A number of weeks ago, Oprah announced she was going to move on from her Award Winning Talk Show. What made her do it? Oprah is an extremely accomplished businesswoman. Her business endeavors are always changing and expanding. She continually creates. Her successes provide her with massive public approval conversely her failures bring ridicule. Watching how she creates her dreams, imagining the goals she must set and the grace she holds is inspiring.
Setting goals are essential to creating success in any business. And if you are like me, setting goals is often the first roadblock I face in business, go figure. I have worked hard to overcome this roadblock when I was part of building a successful high tech company; I was actually accused of being a pitbull for resolution. A term that makes me laugh. Pitbull is not a term most people would use in describing me, yet it fits when it comes to business success. Watching Oprah develop her businesses has helped me understand the keys to my own success in being part of a team that built a multi-million dollar business.
So whether you are a fan of writing goals or quake in your boots as I do every time I embark on the process, you can learn how to take advantage of this transforming process and get the results you want in the face of the direst consequences, fear of failure.
➢ Set Your Self Up for Success
The first key to success goals is to set you up for success. Hold your vision and make every goal you set a small attainable one in the direction of your dream. That’s all one-step at a time. Many of us get trapped setting goals that are too big and really more of a dream. In business we are encouraged to do this. Make our quarterly sales and yearly sales marks are really more of visions and dreams. We can’t possibly know what the future will hold.
Often we know part of the path to our vision but not all of it. The path to achieve our vision involves our own personal economy. Economy has to do with understanding our resources, energy flow, strengths, values, and how we impact our worlds. How to manage personal economy can sometimes be like navigating in a fog. At times we can see farther and at times it’s so thick we can only take one step in front of ourselves. Take steps every day. Write your daily goals in a way that you can achieve them. Then follow step 2.
➢ Goals Provide Feedback Not Judgment
Achieving and not achieving goals is feedback not judgment. People who experience it as judgment often experience fears of failure one of the biggest blocks to setting goals. And there is something you can do about this. The more afraid we are to fail the more information we need to ease into the next step. Imagine your goals are like stepping into a dense fog. Every step sets your brain scrambling to process the information. Do I keep going in this direction, does the ground feel stable with this step, is the fog lifting a bit so I can see a few steps ahead. Key number two then is to pay attention to how you process feedback and make it work to your advantage.
➢ Don’t Take Success or Failure of Your Goals Personally
Don’t take success or failure personally. It is just information. If you are in a fog and take a step onto, soft squishy ground, you will pull yourself back. You would not waist your time lamenting whether your foot picked up the right information, should you go further and see how deep the squishy stuff goes, you would start thinking about a better path with firmer ground. Not taking things personally and evaluating your course and direction empowers you to make choices and go a different way.
“Its true, Oprah is just a TV show celebrity and she seems to be able to afford to take risks. Most people who succeed have a ratio of 4:1 failures for every success. If you are like me, you appreciate the joys of success as much as watching the path to your dreams unfold. Set your goals this year keeping these powerful guidelines in mind. These keys will help you deal with whatever challenges your life and businesses present. And insure you emerge profitable and victorious.”
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: | Business Coaching, Goal Setting, leadership, Work Relationshiops
