The Road to Success Step Two: Break Down Your Goals

So you want to have your own business…or you want to have a million dollars…or you want to have a girlfriend…

Okay, so why don’t you have those things?

I blame it all on a phenomenon I call Goal Blindness.  Goal Blindness is that experience of being so singularly focused on the end result that you forget to actually start working towards it.  Most people get frustrated, and then just give up.

How many of you know someone who is constantly talking about all of the things they’re “going to do?”  Now how many of those things that person actually accomplish?  I’d hazard a guess and say slim to none.  But why is that?  Clearly, someone like that has great ambition and creativity, especially if they continue to come up with new ideas.  So where is the disconnect coming in?

The disconnect is in a little thing called the CEO Paradox.  Clearly to become a CEO, you must have great drive and determination, but as is often the case, the person at the top doesn’t always have all the best ideas.  Bosses are less people with the right skills and knowledge to get a job done, and more people who know how to allocate resources and organize people.

So, what does this mean to you in your pursuit of your goals?  Does it mean that if you’re creative you can’t be successful?  Don’t be ridiculous.  It only means that you have to become the CEO of your own success.  So instead of allocating human resources, you’ll be allocating your personal resources (Time, money, creativity, etc) and instead of organizing people, you’ll be organizing your goals.

Just as a boss breaks down people down a project by creating different groups all working on individual tasks, you too should break down your goals into their component elements.

So, instead of looking at your goal as a whole, and risk falling into the trap of Goal Blindness, what you should do is be looking at it as something to be broken down.

Let’s look at a real world example from my life:

When I wanted to start a natural hair care line, I broke down my objectives in the following manner:

1. Speak with salons to find out what they want
2. Research the various production methods to achieve what the salons want.
3. Talk to the various suppliers and manufacturers to hone in on my production method.
4. Choose a manufacturer.
5. Develop samples.
6. Test Samples.
7. Refine samples.
8. Test samples.
9. Order in quantity.
10. Sell!

That is obviously a bit of an overly simplistic example and does not come close to revealing the intricacies of starting a business, but it shows the lengths I went to to ensure I achieved my goal…and yes, I did actually make lists like this quite regularly.

My challenge to you then, is to take a goal that you have and break it down into 5 to 10 steps.  No matter how simple or complex your idea, see how well you can compartmentalize the various tasks involved in your goal.

So don’t be that guy who just talks about what he’s going to do, break down your goals and be the CEO of your own success!

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