With the New Year about to begin it is a good time to sit down and do some dreaming and goal setting for your business. What is your dream for your business this year? A dream is a fervent hope or desire. Dreams provide the motivation and direction for your life and business. Part of reaching your dream is to devise a plan. To make your dream come true you need to be clear about what it is you want and have a picture on how to get there. So grab a paper and write down where you want to be in one year, five years, ten years. When you begin you do not need to see the path clearly, but as you move forward by goal setting and scheduling you will move toward fulfilling your dream.
Know that there will be times when you have a dream, family or coworkers may not be on board. They may tell you to be sensible, to stay with what you know, to stay with what is safe, but remember to truly live you need to follow your heart. This may mean that you have to find different supporters. You need a team of people who believe in you and in your dream and are willing to stand with you through the long haul on your way to success. There comes a time when it is important that you are committed to your dream so that it can become your reality.
To get from where you are to where you want to be requires 3 steps:
Step 1: Get clear about your dream
Be able to state it easily so people understand it and remember it. This is the stage where you get your dream out of your head and into reality. Create your sound bite or "elevator statement" and write it down. Just the action of writing it down can help set it into motion. The act of reading it regularly is useful in bringing it to fruition. Talk about your dreams as it makes them a lot harder to dismiss once you have told others about them too. Talking about your dream also helps it to become more crystal clear. It helps you see the different components of your dream. Brainstorming is important in helping bring your dream to life. Brainstorm with your support team as well.
Some people let their minds wander and write down everything that they think of whether it makes total sense or not. Others make lists where they put out significant ideas and outline goals that are part of the larger idea. Some others find mind mapping works for them. Mind mapping is when you start with one idea and then write words or make drawings to create a map of all related ideas.
Step 2: Remove the Obstacles
People think the two biggest obstacles to making your dream a reality is not having the time and/or not having the money but the reality is that the obstacles that stop you from reaching your dream is limiting beliefs.
Limiting beliefs - what are your hidden attitudes, beliefs, fears, doubts about your own dream. What is undermining your belief in yourself. Sometimes the hidden beliefs will determine the choices and decision you make. Don't despair. You can change your limiting beliefs into empowering beliefs. Believing you can is the support you need in achieving your dream.
The best way to manage an obstacle is notice the obstacle and design a strategy to manage it. Exploring options and alternatives leads to new approaches to solving problems.
Step 3: Brainstorm/Design the strategies to make your dreams a reality
To create a clear dream, brainstorm and write down what it will take to make your dream a reality. Break each idea down into small, manageable steps that can be plotted onto a calendar. By scheduling onto a calendar it moves your forward into reaching your dream. Make sure that the goals are specific, measurable, able to be reached, and relevant. It is important that you write down the resources you need at each stage to help achieve the dream. Make specific action steps and take action every day. The best way to help you stay on track is to make sure you share your dream with a support team. Your support team can keep you accountable and make sure that you are moving forward on your dream. If there are simple desires/dreams that can be brought into your life right a ways, do it as it will help you feel good as you are making an investment in yourself and your dream.
To make sure that your dreams/goals are achievable make sure that they are descriptive and precise. Be certain that your goal are realistic - and can be reached within a reasonable amount of time (3-5 years for example). Be sure that your goals are broken down into goals that are appropriately sized. If they are too large they will not be able to be met at a specific time. Your goals need to be measurable so that you can track and analyze them as the year goes by.
Consider what actions you’ll take to achieve these goals.
The action plan you create for accomplishing your goals should define specific actions you need to take to reach your goal while placing a focus on why the goal is important to you and what it will mean to you once you achieve it.
Works Cited
https://www.clearpointstrategy.com/business-goal-setting/. Accessed December 27, 2018
https://www.smallbusinessbonfire.com/free-goal-setting-planner/ Accessed December 27, 2018
https://www.thebalancesmb.com/get-started-with-goal-setting-in-five-steps-2951808 Accessed December 27, 2018
https://www.thebalancesmb.com/how-to-set-achievable-goals-with-backward-goal-setting-2951823 Accessed December 27, 2018
https://www.thebalancesmb.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-small-business-goal-setting-2951416 Accessed December 27, 2018
Wieder, Marcia. Doing Less and Having More. New York, Quill. 1998.
Watson, Heidi. Private Practice Workbook: Electronic Health Information System.USA, 2017
