How To Avoid Goal Setting Mistakes
Welcome back to another episode of “Diary of a Worthy Pursuit,” the podcast that delves into the art of achieving our goals and living a fulfilling life. In today’s episode, we’re discussing a topic that many of us can relate to: How to Avoid Goal Setting Mistakes. Join our hosts as they dive into the intricacies of goal setting, sharing personal experiences and valuable insights along the way. From the importance of positive intention to the need for specific endpoints and the power of taking consistent action, they leave no stone unturned in their quest to help you navigate the exciting but often challenging world of goal pursuit. Whether you’re a seasoned goal-setter or just starting out on your journey, this episode will provide you with the tools and wisdom you need to avoid common pitfalls and unlock your true potential. So grab your journal and your favorite beverage, and let’s dive into this insightful exploration of goal setting on “Diary of a Worthy Pursuit: How to Avoid Goal Setting Mistakes.”
Podcast Transcription:
Speaker A [00:00:06]:
So in a recent training with some project managers and sales assistants, I heard a young man say, I’m looking for a promotion to which I said, that’s interesting. Tell me more. So he’s a recent college graduate. He had these big lofty goals and dreams of where he was headed in his career and as we dug into it and realized asking why and what and how, he didn’t really have any idea of where he wanted to go. He just wanted a promotion because he saw himself as entry level. And what really stuck with me is this idea that maybe we aren’t teaching the foundations of goal setting at an early enough age, maybe these are things that we get in the workforce, we pull along the way somewhere, but ultimately, Italy, I saw this young man making some goal setting mistakes that I don’t want any of you to make. So we cleared it up for him, and we hope to help you with some of those today.
Speaker B [00:01:04]:
Welcome to diary of a worthy pursuit.
Speaker A [00:01:06]:
Where we talk about how to get what you truly want in life and in business.
Speaker B [00:01:11]:
That is so interesting because I’ve had potential employees ask about room for growth and stuff like this. Yeah. And when I lay out what’s available, they’re like, okay. And I say, what are you looking for? Like, I don’t know.
Speaker A [00:01:24]:
Mhmm.
Speaker B [00:01:24]:
It’s it seems like it was almost scripted That they have to look for something. I need a promotion.
Speaker A [00:01:31]:
Yeah. When
Speaker B [00:01:32]:
you ask them, like, what’s a promotion? No. I gotta I don’t know. Right. I just know I’m supposed to ask
Speaker A [00:01:36]:
for this. Looking tour, in a in a role, I think that that’s one of the the questions that I love to ask in interviews is, where do you see yourself?
Speaker B [00:01:44]:
Mhmm.
Speaker A [00:01:44]:
In and for young people, it’s hard, but where do you see yourself in 3 years? Because 5, 10 years, that’s too far down the road. You can’t script that when you’re 22. Yeah. Right? Not that you can script it when or thirty eight, but it’s that idea of you have to be able to see a brighter future for yourself before you can really even set a goal of how you wanna get air, right, there’s this quote that I love that, oh, I think it’s from Alice in Wonderland. If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will do. Yes. Right? So if you don’t have this idea of where you’re headed, any step is gonna work. Any promotion’s gonna work for me.
Speaker A [00:02:16]:
I just want a promotion because then I can say I got promoted. Well, are you going in the right direction?
Speaker B [00:02:22]:
Yeah. For what you want. It’s interesting that you say that I love that Alice in Wonderland quote. Yeah. Because I feel like Some people will say that they want a goal, vague goal or something like that, and not really take steps to achieve it, but they can’t say that they failed then. Yeah. Because if they don’t tell anyone that they had a goal Right. Or if they have a vague goal, like, I wanna be upright tomorrow or something like that.
Speaker B [00:02:44]:
Yeah. Right. Where it’s not something that’s actually pushing them Mhmm. Then they can’t fail or they can’t get rejected, and therefore, they can be comfortable. Yeah. And everything is cool and kosher. Right?
Speaker A [00:02:53]:
Yeah. Well, but then what fun is that?
Speaker B [00:02:55]:
No fun.
Speaker A [00:02:56]:
Yeah. No.
Speaker B [00:02:56]:
It’s grow or die.
Speaker A [00:02:57]:
If you’re not growing, you’re dying. Right? I love that, that saying of yours. So we want you to avoid some of these goal setting mistakes that we have seen, that we’ve experienced, and, you know, hopefully, you can head into wherever you’re going next, the next few months or a year in your business and and be a little bit more organized. So you mentioned this first one, which we’re gonna talk about, which is just this idea that it’s too general. Show
Speaker B [00:03:20]:
Right.
Speaker A [00:03:20]:
It’s too vague. I wanna be healthier.
Speaker B [00:03:22]:
I wanna be rich.
Speaker A [00:03:24]:
Right. I
Speaker B [00:03:24]:
wanna be in shape.
Speaker A [00:03:25]:
Yep.
Speaker B [00:03:26]:
I wanna be happy.
Speaker A [00:03:28]:
That one’s elusive. What does that even mean?
Speaker B [00:03:31]:
Right. Yeah. Yeah. Moment to moments or something or like, hey. Here’s a cookie. I don’t know. What is it? Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker B [00:03:38]:
It’s different for everyone. Mhmm. So it’s if you not if you don’t define it Yeah. Or it’s too broad to even know if you actually achieved it?
Speaker A [00:03:44]:
Yeah. So we need to be more specific.
Speaker B [00:03:46]:
Mhmm. So I
Speaker A [00:03:46]:
was just running a goal setting, workshop yesterday, one of the things that we talked about was, what does that even mean? So the example I used was, I wanna get out of debt. Okay. Well, that’s a little or Mhmm. Specific, we’ve got some financial goal, but what does that even mean? How do we be specific? So that example might be, okay. I wanna pay off a car loan. And then in the amount of whatever it is, $12,000. Okay. Cool.
Speaker A [00:04:07]:
That’s very specific. Not only do I know that I wanna get out of debt, but I’m gonna pay off this car loan in the amount of $12,000
Speaker B [00:04:14]:
Yeah. And then do they have did you work out a plan for them?
Speaker A [00:04:18]:
Well, we took 1 step at a time. Press, let’s set the goal.
Speaker B [00:04:21]:
What’s the goal? What’s the goal?
Speaker A [00:04:23]:
Let’s just have a vision of where we’re headed.
Speaker B [00:04:24]:
Pay us the car by tomorrow, and I’m making $10 an hour
Speaker A [00:04:28]:
for the thing. So in this great point so another mistake we see people make is that they don’t make a time bound. Right? So in 3 months, let’s say. Because if you don’t have a if you don’t have a finish line, one, I don’t know how much it’s gonna take me to pay it off. Right? So my finish line, my measurable piece piece of it is I gotta pay off $12,000. Okay. Now I know if I’ve done it or not.
Speaker B [00:04:49]:
Right.
Speaker A [00:04:49]:
I wanna do it in 3 months. Okay. And now I know what my deadline is, then that helps me actually create some urgency too.
Speaker B [00:04:56]:
Fair. Totally fair.
Speaker A [00:04:58]:
Because if I’m like, I’m gonna start a business someday Someday. Cool. Someday isn’t gonna inspire me to take any action today.
Speaker B [00:05:05]:
No. Not at all. Someday, hopefully, maybe.
Speaker A [00:05:08]:
Yeah. Right. Might as well put up on a shelf.
Speaker B [00:05:11]:
After this thing, right, after New Year’s, after Easter, whatever.
Speaker A [00:05:15]:
Yeah.
Speaker B [00:05:15]:
Yeah. You make up the the deadlines that have absolutely nothing to do with the goal that you’re actually trying to achiever. Mhmm. Or maybe not even trying. Talking about achieving
Speaker A [00:05:23]:
Yeah.
Speaker B [00:05:23]:
I’m gonna lose weight next year Right.
Speaker A [00:05:26]:
Or
Speaker B [00:05:26]:
after New Year’s, you were mentioning.
Speaker A [00:05:28]:
Yeah. Well, one of the other things that I see people Tuesday, choose an arbitrary date, and we all kind of choose January 1st as the, okay. I’m gonna start this new big life change, January 1st, start of a new year. That’s cool if you need that big motivational change, but what makes more sense for people is just to make a decision and then make consistent action.
Speaker B [00:05:45]:
Mhmm.
Speaker A [00:05:46]:
So it doesn’t have to be January 1st. It could be October 15th or whatever you decide it is. Like, Tuesday is as great as January 1st if you make a decision.
Speaker B [00:05:57]:
Totally. Absolutely. I was joking with someone that I’m gonna start a business That rents out treadmills from January through March to all these health club places because after March, they don’t need them anymore.
Speaker A [00:06:10]:
Case And I
Speaker B [00:06:10]:
didn’t know, like, how would you rent them all out January through March, but then
Speaker A [00:06:14]:
You got a storm somewhere.
Speaker B [00:06:15]:
And they gotta deal with them.
Speaker A [00:06:16]:
Yeah. Right?
Speaker B [00:06:16]:
But that’s the joke. Right? Like, they’re all those classes and everything are January, and then as March comes out
Speaker A [00:06:22]:
Right.
Speaker B [00:06:22]:
The couch is cozy.
Speaker A [00:06:23]:
Well and I think that the the piece of that that really, why people fall off the treadmill or the wagon, whatever, is they don’t connect to a why. Mhmm. So why do I even wanna do this thing? And that’s another mistake I think people make because they lose their way when they lose their why. So it’s this idea of like, okay. I wanna be healthier. Mhmm. Okay. So let’s be more specific.
Speaker A [00:06:42]:
I wanna go to the gym, and we drill it down even more. Okay. I’m gonna go on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I’m gonna go at 6 AM, and I’m gonna start on October 2nd and go through the end of the year. Whatever. That’s very specific. That’s a very check, that’s a very smart, smarter goal. But if I don’t say, well, why do I wanna be healthier? Right.
Speaker A [00:06:59]:
Why do I wanna go to the gym? When I ultimately get in that messy middle of, like, I get in that messy middle of, like, I don’t feel like getting up today and going to the gym, I’m not gonna go because I don’t have any internal pull of why am I doing this. So asking yourself some of those questions like, who am I working on becoming? Mhmm. Or what’s at risk if I don’t do this thing, that one can be extremely powerful.
Speaker B [00:07:21]:
Mhmm.
Speaker A [00:07:21]:
And if the thing that’s at risk is like, hey. If I don’t do something to change my health, I’m not gonna be around when my kids have kids. Or maybe it’s even more immediate, and you’ve got some scary health stuff going on. And it’s like, if I don’t make any changes, then maybe it means I’m not around next year. Right. That’s motivating.
Speaker B [00:07:37]:
Or I can’t keep up with my kid. Yeah. I know. That’s 1. Or you got a vacation and you wanna look good in your swimsuit or something like that. Or, you know, your friends are doing some things that you can’t do because you’re just not in shape enough to do them. Yeah. Or something of that nature where it’s a bigger Well, there’s other people involved in the in your results.
Speaker A [00:07:57]:
Yeah. More of an extrinsic motivation.
Speaker B [00:07:59]:
Mhmm.
Speaker A [00:08:00]:
Yeah.
Speaker B [00:08:00]:
Yeah. I’ve I feel for me, anyways, that’s helpful. It’s also I mean, I the health one to keep up with my kid. Mhmm. Like, you gotta it’s very tough sometimes because that kid’s a machine. But a lot of times you play grown ups versus kids.
Speaker A [00:08:15]:
Yeah.
Speaker B [00:08:16]:
And, you know, grown ups gotta win.
Speaker A [00:08:18]:
Right. Of course.
Speaker B [00:08:19]:
So we’re playing a parents versus kids neighborhood kickball game.
Speaker A [00:08:23]:
Okay.
Speaker B [00:08:24]:
And the kids have 5,000,000 kids. I don’t know. We maybe had 7 or 8 parents. And it was interesting because I pulled the parents aside, and I’m like, look. We gotta just destroy that ball. Right. We’re not gonna take it easy on these kids because we’ve been taking it easy on them for 9 years.
Speaker A [00:08:40]:
Yeah.
Speaker B [00:08:40]:
They believe that the world life is easy. So we gotta make them run, And we gotta play full out here. And the parents are like, alright. And it’s interesting because parents destroyed the kids Because the parents were very organized, and this is what we’re gonna do, and this is how we have to play. And granted, we only had 7 or 8 of us, so was very easy to get people to agree Mhmm. Where the kids, they’re all over the place. There’s groups of them that were oblivious to the ball Being in play Yeah. There were kids that were like, we gotta be mom and dad kinda thing.
Speaker B [00:09:11]:
There were kids that were just their sole goal was to take the ball and throw it at their parent, whatever. Fine. Mhmm. So it’s interesting because they weren’t unified. So it was much easier since we had to focus on our goal. We had a reason for it happening. It was so It was way more fun.
Speaker A [00:09:27]:
Yeah.
Speaker B [00:09:27]:
And we won, so that was cool. Goal account.
Speaker A [00:09:31]:
Well, but there was even a deeper why in that. Yeah. We want we want to show we wanna keep up with them. We wanna show them we can do this, but I love the more intrinsic thing of, like, we’re not gonna teach them that life is easy. Right. That they have to work for some things. So, yeah, there was another why behind that specific goal that’s
Speaker B [00:09:46]:
Yeah. What are you teaching them? What are you
Speaker A [00:09:47]:
teaching them? Right?
Speaker B [00:09:48]:
So it went beyond just us playing a game.
Speaker A [00:09:51]:
Yeah.
Speaker B [00:09:51]:
It was us teaching them how How to lose. And and even I guess there were other times at the kids’ behest. And I I asked my kid, I said, How many parents did you see crying because we lost? And he’s like, none. I said, well, last week when you guys lost, how many kids were crying? Like, half the crowd.
Speaker A [00:10:10]:
Yeah. So Right?
Speaker B [00:10:12]:
So we’re just like, hey. Whatever. It’s another game. Move on with your life.
Speaker A [00:10:15]:
It’s a valuable lesson.
Speaker B [00:10:16]:
Pretty much nothing.
Speaker A [00:10:17]:
Yeah.
Speaker B [00:10:18]:
So just understand. Right?
Speaker A [00:10:21]:
Right. So that’s The motivation is so helpful, though. I think Like that. Not job letting the kids win.
Speaker B [00:10:26]:
That’s right. We will crush them like the dreams. Right?
Speaker A [00:10:30]:
Yeah. Well, another, mistake that we see is this idea that people just play it safe. Very. You know? So this idea of, like, you could let them win, and you could let them think that life is easy. You could say, you you know, I’m gonna I want to make 1 more dollar next year than I made this year. I wanna grow buy, $500. Right? That’s safe. That’s easy.
Speaker A [00:10:56]:
And it frankly, it’s not motivating.
Speaker B [00:10:59]:
No. No. Comfort and complacency Yeah. Are 2 of the most painful feelings that I think people should have or should avoid. I’m sorry. Yeah. Because once at any point when you’re comfortable, Somebody else, your competition is working hard and going through pain and challenges
Speaker A [00:11:16]:
Mhmm.
Speaker B [00:11:18]:
To beat you, go above you, Surpass you.
Speaker A [00:11:20]:
I love that alliteration, comfort, and complacency. That is so powerful. Yeah. I think a lot of us play it safe way too often. Like, oh, this is just the way I’ve always done it. So this is the way I’m gonna continue to do it.
Speaker B [00:11:31]:
My gosh. The worst phrase I could ever hear an employee say. This This is the way we’ve always done it. Like, no. It doesn’t make it right.
Speaker A [00:11:38]:
Right. Red flag. Yeah. Huge red flag.
Speaker B [00:11:40]:
Huge red flag.
Speaker A [00:11:41]:
But even in your life, just playing it safe, being like, well, I’ve been healthy or my relationship’s fine, so I don’t really need to do anything to grow here. And it’s like, well so what is that saying, I I get that not everyone is an optimizer. Like, you know, maybe we are. Percent. But that idea of, you know, how can you make it better by than just 1% or, you know, some people say, if you try to 10 x something rather than just trying to grow by percent, woah. You have to change a lot of things, and that’s not safe. That’s really risky. And that’s how we wanna go about it.
Speaker A [00:12:16]:
Our goal should be risky. They should feel like, yeah, I don’t know how this is gonna work. You should have uncertainty and fear.
Speaker B [00:12:22]:
I think you should have, the stomach for risk, but also understand that if you’re not risking anything, you will not gain anything. Mhmm.
Speaker A [00:12:32]:
And if
Speaker B [00:12:32]:
you’re not gaining anything, then what’s the point?
Speaker A [00:12:34]:
Yeah.
Speaker B [00:12:35]:
Plus you raised interesting point when you describe something as fine. Like, for most things, if somebody’s like, hey. How’s that? How’s your car, your house, your relationship, your health, whatever, if I answer fine to any of that, it’s probably not very good.
Speaker A [00:12:48]:
Right? Fair.
Speaker B [00:12:49]:
How’s your day? It’s fine. Mhmm. Like, oh, that’s not a goal.
Speaker A [00:12:54]:
Well, I think that that word in particular is has just been people’s default of, like, I clearly don’t wanna tell you what’s going on, but everything is not great here, but I don’t want you to ask any questions.
Speaker B [00:13:04]:
I’m tolerating it for the moment.
Speaker A [00:13:05]:
Yes. Tolerating. Mhmm.
Speaker B [00:13:07]:
Yeah.
Speaker A [00:13:07]:
What a what a word.
Speaker B [00:13:08]:
Weak, gross.
Speaker A [00:13:09]:
I don’t like it. Right.
Speaker B [00:13:11]:
What else we have here? Not actionable.
Speaker A [00:13:13]:
Yeah. Absolutely. So I see a lot of people set goals in, like, the I wanna be more healthy. I wanna be a more intentional parent. I wanna be a successful business and that’s great. It’s good to think about who you want to become in the process of your goals, but that doesn’t help you take action.
Speaker B [00:13:30]:
Mhmm.
Speaker A [00:13:30]:
So being a person is great in my mind, but I have to, like, take action every day and make a vote toward becoming that person, because the more I show up as that person and stack actions
Speaker B [00:13:44]:
Mhmm. Then
Speaker A [00:13:44]:
I can look back and see, look at all these actions that I took all these votes I have for me becoming that kind of person, and it builds your confidence that then, oh, here you are. So let’s use the example of being a more intentional parent. I wanna be more of an intentional parent. I had this goal this past quarter. I wanna spend 10 dedicated minutes with each kid every day, and I can’t say that I feel like I nailed this, but that was my way of trying to be more intentional. I made it specific. I said, each day, I’m gonna spend 10 minutes with each kid. I’m gonna do it in the morning That seems low.
Speaker A [00:14:18]:
They leave for school.
Speaker B [00:14:19]:
Is that low? I don’t know.
Speaker A [00:14:21]:
Well, I was thinking, like, 10 dedicated minutes with just this kid.
Speaker B [00:14:24]:
1 on 1?
Speaker A [00:14:25]:
1 on 1.
Speaker B [00:14:26]:
Oh, okay.
Speaker A [00:14:27]:
Yes. How
Speaker B [00:14:27]:
many kids do you have?
Speaker A [00:14:28]:
I have 2.
Speaker B [00:14:28]:
Okay.
Speaker A [00:14:30]:
So there’s plenty of times where, like, we’re doing things together or they’re playing while I’m picking up toys or we’re all outside together. Like, intentionally, I’m gonna sit here and do whatever you want with you for 10 minutes. Even if that means, like, I’m gonna make dinosaur noises and play your dino thing or, like, you want me to pretend to be the number black, whatever it is, 10 minutes. And that’s how I tried to make it more specific and measurable. But it was a habit goal. Alright. For me, because it’s like, well, I try to do this I tried to do it every day. Clearly, I did not hit the mark, but I feel like, I probably did it more days than I didn’t do it.
Speaker B [00:15:07]:
Okay.
Speaker A [00:15:07]:
So rather than being, my action was spend 10 minutes, focus for 10 minutes on each kid. Mhmm. And then I knew what my action was. My action was almost don’t take action, shut off everything else so you can be here.
Speaker B [00:15:23]:
Alright. And what was the broader goal, if you don’t mind me asking? Pressing a little bit
Speaker A [00:15:27]:
yeah, well, I think the broader goal was 1, to be more intentional, but 2, to create more of that connection.
Speaker B [00:15:32]:
Okay. This kid?
Speaker A [00:15:33]:
I also think that the more I read, there there’s so much parenting advice out there. Right? But Right. I thought the more intention that I gave them
Speaker B [00:15:43]:
Mhmm.
Speaker A [00:15:43]:
The less likely they might be to act out or have tantrums and things like that because they wanted my attention
Speaker B [00:15:50]:
Okay.
Speaker A [00:15:50]:
And they weren’t getting it, and I didn’t wanna give them negative attention.
Speaker B [00:15:53]:
Sure. So if
Speaker A [00:15:54]:
I could start with positive intention, then maybe we could prevent some of those negative ones.
Speaker B [00:15:58]:
Alright. Which would allow you to do your other stuff, achieve your other goals without interruption or with fewer interruptions.
Speaker A [00:16:04]:
Yes.
Speaker B [00:16:04]:
And then looking at the time that you spent with your kid, if you look at that when the kid’s 20 right? How are they gonna be as a person versus if you don’t spend their time with them, how are they gonna be as a person when they’re 20?
Speaker A [00:16:16]:
Yeah.
Speaker B [00:16:16]:
So I feel like there’s larger Larger goals here than just that small one.
Speaker A [00:16:21]:
Right.
Speaker B [00:16:21]:
Or as far maybe goal’s wrong word. Larger reasons Why is
Speaker A [00:16:26]:
Well, I have this intention. Right? So goals are truly about who you want to become, but the the goal itself needs to inspire you to take action.
Speaker B [00:16:35]:
Mhmm.
Speaker A [00:16:36]:
Inspire you to do something. You know, if I say I want to create a deeper connection with God or through my faith, well, I can’t just say I’m going to do that. What does that look like? Maybe that means, like, I’m gonna read a daily devotional every morning. Minute, I go to church every Sunday, whatever it is, there needs to be an action to prove that you’re putting votes into becoming that person.
Speaker B [00:16:56]:
Mhmm. Interesting. So the days that you did not spend Yeah. 1 on 1, how did you feel?
Speaker A [00:17:04]:
Kinda like a failure Oh. Which sucks because then you check yourself. Yeah. But then when I had that negative self talk, I’d be like, but you’re still spending more time with them intentionally focused than you did before when you were trying to multitask.
Speaker B [00:17:19]:
So then In those days that you did not spend time Mhmm.
Speaker A [00:17:23]:
Did
Speaker B [00:17:23]:
you think back to why you didn’t or what was in the way or what? Yeah. It was just tough because you gotta have somebody else take care of the other kid Mhmm. While you’re spending time together.
Speaker A [00:17:32]:
The other kid’s gotta be, like, tied up in a screen or Sure. Doing their own thing.
Speaker B [00:17:36]:
Day We’re gonna lock in the basement.
Speaker A [00:17:37]:
Yeah. Right. Click.
Speaker B [00:17:39]:
Yeah. Whatever. I mean, did you map out, like, okay. That didn’t work today because And now I can figure out what do I have to do the next day to avoid that?
Speaker A [00:17:47]:
Yeah. So I do a practice called the weekly preview where I look back and reflect. I think a lot of us don’t reflect on what happened this week? What worked and what didn’t and why? And then what am I gonna keep, improve, start, stop, the whole kiss idea? So on the times that I did reflect and say, why didn’t that happen? Or why did it only happen 3 days and not 5 or 7? It’s usually because jazz, I don’t give myself enough time. Oh. Like, I didn’t wake up early enough to get my stuff done before the kids woke up so I could focus on them solely when they were awake. And instead, I was trying to do my things while they were awake. So I was trying to multitask. That was a big hurdle for me.
Speaker A [00:18:25]:
So honoring my wake up times, and now I’m getting up earlier to try to do that. Alright. And then just things like not being on a united front as a parent parental unit. Oh. You know? There’s some days where, you know, as you’re shifting schedules, it might be a, hey. You need to pick I need to drop off the kids today so you can pick them up so I can go do this thing. So I don’t have that time this morning. Right? And I realized again that all these were excuses or that I was creating, which were really choices that then I said, well, that’s okay because
Speaker B [00:18:57]:
Alright.
Speaker A [00:18:57]:
When when you look at it, that doesn’t feel good, like No. Hey. It’s okay that I didn’t spend time with my kid because I didn’t wake up early enough. Like, that
Speaker B [00:19:04]:
is awesome. Excuses.
Speaker A [00:19:06]:
Right? So then you start to reevaluate, well, how do I then align how I’m spending my time with this goal?
Speaker B [00:19:12]:
And I
Speaker A [00:19:13]:
think that that’s a a big issue people have is they set the goal, but then they don’t align their time with how they need to take action to get there.
Speaker B [00:19:20]:
Sure. So you’re I guess the The good point that I’m seeing there or hearing is always be improving.
Speaker A [00:19:26]:
Yeah.
Speaker B [00:19:27]:
Then nobody has it all figured out. No. So you just look back. Tech, what do we do? Tweak. Mhmm. Improvise, adapt, move on.
Speaker A [00:19:34]:
Right.
Speaker B [00:19:34]:
Rinse, repeat every single day. Yeah. Like this.
Speaker A [00:19:36]:
Well, and I think the the takeaway there is just flat, like, you’re never gonna be able to say 90 month or 90 months. 90 days later, let’s say you set a quarterly goal. Did I make it chat, like, yes or no, you should be checking in periodically. And I think, again, that’s another thing that people miss is it’s a yes or no, and they don’t give themselves opportunity to adjust along the way Alright. What is it? I was reading something about airplanes and how somebody who takes off from LA, there’s, like, a 1 or 2 degree difference in landing in Chicago and landing in Washington, DC. Oh, sure. 2 very different, you know, destinations Yeah. So along the way, if they get off, they can end up way off course.
Speaker A [00:20:18]:
So if they don’t evaluate every once in a while and say, oh, we need to make a little correction. Oh, we need to make a little correction. They’re gonna end up in the wrong place. Yeah.
Speaker B [00:20:26]:
You’re constantly shifting when you’re flying. Yeah. Yeah. 90% of the time, you’re off course. Right. With well, I mean, seriously, with wind and stuff like that.
Speaker A [00:20:32]:
And avoiding other planes?
Speaker B [00:20:33]:
Avoiding storms. Yeah. Yeah. Right. You just have to adapt. It’s constant correction. Absolutely. I mean, it’s built for that.
Speaker B [00:20:40]:
Right? It’s not a missile. It’s
Speaker A [00:20:42]:
just Right.
Speaker B [00:20:43]:
You have all kinds of things to
Speaker A [00:20:45]:
wanna fly in a missile.
Speaker B [00:20:46]:
No. No. You know, It’s not like you just shoot it once and just, like, hope we land.
Speaker A [00:20:50]:
Right.
Speaker B [00:20:51]:
Right? A lawn dart. Whatever it is. There’s controls and things that you can constantly adapt thread the way that we have to move.
Speaker A [00:20:58]:
Well and what I like too about this analogy is that idea of that then there is a destination. Then there is a point where we know that we’re going. So many of us create these goals, but we don’t have a an endpoint. They’re too open ended. Mhmm. So we can’t say, yes. We did or no. We didn’t do that thing and then reevaluate for the next 90 days or the next 6 months.
Speaker A [00:21:19]:
So it’s in my situation, it would be, hey. I’m gonna try to do this 5 days a week for 90 days and see how it comes up. But, you know, if you’re training for a marathon, you’re gonna run maybe every you’re gonna run 3 times a week for 90 days or whatever that is. You need to have an endpoint so you know that you can look back and say, yeah. I did the thing or, nope. I didn’t do the thing.
Speaker B [00:21:42]:
Right. Fair. Yeah. I guess when I had a goal, I can remember with my printer repair company when I had goals of selling printers and toner and all that kind of stuff. I had a whole whiteboard laid out. Mhmm. So every single week, I would change the numbers to see, like, this is my big goal. Yeah.
Speaker B [00:21:58]:
And am I on target call goal.
Speaker A [00:22:01]:
Yeah.
Speaker B [00:22:02]:
It’s very interesting because then sometimes you weren’t. Like, you’re you’re low or whatever. And so you figure out, like, okay. Is The goal, is that still achievable? Yeah. Or do I have to adjust the goal? Or what do I have to do to get back on track?
Speaker A [00:22:18]:
Mhmm.
Speaker B [00:22:18]:
It is very nice to see that because it also helped, I guess, like you were saying before, how you can look and see how far you’ve come.
Speaker A [00:22:25]:
Yeah.
Speaker B [00:22:25]:
But you’re also looking at what does it take to keep going In that direction. Go.
Speaker A [00:22:30]:
Mhmm. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, I think the thing especially related like, revenue habits or growing business that I think people miss is they we set these achievement goals. Right? I’m gonna reach this. I’m gonna assign this many clients. I wanna be here by the end of the year. But that might feel very elusive to people.
Speaker A [00:22:44]:
So sometimes those are better served to be a habit goal. Mhmm. So what small actions could I take every week to get there that might be more motivating and feel more concrete and sustainable than trying to reach for this thing that feel like I will never get to.
Speaker B [00:22:58]:
Yeah. When you chunk it down like that.
Speaker A [00:23:00]:
Right. Much more cheaper. Make it more manageable. So if you wanna sign 12 new clients in a quarter, okay, that’s 1 client a week. Mhmm. And then what do you need to do to get 1 client a week? Well, maybe it’s 5 prospect calls or it’s, you know,
Speaker B [00:23:11]:
10 discovery calls or whatever the thing is. You need
Speaker A [00:23:11]:
to put together 15 calls or whatever the thing is, you need to put together 15 estimates to get 5 clients. So, yeah, having those measures of the what do they call them? There’s lagging measures and leading measures. Oh, I remember that. Yeah. So the lagging measures are, can you see they give you after the fact ideas of if you’re getting there. So, right, activity can be leading measures. You can see that maybe you’re not gonna hit your goals because I didn’t do enough calls or I didn’t put out enough estimates, but the lagging measures are more things like revenue Alright. Or client number Okay.
Speaker A [00:23:47]:
Because those are things that kinda happen after this after the fact, after the sale.
Speaker B [00:23:52]:
Gotcha. Yeah. Okay. So it takes a little time for them to catch up.
Speaker A [00:23:55]:
Right.
Speaker B [00:23:55]:
So at the end of the quarter, it’s not like, hey. It’s whatever. March 31st. Mhmm. Did I achieve the goal? Like, well, we’ll out in May.
Speaker A [00:24:03]:
Exactly. Yeah. Exactly.
Speaker B [00:24:04]:
Alright. Interesting. What else we got here? We don’t have too much time here. It’s so too boring. Don’t even be prepared. That’s funny.
Speaker A [00:24:11]:
Well, a goal should be able to wake you up in the morning. Right? Make you excited to get up and do your thing. Right? So if your goal is like, I’m gonna make 3 widgets today and you don’t care about making widgets, you wanna, like, go write a book, that’s awful for you. Mhmm. So just make sure it’s something that you’re excited to get up and do in the morning. Alright.
Speaker B [00:24:26]:
Yeah. So not the not the oatmeal goal?
Speaker A [00:24:29]:
Not the oatmeal goal. That’s a really good way to think about it. But on the, you know, on the flip side, it also shouldn’t be too delusional. Alright. Guys, you gotta find that happy medium of like, oh, this is boring. This is safe versus, oh, you’re nuts. You’re not gonna hit $1,000,000 the first year you start a business, maybe you are. But, you know, if it’s in your delusional zone, you gotta scale it back a little bit.
Speaker A [00:24:48]:
So it’s about being, where are you in your season of life? Where are you in your in your maturity of your business?
Speaker B [00:24:56]:
Mhmm.
Speaker A [00:24:56]:
And what do you need to to keep in mind. Right? Because if I have a new baby at home and I wanna, like, grow my team from 5 to 50 while I have a newborn, that’s probably unrealistic not relevant for the season of life I’m in.
Speaker B [00:25:07]:
Sure. Fair. Fair. It’s too boring, I guess, as I’m thinking about that is probably something that if you presented that to your friends, They would either roll their eyes or say no one cares.
Speaker A [00:25:18]:
So what? So what? Yeah. That’s a that’s a great gauge and filter.
Speaker B [00:25:23]:
Have you ever set a boring goal?
Speaker A [00:25:25]:
I’m sure I have in my life.
Speaker B [00:25:26]:
Okay.
Speaker A [00:25:27]:
I can’t think of 1 right now.
Speaker B [00:25:28]:
Alright. Would it be I guess, I’m trying to think of an example of one that somebody may Yeah. Because because I guess I’m so goal driven that someone’s like, this is my goal. I’m gonna read 500 Nora Robert books by the end of the year. I would still say that great. Yeah. But great.
Speaker A [00:25:45]:
Well, but that’s a good point. Boring is, you know, in the eyes of the boulder. It’s very subjective because to that person, that might be like, I love reading, I wanna, you know, read for 30 minutes a night or 500 books a year, whatever it is. Is that even possible? But
Speaker B [00:26:01]:
same people.
Speaker A [00:26:02]:
But I think that that’s that idea of it really is who you are. So for me, a boring goal might be like, I wanna get a promotion and climb the corporate ladder. Cool. That’s not who I
Speaker B [00:26:10]:
Okay.
Speaker A [00:26:11]:
But for me, growing a business and being able to hire an employee, that’s kind of exciting. That’s not boring.
Speaker B [00:26:17]:
Gotcha. Okay. Yeah. Alright. So Not oatmeal. Not too delusional.
Speaker A [00:26:22]:
Not oatmeal, but not delusional.
Speaker B [00:26:24]:
Alright. Fair.
Speaker A [00:26:25]:
Yeah. Are there any goals that you’ve set in the past that you’re like, I didn’t hit this. And now because of these mistakes we’ve talked about, I can pinpoint why?
Speaker B [00:26:36]:
Yeah. I guess with calls on call, I’ve had the big. My goal for years has been to hit $1,000,000 in revenue Okay. For years.
Speaker A [00:26:45]:
Yeah.
Speaker B [00:26:45]:
And the big one of the big reasons for that, is because if you wanna sell it, it’s much easier to sell a company and do a 1,000,000
Speaker A [00:26:53]:
Yeah.
Speaker B [00:26:53]:
Than not.
Speaker A [00:26:54]:
Right.
Speaker B [00:26:55]:
That seems to be the magic number for Companies that are interested in buying, and that’s I don’t know if that’s specific to the call answering industry or or any business. I don’t know.
Speaker A [00:27:04]:
Sure.
Speaker B [00:27:05]:
But that’s It’s a it would be a stretch. And I had I even laid out, like, this is what has to happen. This is how it has to happen. But in my plan, I have always always failed to have the mistakes that employees make. And mistakes can be employee messes up, so client leaves. However, that’s pretty rare. But I would never put in there employee just doesn’t show up for work Even though that’s a thing. Yeah.
Speaker B [00:27:36]:
And I would never put in there, oh, man, just problems. Problems that can happen. So I remember I have incorporated delays. Right? But they weren’t those delays were not attached to anything That I would know is a likely possibility. Right? Yeah. Like, I’d say, like, oh, we got an extra 90 days in there to achieve this just in case something happens. Right? Pandemic wasn’t in there.
Speaker A [00:28:02]:
Of course not. I don’t think it was in anybody’s plan.
Speaker B [00:28:04]:
Yeah. And stuff like, marketing. Marketing is a tough one because you’re Mhmm. You put in your plan like, hey. I’m gonna spend this much on marketing. I’m gonna throw out this much. Do this many things.
Speaker A [00:28:15]:
Yeah. But
Speaker B [00:28:15]:
then your assumption is that your close rate, I guess that whole funnel that that’s gonna match what it was before.
Speaker A [00:28:21]:
Yeah.
Speaker B [00:28:22]:
In marketing, that’s a total gray area. So according to my plan, it’s gonna work because it worked before.
Speaker A [00:28:28]:
Right.
Speaker B [00:28:28]:
But that doesn’t necessarily mean those percentages are gonna stay the same and all that jazz. Right? Got me 1 client isn’t gonna get me 10.
Speaker A [00:28:35]:
And depending on how warm they are when they even come in Yeah. Determine your Totally. Version. But what I hear you saying, though, is that a lot of us maybe don’t create the plan. So that’s another goal setting mistake is once you have it, make sure you have a plan, but then also plan for the obstacles. Right. Plan for those things that could go wrong, what’s gonna trip you up, and just have in your brain that those things are gonna happen so that it doesn’t completely derail value when that comes up.
Speaker B [00:29:00]:
Yeah. Interesting. I’m reading this book about the fall of the Bell System.
Speaker A [00:29:04]:
K.
Speaker B [00:29:05]:
Bell Telephone System, which is crazy interesting to me. Mhmm. Because this book was published in 1982, something like that.
Speaker A [00:29:12]:
Okay.
Speaker B [00:29:13]:
Anyways, this guy long story short, MCI was this tiny company.
Speaker A [00:29:17]:
Okay.
Speaker B [00:29:17]:
And there’s a guy that comes to them and says, hey, MCI guys. What are you doing? And they’re like, this. We need $40,000. And he’s this entrepreneur go get them guy, And he buys them out and launches MCI into this huge thing.
Speaker A [00:29:30]:
Oh my goodness.
Speaker B [00:29:31]:
So these guys are kinda stuck in their little belief system.
Speaker A [00:29:34]:
Playing it small.
Speaker B [00:29:34]:
Yeah. Not going for big goals and getting there Was big competitions.
Speaker A [00:29:38]:
Oh my gosh.
Speaker B [00:29:39]:
But anyway
Speaker A [00:29:40]:
That’s that’s a great success story and how to set a goal and what you can see. So, hopefully, you’ll learn from these goal setting mistakes, and this has been Diary of a Worthy Pursuit.
Speaker B [00:29:49]:
How to get what you truly want in life and business.