How to view your 2018 Goals

What do you see when you look at your 2018 goals? The long term goal or the details that you have to work through?

Stay with me on this as I am not going to tell you that all you need to do is believe and visual your goals and it will come true. That is optimistic, not realistically optimistic and my personal word in 2018 and perhaps forever is to see things as a “realoptomist”. I am realistically optimistic as that is the only way you will really achieve the success you are after.

My first two years building the Long Island Speakers Bureau was from a totally optimistic point of view. I had the clear vision that you may have when you saw the house in the above photo. Crystal clear, mainly because I didn’t see some of real life issues that appear.

Before anyone gets crazy on me I do want to clarify one thing I said, “all you need to do is believe and visual your goals ” this part you must do. If you do not believe and I mean believe beyond any reasonable doubt that you will succeed then stop right now. If you are setting goals that are a stretch or ones that will really change the way you live life then you must believe you will succeed.

Three question time. Comedy and public speaking are all about threes so why not business plans?

How do you decide on a goal? How do you plan the steps? How do you justify it? Justify? Justify, that is correct. I didn’t at first. My assumption and that is not a good way to start a answer. My assumption is that it would be easy. People like me, I am determined and I had a clear vision of what I expected the Long Island Speakers Bureau to look like. What I didn’t allow for the time it would take, not in years that I knew. But the breakfast/lunch meetings and taking the time off from my day job. Or even the evening networking meetings and the taking time off from my family on top of the volunteer activity that already many evenings. I was not able to justify to my day job employer why I needed to use my vacation time to build another business. Can’t blame them, but it became an issue I didn’t plan on. My family, somewhat different but still I didn’t include that hurdle in my original thoughts. If they knew and understood how much this means to me and ultimately them it would have been fine. But to just say I am coming home late again and again was not really fair to them and that is unjustifiable to me, which created a conflict in my thoughts as to whether or not I was doing the right thing.

How do you view your 2018 goals? I don’t know how you view them now but to succeed it is time for you to view your goals through the eyes of those who will be impacted by them.

1. Your eyes – gain a very clear vision of your goal. Please do not use this moment to justify it, that will come later. Now is the time to dream. Make it big, make it visual and make it meaningful to you. You have to ask yourself why. Why do you want this? Why is it important to you. Make a list and the longer it is the better. If it is only to make money then you will fail. That is the realist in me talking. If it is make money to provide a better retirement that is better, to inspire, better to……… you get the idea. It must be a meaningful why to you. No one else matters at this point, just you. You will have doubts along the way, hurdles unexpected and perhaps even naysayers that will try to derail your efforts. Overcoming those issues is done by you and only you. A clear vision along with a strong why will give you the foundation you need.
2. Their eyes – time to include those who will be effected by the building process. Justify it to them. It may not just be people. Free time takes a hit when building, also when you achieve success, but that is for our business coaches to deal with. We are more focused on removing hurdles. In my example I didn’t plan on the sacrifices of personal time and family. My situation included a job conflict, but that may not be applicable to you. Other factors can be, friends, finances, business partners, etc. It is really helpful if you can completely walk away from your point of view and look at it from theirs. This will help you identify some of the hurdles you will encounter.
3. Last but not least – justify your fees/service/product for your clients. You want to start your own business and the best way to fail is to not understand the full needs and desires of you clients. It is also important to know who your clients are. Sounds like a simple statement yet I have run across way to many that are focused on product they get paid on and not the value they provide. If you are clear on the community you wish to serve for personal reasons then you already understand exactly what service they need. The other way around can be a bit more challenging. If you have a product then do whatever research is necessary to fully understand from their point of view the value to them of your product.

Setting goals is easy. Staying on track is harder. Bringing it all to a successful achievement is even more difficult. Spend the time and energy on your preparation and not only will you be able to see the details you will need to work through you will also become much clearer and confident on your goal. That confidence will take your goal from a clear vision to an exciting reality.