Setting Goals

Struggling To Set Business Goals For 2008

It seems like every blogger and their dog posted their goals for 2008. Except us. We thought it would make more sense to wait until no one cared about New Year’s resolutions before sharing ours. Just kidding, our dog blogged about his goals already 🙂

The real reason is that I am really, REALLY struggling with goal setting for 2008. It is not so much a matter of not knowing what I want to accomplish because I do. My goals are measurable, written, and have commitment dates. But there are two huge problems (to me at least) lurking in the background.

Where Do I Aim?

Unless they are trying to sell you something, people who have been in this game for a while consistently talk about five things:

1. Most people do not make it as entrepreneurs because they never get started in the first place.
2. They worked incredibly hard for years, even decades, to become successful.
3. Many of them fell flat on their faces several times but kept picking themselves up and trying again.
4. Almost no one makes more that just a little extra spending money.
5. You need to love what you do.

A few blogs I read regularly have written about these types of things in the last few months like How I Built A Six Figure Internet Income and A Reality Check about Blogging for Money. It is obvious from reading those that it’s tough to beat the odds. So while one of my real goals might be to build a portable, sustainable, online income, it would just be silly to think I can do it right away.

At the same time, setting the bar too low is not healthy either. Since when does anyone care about reaching a goal that is super easy? The more I read and listen to people like marketing extraordinaire Seth Godin, the more I realize that most of us aren’t going after any revolutionary ideas. What kinds of wonderful things are hiding inside of us that we don’t even try to release?

How Do I Get There?

A lot of entrepreneurs tend to fly by the seat of their pants. They have a million ideas swimming around in their heads and can’t focus on any of them for too long before “Boom!” It’s off to the races with the next one. Well, maybe it’s just that I’m a left-brain person but I can’t function that way anymore. I need a better plan than that and some rigor.

I firmly believe that our strategy is sound but our tactics need work in order to take the next step. A lot of work. That’s where having a clearer plan will help.

But I don’t want to stifle my budding creativity either. It’s so cheap to try out new ideas on the internet right now that it’s foolish not to throw a few darts at the wall to see what sticks. There has to be some sort of balance but it eludes me at the moment.

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