Small Steps for Big Goals

How often are we told to ‘dream big’, ‘reach for the sky’ and ‘make your dreams a reality’? These overused phrases may stir up motivation for some people, but even with the inspiration, it can be hard to know where to begin and how to tick off those big goals on our list. For many of us, our goals dissolve into failures. So how can we stop this cycle of dreaming big and failing big?

The Problem?

It is natural to be scared of big goals. Seeing them written down on a piece of paper is scary – because you’ll actually have to try and do something about it. We become unlikely to achieve the big goals, because we don’t want to start. We’re all lazy – it’s a common trait. Big goals require a lot of work and we shy away from that.

Most of all, we’re scared of failing. The bigger the goal, the bigger the failure and the more we will have to go back to our family and friends with our tail between our legs.

Despite our fear of failure and our laziness, we continue to write down big goals and we continue to ignore our most obvious path to success – small goals.

How do we fix it?

Most big goals will have obvious smaller steps you can take to start moving towards success. Think of your big exams at the end of high school; no one in their right mind would have walked into the exam room with absolutely no knowledge of what they were about to face. There were preliminary exams to prepare you, study days and classes, not to mention the 13 years of schooling prior to putting your pen to paper on that day, leading you towards the big goal of passing your final exams.

Each day you came to school, ready to learn, was a day that you moved closer towards that goal. It seems simple – that’s because it is.

Many of us tend to get in the bad habit of performing one big push at the end to try and get our goals over the line. Unfortunately, most of us fail when we do that. It’s actually a lot easier and more effective to do a lot of little things more often.

Smaller goals also work in favour of our fear of failure. The possibility of failing a small goal is much less daunting than failing a big one and there is always the option of trying again tomorrow. When we do succeed, which is more likely since these small goals are attainable, we celebrate our wins and gain the momentum we need to tackle the big goal.

Write down your big goal and then spend some time breaking it down; what can you do over the course of a year, a quarter, a month or a day to keep moving towards that goal.

A new mindset

At the end of the day, our big and small goals need to work together to get us where we want to go. Our big goals may not get off the ground if we don’t put the work in and get momentum but our small goals won’t get us to where we want to go if we don’t have a big goal so we can see where we’re going.

One of the major ways to achieve your business goals is to ensure you’re kept accountable. It can be informal – such as with a peer in your networking sphere – or more structured through a mentor. Start achieving your business goals, get in touch with Bx on 1300 068 229, or find out more about what we do here http://www.businessforlife.com.au/ProgramFindOutMore

Time to Ditch the Fear of Failure

January 01, 2019
blog, Change, Coaching, Failure, Mindset, Planning, Stress, Success
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Time to ditch the fear of failure

Everyone views failures differently – what might be a triumph for one could be a major disappointment for another. You may have experienced this in school while your classmates shielded their results from one another, knowing that everyone’s standards are slightly different. Failure has a lot of negative connotations but perhaps surprisingly, it can be taken positively too.

There are many, many sufferers of atychiphobia – the fear of failure – but we can safely bet that, if you’ve embarked on your business journey, you are not one of these people. Those who are scared of failure often don’t even try at all, in case failure rears its head.

Realistically, failure is rife in the business world. Running from it may mean that you miss out on a lot of opportunities for your business to grow. It’s also not healthy to run head first into every opportunity recklessly, without considering the implications. As with everything, approaching failure is an art and requires a great deal of balance.

You will fail…..get used to it.

It’s undeniable! Growing a business comes with its own unique set of risks, meaning that failure is definitely on the cards.

In 1955, two men created a type of putty which was intended to be wallpaper cleaner. They seriously misjudged the demand and ended up with a product that seemed to be a huge failure. By chance and a few convenient connections, the product ended up on the table at a nursery school where it was an instant hit. The children loved it and found it a much better material to use when they were moulding their imaginations into something physical. The product became a huge success, so much so that there isn’t anyone alive who doesn’t know the name Play-Doh and associate the brand with happy memories.

Failure doesn’t always directly lead to a major success as it did in the case of Play-Doh and you can’t always physically use your failures. You can, however, always use the things you learn from your failure.

What doesn’t kill you……

We’re sure you’ve heard every failure cliché under the sun. We all know that failure is supposed to make those successes even sweeter. We know that what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger and we know that failure is just another word for experience. The most frustrating thing about these clichés? They’re all true, to some extent. So, how do we start taking them seriously?

The best thing you can do for your business is to take failure as it comes and not get knocked down and permanently defeated. There’s no need to glorify failure – we all know that failing is disappointing and demoralising – but there is a need to treat it like the lesson that it is. Dusting yourself off from failure means that you’re giving yourself another chance to get it right, maybe not next time, or the time after that but at some point down the track. It takes time to look at failure as a positive, but your business will thank you for it.

There is no denying that failure is scary, but using the failure to grow your business is a true art. If you’re ready to master the art, we would love to hear from you. Call Bx on 1300 068 229, or find out more about what we do here http://www.businessforlife.com.au/ProgramFindOutMore

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