Take the Dates Off Your Goals So You Can
Actually Achieve Them!
I’ve heard speakers and trainers say time and
time again that “A goal is not a goal until it
has a date on it.”
Well, that’s all fine and good for some people
out there, but in my experience, a goal is not
intimidating and scary and overwhelming and
gut-wrenching until it has a date on it!
VERY IMPORTANT:
Even if you don’t agree with that statement,
because you believe you’re the type of person
who performs better with dates on your goals, I
really suggest you read this whole article
because I can tell you without a shadow of a
doubt that most of your team members DO NOT
operate best with dated goals. So this will
give you their perspective, and hopefully a tool
to share that’s going to help them in their
efforts as well.
Here’s the bottom line - I’d been putting dates
on my goals for over 20 years, with very little
success, lots of frustration and I kept beating
myself up over it. Then, in August and November
of 2005, I learned a few techniques that
literally changed my whole life.
Fast forward a year and a half…I now have no
dates on any of my visions (“visions” are
engaging, “goals” are boring), and I seem to be
attracting what I want to experience with very
little effort, and absolutely no stress. What a
concept, eh!
I’m not telling you this to brag, but rather to
give you hope that if you’ve been struggling
with your personal and business goals, there’s
an easier way to go. And absolutely anybody can
learn and implement these techniques, but it’s
very different than what’s usually taught.
OK, I can almost hear some people saying, “C’mon
Sean, I’ve studied goal setting for a long time
and everyone puts dates on their goals!”
My response – “Yep. Me too. I agree.” And
here’s some food for thought. Most people have
dates on their goals, and most people NEVER
achieve them.
Hmmm… Do you think there’s a clue in there
somewhere? ;-)
Let’s say at the beginning of September, you
have a dated goal that sounds like this, “I’m
going to sell $2,000 worth of product by
September 30th”. Sounds great,
right? But, if you’ve only sold $600 at the end
of two weeks, there’s a problem because you’re
not on pace to achieve your goal. In this
situation, there are 4 options.
Option #1: Keep going full speed ahead, and
finish the month wherever you’re going to finish
it, focusing on and appreciating what you
accomplished instead of beating yourself up for
how far you fell short.
Most people will not choose this one because it
doesn’t feel good to fall short of your goal,
especially when you tried really hard to get
it. So, as an emotional defense mechanism, to
stay safe, people usually pick one of these
“outs”…
Option #2: Pretend your goal was really only
$1,000. Since you’re already over half way
there, that seems like a safe alternative, one
that you’re likely to get.
Option #3: Pretend your goal was $2,000 by the
end of October, not September. You push
the date back so you’ll have twice the time to
make it happen.
Option #4: Pretend you never set the goal in
the first place.
Options 2-4 are terrible precedents to set in
your goal getting efforts. Once created, these
behaviors will no doubt be duplicated and you’ll
just be repeating the whole thing over and over
again.
So what’s the answer? Throw away all your
calendars, watches and datebooks, never again
paying attention to any dates ever again? Not
quite.
Dates are important for one main reason – in the
beginning phase of goal getting, you must create
a plan of action that should lead to the results
you want, and in the timeframe you want them.
Obviously, if you want to be a Director in the
next 6 months, you’ll need a different game plan
that if you want to do it over the next 3 years.
But once you have the game plan, lose the date
and only focus on your activities. If the plan
was created properly, you don’t have to
continually remind yourself of the date – that
was already taken care of when you made the
plan. In other words, if you follow the plan,
you’ll more than likely get what you want when
you want it.
I hope you realize how huge this is. After the
game plan is created, the only real purpose the
date serves is to freak you out or slow you
down. So stop looking at the date.
That’s right, a date can slow you down because
it’s an unconscious expectation. So if you jump
out to a fast start, the natural human tendency
is to take it easy so you can hit your goal on
the date you want, even if you would have been
able to do it much sooner.
Sounds crazy, I know, but that’s how the
unconscious mind works. Missing your
expectation is bad, and whether it’s too fast or
too slow doesn’t matter.
So all the people who operate best with dates
because they kick it into high gear when the
date’s approaching, are probably holding
themselves back from creating ever bigger and
better results!
Now, I understand why people say you should put
a date on your goal, which is to create
urgency. However, on Day 3 at
Pink Caddie University,
I teach my attendees 2 powerful techniques, “Unleash
Your Desire” and “Fuel the Fire”,
that create more urgency than a date ever
could, without any of the negative side effects.
Which approach would you rather use? (I know,
dumb question)
“Unleash Your Desire” is a 15-minute
guided visualization exercise where you’ll
experience the achievement of your goals at the
emotional, sensory level. Once you do, your
belief will go through the roof and you’ll be
inspired to ACT toward this vision right now.
A date can’t do that.
“Fuel the Fire” is a very simple
technique you’ll do twice a day that reminds
your unconscious mind of the feeling you
experienced in the visualization, that will keep
you motivated to act daily! A date can’t
do that either.
So hopefully you see how having dates on your
goals could really be slowing you and your team
members down, if not stopping you completely.
And the cool thing is, once you stop focusing on
the dates, not only will it be easier to achieve
your visions, but you’ll almost always do it
much faster. Woo-Hoo!
Hope this helps! Enjoy the journey…
SS
Sean hosts the
