You have likely heard about the importance of setting goals for the majority of your life. The general idea is that setting goals helps you realize what needs to be done and overall helps you increase your chances of achieving the goals you have set. The problem is that everyone seems to make the statement “go set your goals,” but never bother to mention the method for actually setting those goals. So the primary point is that there are indeed RIGHT ways and WRONG ways when it comes to setting your goals.
A prime example is when someone tells themselves something along the lines of “okay I am going to make $20,000 this month.” This is what is known as a “static goal, ” and these type of goals tend to demotivate people simply because the goal is centered around outcomes that are out of their control.
The bottom line is that these “static goals” very rarely work.
Another example is if you were sitting in your house and said to yourself “I am going to have a clean house in 2 hours.” You mentally picture your clean house, you look at pictures of your house when it was clean, and you write the goal down. 2 hours later your house looks just as messy as it did when you established your goal.
Why?
Your house is still just as messy because you did not do anything and because you set a “static goal” as opposed to an “action goal.” In other words, you set a goal that had no action tied to it.
Imagine if you reworded that goal to include the following:
Wipe, vacuum and clean the living room, kitchen, and dining room.
You can clearly see that this newly worded goal is achievable simply because you added ACTION into the mix. You could even refine this goal further and increase the odds of it being achieved by adding more actions to it.
Let’s take a look at how these “action goals” can indeed help you in your business endeavors.
Rather than setting that “… I am going to make $20,000 this month.” goal you can try the following.
1. Week 1I create my 1st product on _______ (subject)
2. Week 2: I construct and finalize my sales letter, website, and emails to promote my product.
3. Week 3: I contact 30 possible affiliates/ joint venture partners and ask them if they will push my product, I write 5 guest blog posts on this topic to push my product, and I contact my list to see if they want my new product.
4. Week 4: I create my 2nd product.
The takeaway message is that these “static goals” ( the “… I am going to make $20,000 this month.” types of goals) are just going to cause you to become frustrated because the lack of action tied to them will demotivate you from even coming close to achieving them.
If you choose to set “action goals” then you are much better off. They will allow you to prioritize each goal with a realistic action. Additionally, each action that is completed allows you to spend more time feeling accomplished and proud of yourself, while also getting you closer to the main goal.
