One point that always confuses me when I start to make new goals is the difference in opinion among current thought leaders about setting “realistic” goals, versus, “thinking big.”  It’s one of those topics that for every successful person who believes in realistic goals there is also one who believes in thinking big.  I’ve put both theories to the test and here’s what I’ve found.

Setting realistic goals works great and if you’re just starting out with this process, that’s what I recommend you do.  A realistic goal is something like, “I will increase my income by 10% over the next quarter.”  Keep the accomplishment at something you feel you can realistically achieve, and the deadline not too soon, nor too far off.

The good thing about setting realistic goals is that when you achieve them, you gain courage to set bigger and better goals.  This is good because it keeps you on your path of constant improvement and success, and there are plenty of millionaires out there who accomplished their success just this way.  They didn’t think big, until it was time to think big.   Thinking big was just a logical progression along their goal-setting path.

The theory behind thinking big is that when you set realistic goals, you’re somehow short-changing yourself on what you could possibly accomplish.  In other words, you’re setting yourself up to be an underachiever.  The gurus who teach this theory say that those same millionaires who eventually became so by setting realistic goals over a number of years could have become millionaires a lot sooner if they’d just thought bigger to begin with.   With million- and billionaires out there at 20 and 30 years of age, who am I to argue?

But what happens when you set those big goals and they don’t materialize?  In my experience, most people stop setting goals at all.  I can always tell when I’m counseling someone about goal setting and they come back with the excuse, “I tried that and it didn’t work.”  I know that one of two things has happened.  Either one, they gave up too soon, or two, they set too large a goal and gave themselves too little time to accomplish it.

The importance of setting goals in the first place is to give yourself something to measure your performance against.  I like the analogy of, “If you don’t know where you’re going, how will you know when you get there?”  It’s important to know where you’re going in life, both personally and professionally.  So what, then, is the best way to set goals and make New Year’s resolutions you can actually achieve?

I like using a combination of both thinking big and being realistic.  The business paradigm of Strategic Planning utilizes both of these methods very well and that’s what I teach in my career development seminars.  Now, I’m not going to spend time in this article trying to explain how businesses go about strategic planning.  You can view the Wikipedia link above if you’re truly interested in that.  What I want to teach you is how I go about setting my goals and New Year’s resolutions.  This method has worked for me without fail for several years – I am constantly achieving something and very often well before my targeted deadline.  When I don’t meet a goal by its original deadline, it’s easy to see why, and, more importantly, easy to adjust and get back on track.  In fact, part of the beauty of strategic planning is that it is designed to pick up right where you are and get you to wherever you want to go.  So let’s get to it.

1. Create a list, I like to use Excel and you’ll see why later, of everything you would like to accomplish in life.  Everything.  Big things, little things, everything.  Don’t hold back; this is where we satisfy the “think big” gurus.  Also, don’t set deadlines for now – just dream, and record.
2. Put your list in order.  Priority order, chronological order, whatever makes sense to you.  I use a combination of priority and a timeline.  For example, I plan to acquire my Doctorate in Business Administration, but not for several years, it’s in my mid-range goals section.  You might also want to separate them into categories like, personal, career, family, etc.  It’s your list so do what you want with it.  Also go back and set deadlines if you would like to acquire this goal by a certain time.
3. Ask yourself, “How?”  How will you accomplish this dream?  What are the steps you should take in order to manifest this exactly the way you want it.  If you’re not sure, what research do you need to perform?  How can you find out how others have accomplished this goal?  Keep asking yourself how for each answer you come up with.  One of my big goals last year was to join the National Speakers Association.  I set my deadline for the end of this year since they give you a year to meet their requirements.  When I set the goal, I went back and asked, “How?” Well, I need $20,000 in speaking income.  How will I get that? I could go back to work for my old training company.  Okay, so what do I need to do to make that happen – and so on.  Get the picture?
4. Make it a journal.  As you answer each “how” question, write it down.  This is why Excel works so great – you can easily add rows where you need to.  Of course, you can buy strategic planning software or use a database, but Excel works just fine and is not complicated.  You could also do this in Word, but it’s a little more tricky due to the formatting.  Keep asking yourself “how?” until you have your very next step right in front of you – something you could do right now, or tomorrow at the latest.
5. Take all the time you need.  Go through this process for every single goal.  The first time I did this, it took months!  I have a lot of goals and I’m sure you do too.  So don’t get discouraged – keep at it – it’s going to pay off.  Plus, as you accomplish goals, you’ll want to set new ones, so it’s a never-ending process anyway.  Believe, once you experience success with this, it will become fun and you won’t want to stop!
6. As you create more and more realistic steps that you know you can complete, bam, you’ve got your “realistic” goals that will keep you focused and give you the sense of accomplishment you need to keep up your momentum.  These steps become your short-term goals and you can definitely set deadlines to these.
7. Keep working on your list.  Review it daily at first, then weekly, then monthly.  You’ll know when you’re ready to loosen your discipline and you’ll also know when it’s time to tighten up.  After about three months of daily/weekly follow-up this past year, 2006, I stopped looking at my list because I felt that I knew what I needed to do and had the discipline to do it.  In April, I reached my goal of qualifying for the NSA and didn’t even know it!  I had actually qualified a lot sooner than I’d thought and it was just a matter of turning in the paperwork.  If I hadn’t looked at my strategic plan in May, I don’t know when I would have noticed!  It’s now fun to go in and see what I’ve accomplished and if I haven’t accomplished much, I get back to work!
8. Resolve to change where necessary.  If there are any paradigms that you need to change within yourself in order to accomplish your goals, those become your “News Year’s Resolutions.”  For example, I had to become a morning person in order to make the long 1+-hour drive to Lexington every day to meet my NSA goal.  That was tough at times, but meeting the goal was well worth it.  So my “Big Dream” was becoming an NSA member by the end of the year.  I had several interim goals that were realistic and achievable within a certain time frame.  My New Year’s Resolution was to become an early riser. Do you see how it all ties in?
9. Take action.  What I like most about this system, is that it gives you tactical steps to accomplish.  It also gets you thinking in action mode.  In my post, The Secret to Achieving Your Dreams, I talk about the importance of acting on the guidance you’re given.  Often, we know what we need to do, we just need to act.  Strategic planning makes that obvious.  When you look at your list, you see exactly what you need to do.  When you see something is not materializing, it’s easy to see why – you’ve haven’t completed one or more of the steps.

As for the “think big” versus “be realistic” debate?  I agree with Gloria Steinem who said:

“Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.”

So dream big, make a realistic plan, then execute.

Posted under Inspiration, Leadership, Motivation