BLT: New Year, new goals…or just old ones repackaged?
It’s no easy thing to stick to a New Year resolution – in fact, it’s a real challenge with the best will in the world. What is your will for 2018, what goals do you regularly set yourself, are you a goal-setter or a goal-avoider?
These were some of the key questions we discussed at the opening BLT meeting of 2018.
1. Quotes from around the table – Goal or No Goal?
The room split into three types of people:
a. Those who swore by setting themselves hard & fast goals:
- Goals are great – they are habit-forming
- Fear of failure is exactly why I have to have goals!
- Articulated goals hold me accountable…to myself and others
b. Those who only had ‘loose’ goals:
- My goals are flexible. They are based on age and expectation; when those change, so do my goals.
- I like to be flexible, rather like a half-time team talk in a football match; I like to reserve the ability to change tactics.
- I write a list of all the things I want to do, halve it, then knock off another 10% and I’m usually about there.
c. …and those who never set themselves goals:
- I never set goals – people simply measure each other by them
- I’m put off goals by a fear of failure – I need to use other things to get me going (fear of being late)
- Goals seem to be all about winning…I’m more than happy to settle for a draw
2. Goal mapping “Follow the 7 simple steps to create the life of your dreams”
A business coach provided a mind map and a structure to facilitate the discussion (for those BLT members who believed in goals!)
The 7 steps towards better goal-setting:
- DREAM – What do you want to achieve? Try to visualise your goals in pictures and emotions.
- ORDER – Which goals take priority? Have a Main Goal and 4 sub-goals.
- DRAW – Communicate your goals to the subconscious. Use colour and images to mind-map your goals
- WHY – Identify your emotional drivers. We are motivated more by emotion than logic – identify your emotional drivers.
- WHEN – Define your timeline. “Goals without deadlines are just wishes.”
- HOW – What are the actions you will need to take? Be specific.
- WHO – Choose the people or organisations that can support you. Place their names on the mind map.
3. Group conclusions on goals
About half the BLT group had or believed in goals
- Pick out what works for you – the 7 steps from the ‘Goal Mapping’ exercise were useful, but shouldn’t necessarily be approached in a linear fashion.
- SMART goals – ‘R’ is the most important = relevant
- Don’t get hung up on definitions – goals, objectives, desires…they’re all the same thing.
- Be specific – the more detail you can add the better; e.g. rather than simply aiming to “grow your business”, why not specify growing it in a particular geographical area or niche?
- Having goals can enhance your ‘opportunity radar’ – by setting yourself a specific target, say diversifying your income stream, you will become more aware of opportunities as they appear and hunt them down rather than waiting passively.
(*) BLT is a free fortnightly networking group that meets from 7:15-8:45, every other Thursday at The George & Dragon, Marlow.
For more details, please leave me a message at mattnoble@nobleword.co.uk – new networkers are always welcome.
The next meeting is Thursday 18th January.
I’m just reading a book called ”Productivity Ninja”. The writer of this book would say that annual goals are like time management – a thing of the past. The rate of change dictates that productivity in the 21st century is driven by excellent decisions on what it is most important to complete today and then doing so. Information and opportunity overload mean that it is no longer viable to do everything, we must therefore gain satisfaction for what we’ve achieved and ignore what we haven’t. In this environment what place have yearly resolutions?