How High Should I Set My Goals?

Unfortunately a high number of home based business start ups are given up on by their owners before they are even given a fair chance. As a matter of fact it’s proven that the number of failures surpasses by a huge rate that of successes. Why is that? The number of factors is large and we shall talk about them all at CosminPTR (here’s one of them).

It’s a common belief that setting goals is very important. I don’t say it isn’t. However, there’s one thing I would add: it’s important how high you set your standards and how strict you are with yourself.

Of course setting a goal of making a million dollar in the next 3 months from a home business which you only run on a part time basis is very unrealistic. Certainly, if you decide that if you’re not going to make that much money in such a short time, you’ll stop “wasting your time”, will not help at all either. This, of course, is an extreme example. But is not really as far off as you might think. Many home entrepreneurs start with some very unrealistic hopes of becoming rich over night.

Allen has a post on this topic which he ends by saying:

Always strive for perfection. Always work hard to get the #1 spot, even if you won’t end up getting it, you’d still be among the top.

As Allen points out it’s better to set high goals and only get close to reaching them, than setting lower ones and achieving them. Why? For two reasons. One of them is that, most of the times, in the first situation you would accomplish more (even though you didn’t reach your goals) than in the latter. The second one is that setting high, hard to reach goals will make you work harder, which in the long run will bring in more and better results. I agree with Allen. However, I would like to mention a couple of things.

The first one refers to a category I sometimes can be included in: it’s those folks who see the empty half of the glass. For them it’s quite hard to understand that although they have not achieved their goal, they have gotten to a place where most only dream to get. All they know is that they have FAILED. And if they lack ambition, I guess it’s obvious for everyone how their attempts will end.

On the other hand, there’s those who set high, unrealistic goals just for the heck of it. When they see it’s not that easy to reach such goals (see my example from above) they jump to the easiest conclusion there is: this is nothing but talk, it can’t be done. From here on there’s only one step to saying: “This is not for me. I’m outta here.”

Where are you?

Are you in the place of understanding what a realistic goal is? Are you familiar enough with what and how fast can be accomplished in the work at home world? How many financial resources do you have? How much spare time do you have? Are you in a place where you can quit your job tomorrow and focus on your home business full time (be very careful with this) or do you need to start on a part time basis and grow gradually and little by little to the point where you can quit your job? How well do you know your niche? How much competition is there? What are other folks’ experiences in the mater? What were their goals and how fast did they reach them? Do you have any familly to whom you have to dedicate time and for which you are financially responsible? And the list could go on.

Why all these questions? Because answering them will help you understand where you stand and what you can do. They will help you draw the line between a realistic goal and one that’s impossible to reach.

For example, someone who has 8 to 12 (sometimes even more) hours a day to dedicate to kick off a business can accomplish so much more than someone who can only do it on a part time basis (let’s say 3 to 4 hours a day). And, of course, many more factors can be brought in the equation.

This where reading and research comes in. Every one says to do your research. Most of the times they’re talking about researching your niche. As you can see, I suggest you also do some research on how others did it, how long it took them to get where they are, what were some of the obstacles they ran into and how they overcame them and so many more aspects. As I mentioned earlier, all for the purpose of understanding where you stand and what could be some realistic goals.

Now that you understand what can be accomplished and what not, set some realistic goals. And, to follow Allen’s adivce, kick it up a notch. Raise the stakes a bit. This will give you the motivation to strive for the best.

Well, this is my opinion on the topic. What do you think?

Posted in Motivational, Piece of Advice, Work at Home FAQ's |