Most Small Business Owners Avoid Goal Setting - 7 Reasons Why Business Goal Setting Doesn"t Get Done
Business development books and business consultants caution you not to take a step without goal setting.
They tell you that goal setting is a vital undertaking for anyone who is serious about their business and that you need to have a clearly defined set of goals to ensure your success and without them you risk failure.
Yet, according to my survey of small business owners, 87% do not use goals to ensure their business success! Why do so many smart people with excellent products and business potential avoid goal setting? There are many reasons so many small business owners resist setting goals setting even though they know it is vitally important to their business success.
See if any of these are your favorite reasons why you avoid this important activity: Reason #1: It hasn't worked in the past.
If you have gone through all the trouble to define and document goals for your business, only to look at them some time later and find that you have come up short, you might be wondering: "What's the use? Documenting my goals doesn't work for me".
Reason #2: Unaccomplished business goals are painful and costly.
If you have set goals, you probably recognize the feeling of disappointment when you have come up short.
When you use traditional goal setting methods and don't achieve all your goals, you can pay some heavy prices.
Unaccomplished goals can rob you of your confidence, motivation and energy.
Reason #3: You don't like to be wrong about your assumptions.
Goal setting requires making some educated guesses about what is attainable, often based on pretty sketchy information.
There is a high degree of risk of being wrong and no one I know likes to be wrong.
Reason #4: You don't want to be disappointed with yourself, or disappoint others, if you set goals and don't achieve them.
You may see your goals as a public declaration of your intentions and if you fall short you may be judged, by yourself and/or others, as a failure.
Reason #5: You think goal setting has to be a long complicated, tedious or hard process (it doesn't).
This one stops a lot of people who would rather do just about anything but sweat over business goal setting.
Reason #6: You may see goals as somewhat limiting or stifling your creativity.
You may take the position that if you commit to a goal you must stubbornly pursue it and close the door to other opportunities that may arise.
While these are the most common reasons for foot-dragging, when it comes to goal setting, the reasons for not setting goals are almost endless.
I even had one lovely lady tell me that she didn't set goals because she was afraid that if she wrote them down she would jinx her future success.
She thought it would be "bad juju"! We can be very creative when it comes to finding excuses for not attending to this vitally important task.
When you think about it, with all these reasons to avoid goal setting, why should you even set goals? Small business owners, business book authors and consultants are missing a vitally important piece of information about goals: they have a magnetic quality.
That brings me to reason #7.
This is the most important, yet seldom recognized, reason small business owners resist setting goals...
Reason #7: You don't realize the power and full benefits of Magnetic Goals.
When you define your own set of Magnetic Goals, use them as a tool, rather than just a "I have to do because smart folks tell me to" exercise, you will see for yourself the awesome power of Magnetic Goals to draw success to you.
They tell you that goal setting is a vital undertaking for anyone who is serious about their business and that you need to have a clearly defined set of goals to ensure your success and without them you risk failure.
Yet, according to my survey of small business owners, 87% do not use goals to ensure their business success! Why do so many smart people with excellent products and business potential avoid goal setting? There are many reasons so many small business owners resist setting goals setting even though they know it is vitally important to their business success.
See if any of these are your favorite reasons why you avoid this important activity: Reason #1: It hasn't worked in the past.
If you have gone through all the trouble to define and document goals for your business, only to look at them some time later and find that you have come up short, you might be wondering: "What's the use? Documenting my goals doesn't work for me".
Reason #2: Unaccomplished business goals are painful and costly.
If you have set goals, you probably recognize the feeling of disappointment when you have come up short.
When you use traditional goal setting methods and don't achieve all your goals, you can pay some heavy prices.
Unaccomplished goals can rob you of your confidence, motivation and energy.
Reason #3: You don't like to be wrong about your assumptions.
Goal setting requires making some educated guesses about what is attainable, often based on pretty sketchy information.
There is a high degree of risk of being wrong and no one I know likes to be wrong.
Reason #4: You don't want to be disappointed with yourself, or disappoint others, if you set goals and don't achieve them.
You may see your goals as a public declaration of your intentions and if you fall short you may be judged, by yourself and/or others, as a failure.
Reason #5: You think goal setting has to be a long complicated, tedious or hard process (it doesn't).
This one stops a lot of people who would rather do just about anything but sweat over business goal setting.
Reason #6: You may see goals as somewhat limiting or stifling your creativity.
You may take the position that if you commit to a goal you must stubbornly pursue it and close the door to other opportunities that may arise.
While these are the most common reasons for foot-dragging, when it comes to goal setting, the reasons for not setting goals are almost endless.
I even had one lovely lady tell me that she didn't set goals because she was afraid that if she wrote them down she would jinx her future success.
She thought it would be "bad juju"! We can be very creative when it comes to finding excuses for not attending to this vitally important task.
When you think about it, with all these reasons to avoid goal setting, why should you even set goals? Small business owners, business book authors and consultants are missing a vitally important piece of information about goals: they have a magnetic quality.
That brings me to reason #7.
This is the most important, yet seldom recognized, reason small business owners resist setting goals...
Reason #7: You don't realize the power and full benefits of Magnetic Goals.
When you define your own set of Magnetic Goals, use them as a tool, rather than just a "I have to do because smart folks tell me to" exercise, you will see for yourself the awesome power of Magnetic Goals to draw success to you.
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