Grow Your Business - Setting Aggressive But Realistic Goals

Eleven key to-dos for putting goals in place and making sure you follow through.

Excerpted from Inspiring Entrepreneurs: How to Build Your Business to its First Million.
By Carissa Reiniger, President and Founder of Silver Lining Limited

You have to set realistic but aggressive goals. You have to say those goals out loud, communicate them to everyone who needs to know about them and get people on board with those goals. And you need to hold yourself accountable to them.
There is an art to setting a goal” you need to ensure that once you set up your goal you also set yourself up for success – and that you realize the significance of a goal. Many people set goals that are far too lofty and then can never understand why they are always failing. Alternatively, some people don’t’ set any goals and then wonder why nothing is happening.

It is not unlike Pavlov’s dogs and his theory of classical conditioning. If you continually repeat behaviour with success as the outcome, that positive reinforcement will allow you the mindset to continue to do what you are doing. On the other hand, if you repeatedly set yourself up for failure by setting unrealistic goals that you cannot achieve, you will train yourself to fail. If you set aggressive but realistic goals that you can accomplish, you will start to get into a groove of setting and reaching your goals.

Once you have set the right goals for you, everyone who has to be a part of making those goals a reality has t know and understand them. In order to communicate the goals properly it is key to understanding what motivates every person on your team. Setting goals that we can translate into success for our teams and that we can communicate in such a way that really gets everyone excited is important.

To help you get started on setting goals that will support your success, take a few minutes and go through the questions and to-dos below – you can’t get anywhere without goals, so set them!

What is a goal that is exciting for you to think about achieving? Think big on this one.
When do you want to achieve it by?
Plot where you are today, look at the past six months of your business and replicate the patterns of growth of the past six months within the timeframe that you listed in number 2 and see where you get to. Do you get to the goal you set in number 1?
If not, are there other revenue streams you can add to get there? If yes, what are those revenue streams?
If not, what is the goal that you can expect to get to by just doing whatever you are doing so far and have been doing in the past six months?
Based on the number that comes out in number 5, increase that by how much you think you can honestly push yourself to accomplish.
Increase that number by just a bit to inspire yourself and then get to work. What number do you land at?
What is your strategy to bring this to your team? Who are all of the people who need to be a part of this in order to accomplish your new goal?
Set a meeting with these people right now to go through your goals with them.
10. Based on their feedback, update your plan to get to your goals and, if necessary, update your set goals to be either more realistic or more aggressive.
11. Communicate these goals to everyone who needs to know them once finalized.

Looking for support to keep you accountable to your goals? Check out Silver Lining Online at http://online.silverlininglimited.com and find out how Silver Lining can help you stay on track and grow your business. Register by February 7th using the promo code TMTO09 and you’ll receive extended access to the Inaugural Members Club bonus pack.