Goal Setting for Greatness
One of the challenges that Entrepreneurs whom I have had the pleasure of coaching have faced is establishing structure and systems for themselves in the beginning phase of their entrepreneurial journey. I, myself, can speak directly from experience about this challenge. As a person who has been building out a small business, Gateways to Greatness, step by step (seemingly slow stepping at times), for the past two years part-time; I can testify that I struggle with creating structure, systems and most importantly accountability for myself.
From my coaching conversations, I share the same sentiments that a few of my clients have communicated to me as reasons why they stall in creating structure, systems and accountability. These reasons include, but are not limited to, (1) the lengthy amount of time it takes to do so, (2) the uncertainty of where to start/the fear of starting, and (3) the comfortability of just starting from a place of passion.
So, friend, about that #3…I am learning that it is not enough to be passionate about my business (though passion is the glue that will hold things together), I must dig deeper and take time to be tediously strategic about my business. REMEMBER THIS: Where there is no clarity, there is no power to dominate. Goal setting provides clarity.
For those who are reaching towards big endeavors in your life, planning it all out it is understandably not as easy as one would think. But we all must start somewhere, and this blog is about just that…starting somewhere—from a person who is essentially starting…somewhere….
So, look at my lessons learned below about setting great goals. I hope it helps you in your own journey.
Visioning and Whydentity
(yes, you read that correctly—“WHYDENTITY!”)
If this was a map, there would be a big, bold START HERE with an arrow directing to you, well, start here! Honestly, this is the stage that I have been in for the past two years with Gateways to Greatness. G2G was officially established in January 2017 as a legitimized business. I hear someone saying, “okay Shara, it’s 2019”. Well, yes, that is correct. I hear another person saying with shock and amazement, “two years in visioning!!!” To be clear, I was not ONLY visioning, but these last two years of business ownership have been a time in which my WHAT has become more clearly defined. How? Well, I used this time to conduct research (like looking into trends within my field, projections, talking to the experts), I also have gotten increasingly clear on my big WHY overall.
Overall, honestly, the things I wrote down two years ago, January 2017, are not exactly what I plan to move forward with in terms of G2G. I look at this as a good thing.
Be S.M.A.R.T about Your Goals
Have you heard of S.M.A.R.T goals? In case you have not, it’s an acronym that represents a model that many successful individuals and teams use to create goals that are as precise as possible allowing you to have a clearer understanding of what you want, how, and where you’re going. Overall, it helps you develop a better strategy for yourself.
(S)pecific: Your goals should not be vague nor ambiguous. Tear your goals apart, and I promise you, the rebuild will lead to more specificity. One way to practice specificity is conduct an interview on yourself using the 5 Ws and H method. What do you want? Why do want it? Where? When will it happen? Who needs to be brought in? How will it get done? Another great practice is to use action words to help you identify it is you want to see and do exactly.
(M)easurable: This also needs to be as specific as possible. Instead of saying, “I will grow my business page on Instagram”, a measurable goal is “I will grow my Instagram by 50 followers in the month of June. Attach a quantitative criterion to your goals which will provide a way for you to evaluate. Will you track your progress? Then you need to state what you are tracking.
(A)ttainable: Are your goals truly realistic? This is a double-edged word, because though you want your goals to actually be achievable based on your resources and capacity, you do want goals that push and challenge you. So, attainable is more so about taking time to reflect and think authentically about whether you can achieve the goal based on your current skills and resources. That being said, if the answer is “no” don’t count yourself out! Use this as a way to establish a plan of action of what needs to be done to put you in place to make your goal attainable.
(R)elevant: Make sure your goals are relevant to your overall vision. This is why I made the first step clarifying your Whydentity. Your goal should be connected to your overall vision. This also relates to your goal being relevant to the time or environment.
(T)ime-based: Overall, the goal should have a time frame for which the goal itself will be achieved. Secondly, as you are in the midst of achieving that goal, creating deadlines are a sure fire way to create accountability for yourself. In fact, friend, if you want to step it up a notch I challenge you not only to create deadlines, but share them with someone you trust. I have recently discovered this hack as I found myself missing several of my deadlines due to the autonomy that comes along with entrepreneurship. Set target dates, and deadlines and hold yourself to them.
Social Capital
I love the African Proverb; “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” This is an area that I myself, have a learning curve on, so I sympathize with anyone who struggle in this area. As a solopreneur, knowing when and how to bring people in will be vital to your strategy. Just like in your personal relationships, don’t treat people as if they are dispensable, they are a major resource. You will have to learn how to build and use social capital. Social capital is people and connections. No entrepreneur can survive as an island. Social capital is just as important as financial capital for all ventures. As with all capital, you can use only as much as you have acquired to-date. If you have no social capital, no business plan will likely get you the financial capital you need.
Well, that’s all for today! BUT…Stay tuned, because I will reveal three more lessons learned in my next blog post on Monday, May 27th, 2019. In my next blog post, I will also share a Goal Setting for Greatness Worksheet.
Until next time. In Greatness,
Coach Shara