Are Your Goals An Obsession?

by Rick White, President 180BIZ                                                            (Estimated Read Time 5 minutes)

I want to talk about goals. This came up last week in a conversation with a client. He was down in the dumps and I asked him, ”What's going on?” He has a small shop building but has had amazing growth. He wanted to take a week off with his wife and three kids. He told me that he had a goal for this month and wasn’t going to hit it.  He took the week off, which meant shutting the shop down. He had to ramp the sales down, the activity down in the shop the week before the vacation, and then ramp it back up after his return. He says, “I'm going to take a black eye on this. It's bugging me. I just really want to hit that number.”

You may be too focused on the achievement of your goals.

Do you have goals that you absolutely must hit? You want to hit them so bad. And I get that. But you may be too focused on the goals. Goals obsessed equals no family. There are a lot of people that on the outside look very successful because they've achieved a lot. But they have no one to share it with. You should have goals but don't make them an obsession. Don't make the achievement of the goal your focus to nothing else because when you do that, you lose the reason why you created the goals.

Don't be so obsessed with your goals that you forget why you're doing it.

I have been so goal-focused that I have lost relationships. I've been so goal-focused that I've ended up in situations where I achieved it and there was no one there to celebrate with. I worked so hard. I pushed so hard thinking and believing that was my job, my duty, my responsibility as a provider was to achieve those goals and provide for my family. But in the process of providing for my family, I lost my family and that was hard for me to get through. So it took me a long time to understand that yes, I want to have goals. Yes, I want to move towards things, but here's the issue. I don't want to become so obsessed with the goal that I forget why I'm going after the goal to begin with. That is the problem. Goal obsessed equals no family.

Where are you on the goals-obsessed spectrum?

But here's the other side of no goals equals no family. We must be able to provide, we must be able to take care of our families. I've seen situations where people didn't have any goals and they didn't have any expectations, and then they're wondering why things aren't working out the way they want them to work out. It's because need to have a goal. We really do. I truly believe that as human beings, we are hardwired for goals. We are hardwired for achievement. We're hardwired for growth and becoming more. Where are you on this spectrum?

Always remember why you're doing it.

I used to think that it was either goals or no goals and that's not it at all. I must find that fine line in the middle where I know what I'm doing. I'm focused on what I'm doing and I'm intentional about what I'm doing. But here's the thing I want you to hear.  I'm remembering why I do it. I'm going to speak from a man's perspective. One of the mistakes that I made was I thought that my primary goal was to create financial security for my family and to a degree it is, but I'm going to tell you something. Your family would rather have you around with less money than to have you never there in a nice house. Your family would rather have you around in a smaller house having you having fun and being happy than to be in a big house and have some money in the bank, but have you miserable. It’s like Christmas They have this thing, to remember the reason for the season, we sometimes get so commercialized that we forget the reason for the season. Well, I want you to think about the reason for your season.

Leave your troubles at work and enjoy your family.

What is the reason for your goals? Are you putting your connection with your family on the other side of that money? On the other side of that target? Or are you being elegant and intelligent about it and realizing that it's more important how I show up today? It's more important how I show up today at work so that when I'm at work, I'm at work. I'm not thinking about home. I'm not thinking about the kids. I'm not thinking about anything but providing. And then when I go home at night, I lock that door, I put my hand on the door and I say a little prayer and I say, “Thank you, God, for another day. Please watch over my troubles. I'll be here in the morning.” And I leave my troubles at work so that I can go home and be with my family.

We want goals. Goals create direction. Goals create destination. Goals create excitement. But it's our why that you must stay tapped into and connected with.  Why are you going after this goal? I work my butt off. One of the reasons why is I want my kids and my grandkids to see that you don't have to have a college degree to be successful. You can go out there and work and get really good at something and then you're going to do well. But you know something? That doesn't work if I'm never there with them. My daughter's coming down next week and we already have some movies that we're going to watch together. She just wants to do that. I’ll be taking the week off to be with my daughter. My granddaughter is coming down today. I'm going to take some time with my granddaughter. Why? Because that's what matters. 

Please share this video.  We have our Shop Owner’s Round Table, on the second Thursday of every month, 7 p.m. Eastern, and we would love you and your friends to drop by. Shop owners only. And then we have our upcoming Pocket Business Genius webinar on the second Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern time. 

God bless. stay safe, have some fun, and go make some money.  Take care.

Want to learn more about transforming your business? CLICK HERE to get advice you can use to improve your shop, the day it lands in your inbox.