Dreaming Big: How to Set and Achieve Ambitious Goals

Entrepreneurs are often big dreamers: they have a vision and seek out the way to do that. But in realising a dream, you need goals: achievable milestones to hit on your quest to success.

Goal setting might seem like a simple art (and in many ways, it is)? but you?can?get it wrong. Setting an unrealistic, vague goal can have you chasing your tail, trying to achieve greatness with no idea what it looks like or how to get there. On the other hand, an unambitious goal can have you failing to meet your potential. Here’s my quick guide on how to create? (and smash!) your ambitious goals.

First, visualise

Many people in business find themselves reducing their goals down to a simple numbers game. “I want to sell x amount by x date” or “I want to increase x by x by x”. These figures are, of course, useful and necessary, but goal setting?can’t?just be about the numbers.? Here’s an example of why:

Imagine you’re a baker. You decide you want to sell 100 more loaves of bread (a quick note to our number-minded friends- we’re working with some simple numbers for a simple analogy, suspend your disbelief!). You extend your hours, you market, you work more hours, you do everything in your power to reach your goal. At the end of the month, you have your hundred loaves sold. However, in achieving your goal, you’ve substantially increased your workload, and reduced the time spent with your friends and family. The increased revenue may feel good, but you teeter on burnout.

So, when it comes to setting goals, you need to think of the bigger picture. This is where visualisation comes in handy. Instead of imagining the numbers in six months, imagine what your life looks like. What kind of hours are you working? What does your business look like? What does your day-to-day role look like?

It's also important to be realistic. Many of us aim for the four hour work week, that's not going to be possible in first year of operation. While balance should be a goal, there will be times where the balance is slightly off: sometimes a project will require more hours than you want to do- and to get to the end goal of a low, you've got to put in those initial hours. Working out how much you want to sacrifice and how is key.

By considering the bigger picture, you can make plans for how you reach your goal. To take us back to the baker analogy, the baker does not have to sacrifice their goal of 100 loaves, but rather think of how their life will look. If they want to maintain time with their family and keep their work hours reasonable, maybe it is time they consider hiring an extra hand. Can tasks be delegated? What practical considerations should be taken? With these factors considered, the baker (and, more importantly, you) can make goals that will ultimately make you more fulfilled when you’ve completed them.

SMART Goals

So, you’ve got a rough idea of where you’re headed with your goals, now it’s time to turn your goal into a SMART goal. You’ve probably heard of SMART goals- and there’s a reason: they’re effective and they work. Here’s a recap of what a smart goal is:

S- Specific (what exactly do you want?)

M- Measurable (your goal needs to be quantifiable, so you can see your progress. While numbers aren’t everything, this?is?where they’re useful)

A- Achievable (in other words, be realistic. This is the tricky bit: not doing yourself a disservice by over or under committing yourself to a goal. The best way to approach this is by having a foot in your reality and thinking your goal through. Can I afford this much time? Is this possible?)

R- Relevant (how does this contribute to your bigger picture?)

T- Time-bound (you’ve got to have a deadline. Selling 10,000 units might sound impressive, but there’s a difference between selling that in a month, a year, or 10 years).

SMART goals are a systematic and structured approach to goals. However, it’s also important that your goals still excite you: that you’re driven to work towards them. They shouldn’t be overly-daunting, but neither should still be challenging. It’s important that you trust your instinct on how you feel about them!

Holistic Goals

So, as we saw with our baker analogy, for our goals to be fulfilling, we need to think about them?holistically:?considering how they interact with the rest of our lives. When you’re setting your goals, it’s useful to keep in mind the triangle of health (a reminder: the triangle of health is comprised of three sides?nutritional, physical and mental?health, held up by the pillar of?sleep). By addressing each of these sides of the triangle with a goal, you can assure that you maintain balance, and stay happy. Here are some examples:

Nutritional health: dedicate 15 minutes a week to meal planning, try a new recipe, block out an hour on Sunday to meal prep healthy lunches for the week

Physical health: hit your step goal, whether this is 6,000 or 10,000 steps a day, swim twice a week, attend a weekly yoga class, or simply do a workout at home

Mental health: meditate daily, learn some new stress management techniques, dedicate an hour a day to unwinding, take up a new hobby, spend time with family

Sleep: Prioritise 8 hours (this should an unmoving goal!)

As you can see, by setting goals in each area of your life, you can create assure that your goals will leave you fulfilled, not drained.

Break it down

So you’ve come up with your main goal(s): something that’s ambitious, exciting. But how do you realise your goals- to go from 0% completed to 100% completed?

The key here is to?break your goals?down into achievable bite sizes. How do you divide your goal into a week? A day? Break the goals down and then write them down as goals within themselves- and celebrate (proportionally!) as you hit them.

An upper-limit?

If you’re the kind of person that finds themselves throwing themselves all into a project, only to burn themselves out: building??an an upper limit into your goals (particularly your day-to-day goals) can help you find balance, and stop you find yourself looking at the time and finding that you’ve accidentally burnt the midnight oil.

An example of this may be something like: I will send a minimum five invoices today, but a maximum of ten.

You can take this with a variety of different tasks needed to be accomplished that day to assure you do not become too focused on one single task. This can even be implemented into your leisure activities- e.g “I will watch at least one episode of my favourite tv show, but no more than two” (though, easier said than done!).

Accountability

No man is an island, and to help assure you reach your goals, you need people in your live to hold you accountable. While colleagues, friends and family are all useful support systems, a coach is a person who can assess your goals, and help you strategise and maximise your potential.

If you’re interested in coaching, sign up here for a free, no commitment good-fit call. I look forward to hearing from you.