Why Goal Setting Exercises Are an Absolute Must for Women Entrepreneurs
For many women starting a business, it is much more than trying to achieve financial freedom. It is also about breaking free of the weights of fear, doubt, and uncertainty and allowing yourself to fly free like a bird.. But be aware, there will be challenges on the way that you must overcome, and internal turmoil that you will have to fight against.
Many women face distractions such as the single mom who is all alone, the woman who takes care of her aging parents, or those who are meeting the demands of family. If you are one of these women, you must face the challenge of keeping your focus. You will be confronted with tough decisions such as do you choose to spend quality time with the family, or do you choose to work late nights and weekends, or travel extensively.
What It Takes To Become Successful
To become successful as a woman entrepreneur and achieve your freedom and desires in life, you need to set your goals above everything else, and then stick to them, no matter what. Goal setting exercises can help you immensely here. But honestly, goal setting exercises can help you in everything you do in life. Whether you are a student, a sports enthusiast or a busy executive, it is important that you set your goals. Once you have created the big vision for your business, write out your goals to help you achieve it. Without a definite goal in mind, you run the risk of just drifting through.
The truth is setting your goals might appear quite a simple job to many. They believe that you, a female entrepreneur, just decide what you want to accomplish in a given time, such as getting new 10 customers this week or generating additional revenues for the year, and your goal is set. In reality, however, goal setting is much more.
Goal setting exercises will teach you the importance of setting realistic goals. If you are aspiring for a target that is too high, you are increasing the probability that you'll be unable to accomplish it, and, therefore, end up frustrated. As a result, you may give up too soon, all because you set impractical goals.
On the other hand, if you set a goal that is too low or one you can accomplish quite easily, you may never develop the drive to take risks. The more risks you take the more rewards you earn!
So goal setting exercises can teach you how to set the right goals that help you reach where you want to go in life and in your business. And goal setting exercises can also teach you what you need to do to reach those goals.
Setting Your Goal - The Process
Of course even before you are ready to set your goals, you should know what you are trying to achieve. This is the essential first step. The kind of goal you are setting for yourself will naturally depend on this. And not just that, you must also have a clear idea about how far in the future you want to achieve these goals.
Broadly, goals could be either "long term" or "short term". Of course you can have both a long term as well as a short term goals. A good approach could be to have a long term goal and a clear road map to achieve this. In other words, you can set various short term goals that will take you progressively towards your bigger long term goal.
When you are establishing your goal, always follow the "SMART" system. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely.
Specific - Have a specific plan and a definite goal which can be clearly understood. And once decided, vow to stick to it.
Measurable - The goal you have set should be measurable. For example, if you are in business, your goal should not be to just make it grow in 3 years time. Instead, set your goal something like this - to make it grow by 40% or more in 3 years, so that at the end of the 3 years you can see actual progress.
Attainable - Set a practical goal that can be reachable. As mentioned before, you will need to be practical about it. Never set a goal that is impossible to achieve nor a goal that you can achieve easily. Set a challenging goal so that you have to make the extra effort to reach it.
Realistic - Always measure your strengths and weaknesses before setting the goal.. Be realistic when you are setting the goals. Do those activities that utilize your strength and delegate those that are your weaknesses.
Timely - There should always be an end date. For instance, if you just want to grow the business without setting a time, you would keep working at it endlessly, and reach nowhere. So set a time within which you want to achieve the defined results.
Once you have come this far, you will need to prioritize the goals according to the significance or impact on the final outcome. This is particularly relevant if you have set several goals. You must decide which goals are more important to you, and this decision should be based on how important the final outcome is. The more important the outcome, the higher should be the priority.
There are two final things that you will need to, and they are learning from your mistakes and giving yourself a reward for achieving a goal.
We all make mistakes, and it is likely that you will too. So when you make a mistake, learn your lesson from it and move on. Apply the acquired knowledge and work toward not making the same mistake again. This is the only way you can get better. And lastly, you should never forget to give yourself a reward for attaining a goal. You have done all the hard work and so you deserve the reward. Besides, the reward will push you to greater heights and inspire you to keep performing.
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Article Source: ArticlesBase.com
