If you're sitting down to strategize annual or quarterly sales goals, you're not alone. This is the time of year for planning for what you want to achieve. While setting goals is important, many professionals struggle to do it correctly. That's because many people let widely held misconceptions stop them from getting started in the first place, according to international speaker and writer Simon T. Bailey.

He says that once you bust through these common fallacies and demystify the process, you'll take the pressure off yourself and start to see movement toward your goals. In this issue of Promotional Consultant Today, we share Bailey's three goal-setting myths to bust.

Myth 1: The goal is the destination. With phrases such as, "What's your end goal" floating around Bailey says it's no wonder people get hung up on this one. However, goals are not the destination. Oftentimes, when people don't hit their target, they get frustrated because things didn't go the way they thought it should go, and they give up. They think they just don't have what it takes, when all they needed to do was recalibrate.

Bailey reminds professionals that goals are not set in stone—they are meant to provide direction. Sometimes you don't achieve your goal, and that's okay. What matters is that you're making progress.

Myth 2: Goals are fixed once they're written down. According to Bailey, this one is especially paralyzing. Research shows that people are infinitely more likely to achieve their goal if they write it down. The great news? No one ever said you couldn't revise it. You should consider any goal-setting document as a working draft. Just get started, urges Bailey.

If you're really struggling to set goals, simply zoom out and start with: What difference can I make today in my business or in my life? The most valuable resources that anyone has are time, energy and brilliance. You want to use your time, energy and brilliance to get the best outcome or result. What does that look like in your specific context?

Myth 3: I need to wait until I can apply a particular framework perfectly. When you go to seminars or read books on goal setting, the person tells you to follow an exact formula. But when you follow the exact formula, it doesn't work out the way it was sold to you. This is because you're a different person, in a different place in the world, with your own set of variables, says Bailey. He encourages professionals to consider:

  • What can I do?
  • Where might I need to pivot?
  • How can I make this more congruent with what I'm trying to do?

If you're convinced that you really want something, set a goal to make it happen. If you let the goal-setting myths above get the best of you, you'll never accomplish what you set out to achieve. Stay focused and go after it.

Source: Simon T. Bailey is an international speaker, writer and personal transformation strategist. He is the author of Shift Your Brilliance: Harness the Power of You, and Be the SPARK: Five Platinum Service Principles for Creating Customers for Life.