7 Steps How to Achieve Higher Goals
There is a major difference between setting goals and achieving goals. Setting a goal is the start of a journey. Achieving a goal is the beginning of your next journey.
Believe me. I know what I’m talking about. I have both failed big times and succeeded quite well achieving higher goals. I have managed to start new journeys, and I know what it takes to make a change of direction in life.
The 7 Step plan is primary a product from “My own entrepreneurial journey”, but it also comes out of research from books and the internet, and should not be taken for a scientific study…
Step 1 – Getting the right people on board
Getting the right people on board is essential and one of the most important factors in order to run a successful business, achieving higher goals.
One of the main reasons why we finally succeeded was that we were a good team that sticked together in good times and in bad times, all the way till the end. As I see it, we have been acting like a well composed football team, where I’ve been trying to lead the team in the way as a great football trainer would have done.
In other words. We had a good mix of competences in the team with a tight management group that complemented each other well.
Step 2 – Look back and evaluate together
If you have a history together it’s a good start to look back and evaluate together. What went wrong and why, what went right and why and so on.
A good entrepreneur does many mistakes. A great entrepreneur only does the same mistake ones!
Step 3 – Get extremely clear about what it is you want
Be specific and think through what you really want. Make sure that you do this exercise together with your inner team, and make sure that all of you agree about the WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY’S AND HOW. When you set a meaningful goal and then get extremely clear about those questions, an incredible transition can begin to take place.
One of the main reasons why we failed the first time was that we weren’t experienced enough and didn’t do our homework thoroughly enough.
The second time when the same (but 5 year more experienced team) sat up a business plan and new goals, we focused a lot more on this step. We talked a lot about the WHY’s and found a deeper and greater meaning with our business. And that quality made “5-year business plan” actually hold for 5 years and we finally reached our common goal.
Step 4 – Create your game plan for success
This part of the process can drastically increase your chances of achieving your most audacious goals. After you get extremely clear about your goal, create a list of everything that you have to do in order to achieve that goal.
One key ingrediency of our plan was all the work and energy that we put into the Business Modell and the Automation part. We put a lot of focus on this one question. How are we going to make money, have happy customers, and happy staff in the long run perspective?
Step 5 – Communicate your vision and plan
Every single person in the team needs to understand and be a part of the vision, the plan and the journey. That incorporates all the staff, customers, partners and other important people around you. Especially important is it that your team really believe in what they are doing and are as motivated as you are in order to do a great job, working towards the great goal, every day.
Step 6 – Take massive action every day
Every single person in the team needs to take massive action every day in the right direction working towards your common goal. That means that everybody needs to learn how to prioritize, and how to be in control of their own agenda.
For example.) You come to work starting to read your email, and you start to do all the things that other people tell you to do. Even worse, you might like it because you get “likes”. You have then fallen into the trap letting someone else controlling your agenda, and you might not spend your time doing what you were supposed to do, and you don’t even reflect over which task was the most important.
In the end of the day you have ended up doing nothing that impacts your greater goal. If you have for example 12 employees with that “way of working” you will probably never reach your higher goals.
So, it is definitely here you should put most of your energy as a leader. Keep motivating, inspiring and coaching your staff in how to move forward every single day by planning and prioritising their time.
Step 7 – Never give up and start again
The experience of failing is definitely a good thing to have with you and is for sure better than no experience at all. Now your chances are also more than ever to start over again with a blank sheet of paper.
Out of my own experience our first common failure was one of the secret ingrediencies to our second success, and finally reaching the goal was for me personally a starting point of a new and exciting journey.
Read more about my entrepreneurial journey and how it all started in “My true entrepreneurial story”.
/Katinka Nyberg
