quite like getting a few wins under your belt.

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3. Not Correctly Prioritizing the One Thing.

Its common knowledge that establishing priorities is necessary in order to complete everything that needs to be done. And while you can probably brainstorm dozens of goals that you want to achieve, having too many will take your attention away from what is most important.

That lack of clarity and prioritization can rapidly sink a business. 

The Priority Matrix blog says that prioritization is important because allows you to give your attention to those tasks that are important and urgent so that you can later focus on lower priority tasks. If you do not take the time to prioritize, they say, then you will have trouble getting things done on time, stress about how you will finish everything on your to-do list, and not be productive.

"Think of it this way", they say, "Everybody has things that need to be done. Often, people keep track everything that they have to do by creating a list. While, a list can be effective to see a bird's-eye view of you need to take those items and figure out what you need to focus on NOW to get things done, work efficiently, and save time and energy."

So, to-do lists are a poor tool when it comes to prioritizing the right activity. That’s why I really like the Todoist.  Ranked as “the number one to-do list app” by PCMag, Not only does it allow you to create customized lists, but you can also assign levels of importance to prioritize those tasks that need to get done first. And it links to your calendar to set reminders for specific tasks, and even connects to your project management apps, like Trello.  

In summary, keep in mind that business goals are meant to help you focus, not get distracted; so minimize your goals and place the most important ones at the top of the list.

4. Being Too Vague. 

Second only to not setting goals at all is being too vague about what the specific goal actually is. Saying you want to “get in shape” or that you want to “grow your business” are certainly good things, but they’re too vague and impossible to measure. After all, what does “get in shape” really mean? And, how will you know if you don’t use a metric to determine your progress? Does going to the gym one time this year meet your goal? Or does it mean something more? Impossible to tell because it is too vague. 

You can tell if the goal you have set is too vague by simply determining a specific end point coupled with how the progress towards meeting your goal (or lack thereof) will be measured. If either of these are not clearly stated, that’s an indication that your goal is too vague. 

After all, wanting “more money” could mean an extra $100 per month or an extra $10,000 per month. Which would you rather see? 

So be as specific as possible with stating your goals and obsessively track your progress.

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5. Accountability Towards Consistently Working on Your Goals. 

A study published by the Harvard Business Review found that people are more motivated when they make progress towards achieving their goals. When this happened, people’s interest in and enjoyment of the work itself were high. However, on days that were not seen as progress or completely missed altogether, they were not only less intrinsically motivated but also less extrinsically motivated. Apparently, if a person is motivated and happy at the end of the workday, it’s likely because they made some progress towards reaching their goal. On the contrary, if the person ends the workday disengaged and joyless, a setback is most likely to blame.

Whether at work or at home, that’s why it is so important that every task you undertake should lead you toward your goal. If you’re a business owner and still doing busy work or behind-the-scenes admin work instead of money-making tasks, consider hiring a virtual assistant. Outsourcing the necessary busywork will free up your time to get creative and focus on your book, next course, or upcoming webinar. Yes, you’ll have to pay your VA, but you’ll still end up making more money in the end because you’re solely focused on your moneymakers. At home, a VA might be someone you hire to tend to the lawn, deep clean the house, or fix that leaky faucet while you enjoy that one-on-one time with your spouse, or family members. Sure you can likely do that all yourself-you might even really enjoy it-but ask yourself, “Is doing this activity really the highest and best use of my time and leading me closer to my goal?”  

Business owners: Hey, you’re running a business, not pursuing a hobby. Do as  Gary Keller suggests in his book, The One Thing, and make sure you are keeping the main thing the main thing. Think like a business person and visualize where you want to see your business one year from now and determine exactly what you need to do to get there. What goals do you need to accomplish today? What do you need to do next for that to happen? What action steps do you need to take every day to make those goals a reality? Keep the main thing the main thing and prioritize your work today around accomplishing that one thing.

So think like a business person and visualize where you want to see your business in one year. Be persistent. What goals do you need for that to happen? What action steps do you need to take every day to make those goals a reality? 

RELATED ARTICLE: 3R Persistence: The Secret Sauce to Getting Your Goals Back on Track

Finally, a word on accountability. In an article as entrepreneur.com discussed how accountability helps by keeping you to be more consistent and steady in your forward progress towards achieving your goals. And while it is true that both an accountability partner and a high performance coach can hold you accountable, the role of a high performance coach is meant to help you to stay focused, motivated and productive across all the domains of your life, both personal and professional. As I discussed in a previous article, a high performance coach is more than an accountability partner; a high performance coach is invested as much as you are to help to ensure your success. A high performance coach will deliver unbiased feedback to you and push you in a way that can help get you to where you want to be much more quickly than if you were to do it on your own or focused on the wrong goal. 

So, which is the right fit for you, the accountability partner or the high performance coach? The answer is that it really depends on what your goal is. If you’re wanting to focus on a mini-goal that doesn’t have a deep impact on the rest of your life if it accomplished or not, an accountability partner could be the best fit. But if you want to have a more impactful approach as it relates to your long-term success across multiple areas of your life, if you want someone push you to level up and help you realize your full potential and accelerate your success, then a high performance coach might be your best asset. 

Learn more about how a high performance coach can help you to accelerate faster towards achieving your most important life goals by clicking here. 

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Damien Vanderburg is a certified high performance coach with a focus on personal development, high price-point sales and serial entrepreneurship. Damien helps high performers to transform effectiveness, maximize potential and accelerate results. He is also the co-founder of Counterpoint Test Prep, a test prep and college app consulting company. 

Surf over to www.damienvanderburg.com and learn more.