Goal setting is essential to achieve any kind of success with anything in life, and it’s particularly crucial when striving to achieve success online.
Let’s face it, the online world is full of distractions; like social media, YouTube, chat programs. It’s so easy to be focused on something one minute only to have something else on a web page catch your eye. You click on it and then you’re off on another tangent.
Procrastination often leads to voluntary distraction. You could be working on something, but not really in the mood to give it your full attention, so it’s very easy to think, “Hey, I’ll just see what’s happening over on Facebook for a while”.
This is all well and good if you’re not on your computer to work, and if it’s just something you use for leisure and to pass the time, but if you’re running an online business (or considering doing so), then it’s imperative to have some guidelines to keep you focused. This applies to the day to day tasks as well as the big picture.
What’s the End Goal?
If you don’t know where you want to go, then how will you know how to get there?
Sometimes the end goal will change over time as things become clearer and clearer, but it’s important to have an ultimate goal in mind of where you want your business to go and what you want to achieve, financially or otherwise. Having a destination gives us direction. It’s like taking a road trip in your car. Once you know where you want to go you can then work out a route to get there.
If one of your goals is to ultimately be making $10k a month from internet marketing, then that’s an end goal you can logically work towards. Another goal might be to have three content-rich websites finished to a certain point by the end of the year, with X amount of pages or posts of content on each.
The ultimate destination doesn’t have to be set in stone. It can change, but it’s important to have an end goal right from the very start so you know where you want to go and in what time frame.
Set Realistic Goals
I’m a big believer in aiming high. I believe that if you aim higher than what you think you are likely to achieve, at the very least you will end up doing better than what you expected to begin with. However, on the flipside of that if the goals you set are just too high and unrealistic, then the thought of trying to achieve them could just prove to be too overwhelming and actually put you off doing anything about them.
So, aim higher than what you think you can achieve right now, but not so high that the mountain seems insurmountable.
One Step At A Time
Whilst it’s important to have that main goal, over-focusing on it can be detrimental rather than beneficial to your state of mind while working towards the goal.
Break the main goal down into smaller pieces that are quicker and easier to achieve so it feels like progress is being made. Make a list of the day to day tasks you want to get done to achieve your goal and mark them off as finished each time you complete a task. This will give you a sense of satisfaction, as well as a feeling of getting somewhere.
Expand on this and work out a weekly task list, or a monthly one and prioritise what’s most important to get done and by when.
Follow The SMART Principle
You may have seen or heard of the SMART principle before when it comes to goal setting. If not, it goes like this:
- S – Specific
- M – Measurable
- A – Attainable
- R – Relevant
- T – Time-Bound
Check to make sure your goals line up with all five facets of the SMART principle and always try to adhere to this principle and not deviate from it.
Write Your Goals Down
I deliberately left this point until the end because I wanted it to be the very last thing you read and remembered from this post. This is the most important point of all.
Write your goals down!
I can’t emphasise that enough. It’s just so important to do this and refer to your goals from time to time. It will keep you on track, as well as focused and organised. Eventually these written goals will be expanded upon with time frames and start to form a business plan of sorts.
I’ve read this figure in numerous places over the years and you probably have too, that the top 3% of successful people have clearly defined goals that they write down!
So, clearly defined goals that are written down will set you on the right path to success. Why not aim to ultimately be in that top 3% one day?
Darren Burton
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Hi Darren,
So true! I can just agree on what you have written. Goal setting is crucial for having success not only online but also in your entire private and business life. If you have set a realistic goal according to the SMART principle you have to get everything rolling. The next thing should be to prepare a strategy and write down how you would like to reach this goal. In other words, find the way to achieving your goals 🙂
Do you also set your own strategies?
Cheers
Don
Hi Don. I do try to set my own strategies. Usually these strategies will change and transform over time, just like a business plan will. We can’t always see the entire path from the very beginning. Many things become clearer along the journey. But I think the most important starting point is to set yourself a finish line (goal), then you have something specific to aim at. Strategies will evolve along the way.
Hi
Having realistic goals is very critical. Not having realistic goals can lead to failure and downfall online.
I personally would look for some get rich scheme and get scammed. Well, without hard-work there no success. Hope those that are interested to make online, read this article in order to avoid scammers and opportunists.
There are a lot of scammers out there, unfortunately. Just about everybody seems to want to make money online these days, but it’s important to have a plan as to how to do it. Thanks for your comment.
Hi, I just recently accidentally discovered your blog, and I really like it. You seem like a very nice person. It looks like you really know what you’re talking about. It seems that you really want to help people, and I appreciate it!
As a blogger, I can say that goal setting is probably the most important thing when it comes to business. I always try to split my main long term goal into smaller short term goals. It seems easier this way 🙂
Hi Julius. Thanks for your kind words. Yes, I do like to help people succeed online. I’m passionate about it. What you are doing with breaking your bigger goals into smaller chunks is the right idea. It actually helps you make progress rather than having just one big goal to try and achieve. Smaller goals actually build the road map to realising the big goal.