Your goals are the road maps that guide you and show you what is possible for your life. – Les Brown
by Merrill Banks, CSP, Founder, Lloyd Staffing
Almost every successful person I know shares a common practice – THEY SET GOALS for themselves!
I do this and have been doing so for many years!
Whenever I’m questioned about achieving success and a sense of accomplishment, my response always includes the fact that I owe a big part of it to my habit of setting and reaching my annual goals.
Baseball player Yogi Berra once famously said, “If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.”
Think about how rewarding and satisfying it would be knowing that each day you are working to accomplish your pre-set goals. YOU KNOW WHERE YOU ARE GOING!
That direction is your inner compass, and it keeps you moving forward in a positive way.
If you don’t do this exercise each year or have yet to set your 2023 goals, I urge you to try it. I’m confident that if you follow these guidelines – when you experience the results, you will become a believer and do them every year for both your professional and personal life.
Here are the keys to successfully accomplishing your goals.
- Make them specific, bold, and still realistic!
Your goal needs to say how much you want to increase your business and NOT just the statement to increase my business. It needs to say: I will increase my business by $2 million dollars in sales and improve the collection process to receiving Accounts Receivable within 45 days; we will increase the average GP% to a minimum of 30%.” BE BOLD. Setting goals that are too easy or too general won’t create the motivation or momentum needed to hit your target. - Goals must be written down with a procedure in place to review them on a bi-weekly or monthly basis.
You must track your goals so that you always know how you’re doing relative to your target. Make notes on your progress or lack thereof. I had a mentor who printed his goals on index cards and would rubber band them to the sun visor of his car – every morning before heading out he would read them. Years later when he had his driver (chauffer) pick him up he had each year’s new goals adhered to the back of the driver’s seat so that he could maintain his goal ritual of reading and seeing them each day. Set a monthly reminder on your computer or cell phone to track the status of the goals you’ve set for yourself. If you are more likely to keep focused using an app, there are some good ones that are both free and paid. - Measuring your goals and your progress is essential for accomplishing them and is why they must be visible and reviewed regularly. Once accomplished, note the date it was completed and keep notes concerning the accomplishment of each one. I have saved my goal setting papers for many years and am now able to look back to see how important they were both professionally and personally. They are a constant reminder of what “MUST” and what “SHOULD” get done. They are also a good track record of all you have gotten achieved.
- Keep the number of annual goals to accomplish between 6 and 10.
Too few isn’t challenging and too many isn’t realistic.
Start goal setting and you will begin accomplishing more than you ever thought was possible.
I wish you good luck!
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Merrill Banks, CSP, founded Lloyd Staffing in 1971.
Under his direction, Lloyd has grown into the largest privately owned staffing firm on Long Island (NY) and is a well respected name in the recruitment and search industry nationwide.
Merrill remains active in the business and now works primarily out of LloydSouth which has become a regional presence in Boca Raton (FL). It is a source of employment and economic growth for the South Florida business community with a focus on talent placement within the eastern corridor of the US. Merrill continues to motivate, mentor and lead training for recruitment and search professionals; he is an advocate for national certification in the staffing industry.
Reach Merrill at MBanks@LloydStaffing.com