Goal Setting - Pros and Cons

Goal Setting is one of those things that I have dreaded doing for many years.  I really do not like it and struggled with every exercise I've ever tried.  I finally read some coaching advice that backed up and explained how I feel about goal-setting.

In The DNA of Success by Jack M . Zufelt - a book he kindly shared with me this week, I finally discovered why writing down goals did not work for me.  For one thing, if those goals didn't happen in the time frame that I expected them to, it was a failure on my part.  It was depressing to read through a list of goals that I set six months earlier and realize that I had not yet started on even one of those goals.  After awhile, I gave up.

For me goal setting is really about making a decision about something that I want to create in the future.  That decision can be that I want to make $5000 per month or that I want to be driving a new sportscar someday.  I don't necessarily decide when...just decide.  Then I roll up my sleeves and work at what I am passionate about.  I don't write down or re-read those decisions or even think much about them at all.  Before long however, I will create those things that I decided I would have.  We have the power to create our future as we decide that it should be.  Yes - it requires some work...and yes it requires staying the course.  But dreams do come true everyday for people like you and me.  It all starts with the decision.

The beauty of this whole formula for me however is that I can change my mind.  I don't know about you - but I don't want the same things today that I thought I wanted twenty years ago.  The most exciting part about making decisions is that you can change them at any time.  Today, I don't want to drive a sportscar let's say - maybe today I want to drive a jeep.  I can decide today that I will have a jeep in the future.  I don't have to do anything about my earlier decision except to forget it and make a new decision.  I simply change my mind.

Wow...that's so exciting for me!  No more feeling guilty about the lack of written goals.  It just doesn't really work for me.  Everyone is different, but if you like me, struggle with goal setting as a business owner - try something else.  Make the decision about what you want...then forget about it.  Work in your business - and love it!  Your dreams will come true.

Want to know more?  Read The DNA of Success by Jack M . Zufel and be inspired!  Find him on LinkedIn and tell him that I sent you!