Forget Setting Goals. Make better small decisions

We’re at the end of Q1 – or the end of FY19 depending on how a company reports its fiscal year.

Given how 2020 has started out and is promising to provide a bumpy ride, companies need to be preparing for a #newnormal after the #bigreset once we get through this crisis.

Meanwhile the fiscal calendar will mean sales teams evaluating quotas and HR triggering performance management reviews.

Targets for Q2 and the rest of FY20 will have been laced with uncertainty, budgets rendered useless, and personal goals needing to consider the switch to working from home.

How many goals have been rendered irrelevant?

The question took me back to my goal-setting exercise at the beginning of the year.

I binned goals. I refused to set any resolutions.

I recognise there is a lot of worth in us setting goals, holding ambitions and aspiring to better ourselves.

Yet meeting a challenging goal is rarely the result of taking big steps. Rather, its the hard miles of many small steps, taken one after another.

We often set a motivating goal and fail to see the journey we need to embark on to get there.

Hence so many abandoned New Years resolutions!

So I told myself a different story.

Just make better small decisions. And trust I will get where I’m meant to be.

We make 1000’s of decisions daily, most of them unconsciously.

All I’m trying to do is make more of them consciously – question more of the small choices I make every day.

No going on a diet. Just a simple question: Can I eat something healthier?

No giving up the booze. Just a simple question: Do I really want to drink that beer?

No gym membership or fitness regime. Just a simple question: Can I be active today?

No promises not to shout at the kids. Just a simple question: Can I communicate with them more effectively in another way?

No sales targets for the business. Just a simple question: Can I add value to someone today?

This way, things will scale. The small better decisions will add up.

I can trust in the process that I’ll be healthier, drinking less, fitter, have a less confrontational (and maybe quieter!) relationship with the kids, and have a viable business.

Ah, one more thing…

I’m going easy on myself!

I’m not beating myself up if I trip up and don’t make that better choice, every time.

I haven’t FAILED!

I can look back and see all the small steps I’ve already made. And look forward to taking many more.

Much like footsteps in the sand. A missed step is not the wave washing them away.

I am still on my journey.