Setting Goals Creating Outcomes

Setting Goals or Creating Outcomes, the choice is yours but the results are a world apart

Ever hear people say that to get anywhere in life you need to have goals, the things that you need or want in your life or business.

Ever tried setting them? Wondered why they never materialise or are achieved not very often…well, that’s because many of the goal setting programmes people teach only tell half the story.

Ever hear people say that to get anywhere in life you need to have goals, the things that you need or want in your life or business.

Ever tried setting them? Wondered why they never materialise or are achieved not very often…well, that’s because many of the goal setting programmes people teach only tell half the story.

You see, goal setting is the thing or things you want or need in your life, but it does not give you the real key to your dreams, which is how you are going to achieve them.

You see by focusing on goals you will have something to move towards, but if all you are doing is focusing on it, then all roads lead there and you will inevitably end up striving for your goal in the wrong direction. 90% of the people are 90% wrong 90% of the time or we would all have exactly what we wanted.

I’ve always believed that getting the best out of life, or business is really about problem solving.

Problem solving is about creating a desired outcome or setting up the conditions or circumstances by which it can come about. This means that we ourselves may not be the actual solution, but as a result of a) focusing on it (knowing what we want) and then b) approaching the situation from a problems solving perspective, asking questions, researching, investigating etc. we can find what we need to achieve the thing itself.

So think of goals as the WHAT and outcomes as the HOW.

What this also achieves is a change in mind set. Away from just thinking about what you want, and sill do the same old things you do, and getting nowhere slowly to accepting what we want or need and moving beyond that to changing what we do to go about getting it.

Example;

Tom has no money so sets a goal to start saving, you see he has an income but keeps finding excuses to spend it.

Now with this goal alone he would probably be no better off because the same old programme would keep kicking in.

However if he was to accept what he wanted and needed and then start finding ways (solving problems) that could help him to save more money he is far more likely to achieve his desires.

This principal applies to business plans as well. I have seen many with plenty of WHAT but no real HOW. Yes we want to increase our sales by 100%, which is OK, but HOW? You need not only purpose but means.

So, don’t just create goal build the circumstances by which they will materialise