Setting and Achieving Goals: Find the Right Balance

If you are spending a lot of time planning how to achieve goals, beware of falling into the trap of postponing action. Much is spoken and written about setting and achieving goals, but the danger is that you could spend so much time reading and planning, that you are not taking the essential first step.

Most of us have heard the phrase: "Fail to plan and you plan to fail". That is true to a certain extent, but while some amount of planning is extremely important, too much of it can be detrimental to your goals.

In the dot-com era there was an operating term which summed up the idea of getting to the market speedily, and that was: Ready, Fire, Aim.

I will always advocate doing some planning, but I also like the idea of taking action early, before every "t" is crossed and every "i" dotted.

The reason for this is because spending too much time in preparation and planning can make us lose momentum, and the excitement and passion that we had when we first had the idea gets weakened.

Furthermore, trying to get things too perfect before we start can mean that any obstacles that we foresee can weaken our resolve and make us begin to wonder whether the idea was such a good one after all. We end up analysing ourselves right out of any kind of commitment. We get delayed, involved in the small details and so tied up in knots that we can't begin to move.

Taking action while you are still excited and motivated will give you impetus; it has an effect on other people who we may want to get involved. Any obstacles you meet will be dealt with under the full force of your enthusiasm and commitment, instead of the cold and stagnant atmosphere of the planning desk.

The point I am trying to make here is that we can easily talk ourselves out going for any goal we might have because the more you plan, the more you will find reasons for not doing it. By boldly taking action you weaken these reasons by the very fact that you are already doing it, and it is far easier to negotiate your way round them when you are already moving forward.

This does not mean that you should leap in blindly without any research or forward thinking, but to actually start the ball rolling while the fire and passion are still in effect.

My favourite quote by Goethe is very apposite here:

"Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now."

It is far better to begin something and tweak it as you go along, rather than wait until every single little detail is in place. In fact, the imperfection of your plan will have the effect of galvanising you into further action now that it is within the public domain. You will gather forward momentum and your energy and excitement will attract people, opportunities and resources that will move you forward to the next step.

Recently I was listening to one of the online courses in Success University and the trainer said something very similar about setting up a website, which serves as an example. He said that if you're going to set up a website, it's far better to have an ugly website published immediately, than a perfect, beautiful one published 2 months later. You can improve it in that two month period, but you may as well have your product or service online in that time and have the possibility of getting sales and interest.

By launching a project (be it a website, business or anything else) before it's ready you can also get valuable feedback from the market or from results, and use this to make your adjustments. Far better to do this with feedback from the people that matter, than from your own untried ideas.

Have you ever had the experience of thinking so much about something before doing it that you've talked yourself out of it? Did you foresee too many obstacles? I would be willing to bet that just about every successful achievement that anyone has ever made could have come to nothing if the achiever had thought too much about it at the start.

Often, if you just get started on something, it turns out to be easier and simpler than we may have originally thought. Optimism increases in the heat of action, and so does our ability to find creative solutions to problems.

There's no mystery about this. Taking the first step is a success in itself, and success always creates further success.

Whilst starting without planning would be foolish, too much planning is taking it to the other extreme. Find the right balance. Plan your goal, be aware of potential problems, and be realistic about what you can achieve, but then get out there and start doing it. After all, every long journey begins with one small step, and as you move along your perspective changes and your perfect plan may prove to be too rigid to work.

Setting and achieving goals is all about balance. You set them - then you go out and achieve them! Take action now - and be successful!