A New Paradigm For Goal Setting And Success

By Lisa Cavender

It’s that time of year when we review the past year’s accomplishments and set new business goals for the year ahead. We might also make personal resolutions to start a new hobby, change our diet, take more time off and so on.

What’s on your list for the New Year?

If you’re anything like me and my clients, we can sometimes feel weighed down by everything on our todo list, all the pressure to do the things we think we “should” do. Are you with me on that?

You want to grow your business and have more time for hobbies, friends and family but a nagging list of “shoulds” is in the back of your mind, “shoulding all over you” to run your business and life in some prescribed way that the so-called business gurus tell you is the correct and only way to operate.

Now, as a coach, mentor and entrepreneur I am all for coaching, reading and learning new ways to be more productive and successful; however, when learning those things is done out of guilt and pressure and not out of a sense of curiosity and joy, then it’s destined to fail.

So let’s take a few minutes right now. No time like the present! Stop what you’re doing and take a few deep breaths. Grab a sheet of paper or your journal and then close your eyes and ask yourself, “If my business is to grow this year, then I should…..”

And then stream of consciousness, no editing as you go, write down super fast in bullet point form all the things you come up with.

When you’re done, give yourself a high five! You’ve just created a list that will be the breadcrumb trail back inside yourself to see what beliefs you have that may be holding you back from having the life and business success that you want.

Review the list of items. How do you feel when you think of doing them? Be honest with yourself. Does it feel exciting and inspiring or like a burden?

If that list feels like it’s heavy, ridden with guilt and that if you don’t do it you won’t amount to much, then let’s get in there and clear it! Let’s make 2023 your year to breakthrough!

The amazing news is that there is a new paradigm for goal setting that will feel much better, keep you on track and allow you to achieve your goals with more ease and balance. Your definition of success becomes much more multidimensional and not only based upon financial profit.

Instead of a “should” list”, the new paradigm approach is based upon your passions and purpose.

In order to grow your business, you have to grow yourself. Business

Growth = Personal Growth

In order to get different results, you have to be a different version of yourself. We get so caught up in the “doing” that we get disconnected from who we are “being” each day. If you find yourself “being” stressed, overwhelmed, impatient, anxious, doubtful, etc. then you can’t be at your best with your customers, team and family. Those states of feeling and being are nothing to feel bad about, they’re simply messengers that something is out of alignment and needs to change.

The other trap I see many entrepreneurs fall into is focusing solely on financial goals as a metric of success. They overlook or discount metrics such as impact, passion and purpose when making business plans. Many of us were taught to focus only on the bottom line and then figure out how to inject some fun and passion into the equation and then couldn’t understand why we ended up stressed, overwhelmed, disconnected and burned out.

Instead, the new paradigm focuses on articulating the company’s mission, purpose and each individual’s passions so that the right team members are in the right job that aligns with the tasks that light them up and that they are good at. This has been proven

to cultivate much better corporate culture, keep people in their positions longer, increase employee satisfaction, minimize sick days all of which allows the company to thrive.

So let’s try a new exercise. Take a few deep breaths, put one hand on your heart, one on your solar plexus and feel into that for a moment. What are your heart’s desires? How does your life and business look and feel when it is ideal for YOU?

Now complete this sentence and stream of consciousness write down all the ideas, insights and wishes: “When my life and business are ideal, I am….”

Here are a few examples to get you going:

• I am working less and earning more.

• I am having fun with my team.

• I am delivering a product or service that my customers love and are grateful to have.

• I am happily reviewing my corporate bank statement which shows multi seven figure balances.

Once you have this list, you can examine what has to happen in order for that to become a reality. You can also look at the ‘should’ list and see what items on that list are opposite to your ideal list so you can see where you might be tripping yourself up.

In order to take different actions towards your success, you have to have a different level of belief in your ability to succeed. This is crucial to really understand and work on when thinking about your goals because it’s virtually impossible to regularly take an action that is inconsistent with your beliefs about yourself or the world around you.

Being an entrepreneur requires a lot of dedication, effort, creativity and faith in yourself. When challenges come, and they will, then knowing why you’re doing what you’re doing, why it lights you up, what the impact is that you are attempting to make in the world makes all the difference to keep on persevering.

It’s also important to have a coach or mentor to help you develop a solid business model and plan and a definition of success that’s right for you. It’s important to write all of that down and review it regularly so that your subconscious has a road map to follow.

A multifaceted coach or mentor will then be crucial in helping you to unpack and dissolve any limiting beliefs that are getting in the way of your success. Most often I see entrepreneurs who know what strategies and tactics they could employ within their business, but they just aren’t doing them. They’re getting in their own way. Often they aren’t even sure why or what’s holding them back, just that they feel the resistance to moving forward. It’s like they are driving their business with the emergency brake on. This is where the inner work is so valuable in removing the obstacles to ease and success.

Being around like-minded and uplifting people in a mastermind or business association is another way to be inspired to new ways of being, thinking and achieving.

So in summary, the new paradigm for goal setting allows the financial success to more easily flow as a by product of you and your team knowing and living in alignment with the company’s mission, purpose, values and culture so that a valuable and unique product or service can be brought into the world that clients and customers will be grateful to have and happily pay for.

To get you started, I recommend working with the following steps:

1. Get in touch with your heart’s true desires

2. Identify your top passions

3. Articulate your values and what drives you

4. Identify your likes and dislikes as it pertains to the tasks/work in the business and delegate as much as possible from the dislike list.

5. Develop a mission statement for the company based upon the values, purpose and impact you wish to have through the business products and services you provide

6. Set goals for the year and then break them down quarterly.

7. Set personal growth and development goals for yourself that will support you in reaching your business goals.

8. Visualize your ideal business and personal life every morning before you start the day and let yourself feel what it’s like to be living that success now.

Wishing you a fabulous year ahead! To your success!