Whenever I ask someone what they’re hoping to get out of life, they always answer in the negative! They will say things like “I really don’t want a big house.” And so they never get one. This kind of goal is worse than not having a goal at all! It’s an anti-goal. An anti-goal is a vague generalization of a goal - but expressed negatively. It gets in the way of a real goal.

This same iffy direction pervades most of our business thinking as well. For some reason we’re too scared to commit to stuff – just in case we don’t get there. So we spend most of our time focusing on what we don't want.

A real goal is something that you want. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? But why do we all have so much difficulty on setting our goals? I think it has a lot to do with how we’re brought up. We’re taught that it’s not polite to want stuff. In fact, whenever we say “I want…” as kids we get hammered, don’t we?

And that’s the training we carry through to our adulthood. It’s bad training! Unless we can positively say “I want…” then we will never get there. And we need to be brutally honest with ourselves!

It helps to visualize the goal. If you want to drive a Porsche - then get the colour, model and year sorted out as well. For example: “I want a red 2004 Porsche Boxster soft top!” is a goal! “I want a Porsche.” is not a goal.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that we have to have only materialistic goals. But as long as we’re talking about business we will have to work out which way we’re headed. Most of the folk I meet are like flotsam, battered this way and that way by the tides and storms of life. And they accept it as if this is the way it’s supposed to be. It’s not. Each of us is a master of our own business universe – even though most of us don’t feel that way most of the time.

Imagine a soccer team: it’s clear focus is to score more goals than the opposition. What would happen if the focus was to “not score an own goal”? Chances are they would succeed in the focus, but how often would that team win? Yet that’s where most of us are focused! We’re playing the game facing the wrong way.

Forget your childhood training. It’s OK to want something. Right now each of us can choose to either set a real goal; stick with our anti-goals; or continue to focus on losing the game as long as we don’t score an own goal. Which would you rather do?

© Peter Carruthers, www.petesweekly.co.za

Back to www.bizland.co.za