Goal Setting for entrepreneurs

Effective goal setting is a challenging exercise. It requires self-knowledge and courage. Remember, whatever goals you write down you can have, provided you believe it, you are prepared to set it as a goal, and you are prepared to pay the necessary price in advance. Unfortunately, you always have to pay the price for success in advance. You have to make the necessary efforts to learn the skills, be positive and take the necessary action. Collecting information is important, making decisions is important, but only action gets results. A manager's job is to get results. How do I get started on goal setting? There are 4 steps that can be used by almost anyone for the effective setting of goals. Keep in mind that there are many formulas for goal setting. It is up t the person who sets the goals to make them become reality. Step 1 Realise the importance of setting effective goals You are the master/mistress of your own destiny. You can be, have, or do more or less anything you want in life provided you are prepared to: set it as a goal; focus and concentrate on the goal on a day-to-day basis; resolve to pay the necessary price in advance. (Unfortunately, you always have to pay the price in advance.) It is generally recognized that fewer than 5 per cent of people set goals. It is also generally recognized that fewer than 5 per cent of people consider their lives to be successful. It should come as no surprise that the people who do become successful are the same people who do set goals. The vast majority of people do not realize that goals are important. The vast majority of people do not know how to set goals. Remember that you cannot set goals for other people and that they cannot set goals for you. You are responsible for setting your own goals. We know that success is derived from both knowledge and positive mental attitude. We also know that failure is strongly associated with lack of knowledge and negative attitudes. Focusing on desired goals stimulates excitement and enthusiasm, which are in turn strongly associated with positive mental attitude. Very few people are prepared to set goals. Most people are not prepared to learn more or make the necessary efforts to be more positive. Millions of people think that "education" is something that you get at school, or perhaps university. In fact, very few people ever recover from the damage done to their education by going to school. Real learning is a continuous change of behavior. Winners are happy to change to accommodate the world. Losers wish the world would change to accommodate them. Clear goals are the essential ingredient to success and happiness. Clear goals make decision making very easy. With clear goals we tend to collect the relevant information, make sensible decisions, and take the necessary actions which achieve the desired result or goal. We tend to avoid time-wasting opportunities. Procrastination is not the thief of time, it is the thief of life. When you are killing time, you are killing life. When you indulge yourself in pastimes, you are passing life. Be wise in the ways in which you use your time for time is the stuff of which life is made. Step 2 Be clear of what you want from the future The vast majority of people simply do not know what they want. Goals should always be set in line with your values and vision of the future. This can be in the form of a personal or business vision statement. Some questions to ask yourself during this process are: In a perfect world, where would you be three years from now? What are your career goals, stated in terms of sales, profits, or salary? What are the skills you will need to learn? If you were successful, what would you be, have or do? What do you daydream about? Answering this question should help you to identify your personal goals. What are the three-to-five aspects of life which you value most? Is it health, is it the quality of your relationships, is it money, is it some worthy goal, self-knowledge or self-fulfilment? What would you do if you knew you had ten years to live? This question can help you identify what you really want. What is it that holds your attention? This could help you to identify your area of excellence. What were you doing in your career when you were happiest? This also can help you to identify your area of excellence. What do you consider to be your greatest achievements? This should help you to identify those activities which raise your self-esteem. What do you consider to be your areas of excellence? Again, this could help you identify your specialization. If there were only one achievement you could effect in life, what would that achievement be? Answering this question could help you to identify your most worthy goal. What would you do if you won