As we begin another New Year I’ve spent a lot of time lately speaking with individuals and groups about goal setting. I suppose it’s that time of year where we all evaluate where we are, where we’ve been, and where we are hopefully going. Yet it shouldn’t be something that we only do at this time of year. Evaluation of where we stand and where we want to go should be something we do on a monthly, weekly, and even daily business. Too often however we wander our way through life and just let what will happen, happen. Doing so, at best, won’t get us where we want to be, and, at worst, will lead us astray. Twice now in the last two weeks I’ve had shop owners say to me “how did we get like this…”. The easy answer was that they just let things happen as they may. There was no goal, no plan, no “roadmap”. As things came up everyone handled them the best they knew how at the time with little or no thought as to how they wanted the future to unfold.

There are a number of ways to goal set, evaluate, and plan. I won’t bore you with the details of those ways (at least not right now), but I will suggest that no matter what you choose, the most important thing is that you do it! Right now, think about where you want to be personally, professionally, and financially in 12 months, 5 years, and 10 years. Get a vision in your head – no matter how crazy or far out it may be. Once you have the vision, and this is critically important… write it down! Some do so far as to create “vision boards” where they put their goals in photos or other pictures. You don’t necessarily have to take it that far. Just write down your goal, or vision, and post it where you can see it every day! Let’s just start there. I’ll write more about goal setting with your teammates in the very near future!

Right now, take 10 minutes to think about, and write down, your vision!