Beginners: How To Create Goals That Lead to Success

As an entrepreneur, you have to take action to avoid mistakes that could be fatal to your business.

Action #1: Create a vision for both near term and long term goals.

It's okay to say you want to be a multi-millionaire. It's a goal, and one that's exciting to think about. But, for most people, going from perhaps $30,000 a year to $1,000,000 needs to be broken down into bite size pieces.

Think about a nice, juicy 16 oz. steak. If you're a vegetarian, think about a nice, scrumptious vegetable casserole dish. Can you imagine yourself eating that entire steak in one bite? Or gulping down the casserole in one bite? Of course not! You can eventually eat the whole thing, but it requires a process of one bite at a time.

Life is like that. When you create a goal, you have to be able to accept it as being realistic so that your emotional nature can get involved in the process. The long term goal of being a multi-millionaire can seem more like wishful thinking, which will never take you there. However, when you break this goal down into bite size pieces, you find it easy to get excited about each piece, and before you know it, you've achieved your long term goal!

For example, if you produce a number of products, such as books, focusing on goals for individual product sales over a year's time breaks it down so that you can start to see how your long term goal can become a reality. It's easier to see yourself selling 200 books a month than 5000 books a month. But, once you've made it through the first year with this approach, the goals you set for the following year will be different because you now have a different sense of yourself and your business. You have discovered that the experience of the last year has given you greater confidence. Consequently, your ability to imagine being a multi-millionaire is increasing. The goals you set for your second year will be much more assertive.

So, be sure that you have a long term goal even if it is one that you would be embarrassed to share with anyone else in the beginning. Just make sure that you create short term goals all along the way. Some people create 5, 10, and 15 year goals. If you don't break it down into smaller pieces, however, you're likely to choke on it.

My advice:

Take bites that are manageable for you. Take the time to chew. Don't rush to swallow so that you can move on to dessert. Allow yourself to savor the experiences. You will learn a lot more about yourself and your business this way. You may even find that dessert tastes better when it finally does arrive!