Pursuing Progress Not Perfection - How We Can Set SMART Goals To Achieve Success
Accomplishing any business goal requires the pursuit of progress not perfection. You don’t have to be the best, you just need to make it happen. I want you to think about what you want this year to look like. What would make this year a good year? Once you have an idea in your mind of what would make this year a good year let’s start to break it down into tangible goals.
I encourage you to set goals for the “now,” not five or ten year goals. Your business will change, pivot, and evolve, so think about what you want to accomplish this year. I try to set either monthly, quarterly, or annual goals. The method I use to set these goals is the SMART goal system. Keep in mind I’m not making some fancy colorful chart with my goals, but I am being mindful of what the SMART acronym stands for when I create my goals.
S - SPECIFIC
For me, this is the most important aspect of a goal. So many people say they want to make a lot of money and the words “a lot” are relative. $5 may be a lot to one person, and $100,000 may be a lot to the next. Instead of saying “I want to make a lot of money this year” try “I want to gross $100,000 this year.”
M - MEASURABLE
How will you track your progress? Give yourself a timeline to be able to accomplish the goal. So building off our earlier example, maybe you’d say “I want to gross $100,000 in 2023.”
A - ATTAINABLE
It’s easy to let all the hype get to you and think that success happens overnight, but unfortunately it doesn't. It can take five, ten, or even fifteen years to get to where you really want to be. So again, back to our example, maybe this is your first year in business so $100,000 may not be attainable. A more attainable goal would look like: “In my first year of business, 2023, my goal is to gross $40,000.” That is a perfect goal, not too lofty and very attainable.
R - RELEVANT
This is where I believe the length of time of your goal plays a role because what’s relevant in your lawn care business today, may not be relevant in five or ten years, so stick with monthly, quarterly, or annual goals. For example, “In my first year of business in lawn care my goal is to gross $40,000 in 2023.” This example should be relevant because I specified the business and how I would be making money - lawn care. If down the line your business goes into landscaping or hardscaping maybe it would change to “My goal is to gross $100,000 in 2024 on landscaping and hardscaping jobs.” Keep in mind what is relevant for your business during the period of time you are setting your goal.
T - TIME BOUND
Give yourself a time limit on when this goal is to be accomplished. In our previous example we said in 2023, that means by the end of 2023, December 31st, 2023 you will gross $40,000. You want to give yourself a reasonable amount of time to be able to accomplish the goal, without drawing it out longer than it should be. Again, that’s why I like monthly, quarterly, or annual goals because I find those to be perfect lengths of time.
When creating goals I encourage you to think about the following:
What do you want?
Why do you want it?
When do you want it?
What are you willing to give up to get it?
Remember you are setting goals for progress, not perfection. Do what you can to take action and move forward in your business.
