Fall In Love With Your 2020 Goal

This is one of those topics that I could write about all day every day.  Goal setting, goal achieving, goals goals goals!

We all have goals.  Each and every one of us.

Some of us think we gave up a long time ago and don’t have any but we do.  Every day we wake up with the goal to live another day.  Ok, maybe that is a stretch but don’t we all have goals to some extent?  And why is it so important to have goals? 

The most successful people on this planet didn’t wake up one day with an idea and a few minutes later after they got dressed became successful… No way.  They had an idea and they developed a plan.  Within that plan there were goals – some big, some little – some attainable, some way out there. 

And each day, they worked at it – chipping away, having triumphs and failures along the way but tweaking and re-evaluating and working toward goals. Goals!

We have had goals from the day we were born.  Sit up. Crawl. Walk. Talk. Feed ourselves. Dress ourselves. Express ourselves. Make friends. Learn. Communicate. Develop relationships. Learn a skill.  Get a job. Get married.  Have a family. Buy a car. Buy a house. Take a vacation…. Many of these things are milestones that we can only achieve with a plan of action and goal setting. 

Goals are objectives that you intend to achieve. 

Going through life without goals is like getting in your car and driving aimlessly expecting to arrive at your destination without a clue how to get there. 

If you had a roadmap or a GPS, you could have gotten there in a reasonable amount of time but because you just drove and drove – maybe you will eventually get there but at what cost?  How much time and energy did you waste because you didn’t take a couple minutes to punch in the destination in your GPS? 

Moving through life without a roadmap and expecting to reach certain milestones haphazardly is certainly one way to go but if you want to get somewhere quickly and with less energy and time, then set goals, work towards them and you will find yourself exactly where you wanted to be.

What If I Don't Know How to Write Goals?

Ultimately anything you envision your school achieving doing for children, your business accomplishing or for you achieving personally, ...CAN BE Accomplished.

But until you take the time to envision what that looks like and what it would mean to significantly impact the community...you cannot write inspiring goals. 

You can write goals, don’t get me wrong. But you cannot write INSPIRING goals. Think of the word INSPIRE...to INSPIRE...INSPIRATION

One of the main problems in goal setting is not that people aim too high and miss it's that they aim too low and hit!

Let me ask you a question. In your personal or professional life...the goal you picked or set in 2019...did you pick it because you knew you could achieve it?

If so, why are you settling for less? If you are going to set a goal for what you already know you can do...you are already developing a habit of settling for less. 

If you wrote the plan first...then set the goal based on what results you think the plan will get you...you are settling for less.

If you spend more time, and energy on writing the plan then you do thinking and creating the goal...you are settling for less. 

What I am trying to say is...DON”T FALL in LOVE WITH THE PLAN...FALL IN LOVE WITH THE GOAL. Write a goal that you can fall in love with. 

Your creative energy should be spent on creating and writing the goal, not the plan. 

Here is why. You spend so much time on the plan that as soon as the plan goes south, you lower the goal just so you don’t have to adjust the plan. 

Do not become attached to the how. Marry the Goal...Date the plan. Before you fall in love. Suspend the requirement for knowing how to do everything.

When I started my company, Leaders Building Leaders, five and a half years ago I had NO idea how I would reach my financial goals, support family and employees. I knew nothing about running a business. 

Peter Drucker said, fail fast, fail often, fail forward. Over your lifetime you have mastered thousands of things before you knew HOW. Walk, talk, ride a bike, swim, open a school. 

Don’t be so attached to the outcome. Be attached to the engagement, creativity the development of the goal. 

Three errors people make when setting goals:

#1: The goal is not inspiring: People need to know WHY they get out of bed. What is in it for them beside a paycheck?

#2: We question our worthiness of the goal: Is the goal worthy of us. If I achieve this goal, do I deserve it? You must have confidence when you set your goals. Confidence and clarity in your vision. See yourself obtaining the goal!

#3: Too many goals: One goal is a goal, two goals are a half a goal and three goals are NO goals at all. Focus your energy on what it is you REALLY, REALLY Want!

You are trading your life for the accomplishment of this goal. It needs to be worthy of your value. You goal needs purpose. If you are a principal, what is it you truly aim to do for the children, families, adults and community? If you are a business owner, how will your product or service change the lives of your customer?

I believe that what you think about you can have. That works in the opposite direction as well. Henry Ford said, whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right. 

One More Problem in Goal Setting

Most times goals are written in silos with not a great deal of information. There is a ton of energy identifying foundational baselines and then setting a “realistic” growth percentage over the next 3-5 years.  Not very sexy.

But what if you were too pull a team together of different stakeholders and truly identify What would it feel like to be a true agent of Change? Brainstorm a list of powerful questions based in the areas of moving from success to significance. What is it that is most important to the overall success of your organization? If it was operating an an optimum level...what would that look like and feel like?

No one at the end of the school year says, wow, we crushed that Federal Program audit or State's performance framework. Don’t get me wrong, they are important aspects of your school - but they don’t inspire and do not result in significance. 

Success is about you...significance is about others. 

So, what goal will you set in 2020 that you can fall in love with? Write it in the comments and blast it out across your social media and tag @LBLeaders! 

If you are seeking help in your goal setting or need a thinking partner I encourage you to find a mentor or thinking partner. My team and I specialize in this work. Sign up for our Goal Achieving Club and use the Promocode 2020 to save big while achieving more!!!

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