Why You’re Not Reaching Your Goals & What To Do About That

There is nothing more frustrating than going from excitedly setting goals to watching those goals disappear into thin air as you fail to achieve them. It’s disheartening and can make you feel like a failure as a business owner.

If you’ve felt this way, you’re probably making at least one of these very common goal-setting mistakes.
 

Your goals aren’t actionable

 
I talk to a lot of wedding professionals and when I ask what it is they need help with it’s always something like “I want to book more weddings” or “I want to make more money this year”. This sounds simple enough but the problem is that these aren’t clear, specific goals.

Do you know how many more weddings you want to book? Do you know exactly how much money you want to make this year? If you aren’t specific about your goal, you’ll never know when you reach it.

This is what happens every year with New Year’s resolutions. “I want to lose weight” isn’t something you can act on because it isn’t specific enough. How much weight? Over how many weeks/months? If you know you want to lose 20 pounds in the next 3 months, that’s 1.6 pounds per week. Now that you have the numbers you can plan out what you need to do to get to your goal. This is exactly what you need to do with your business goals.
 

I want you to get crystal clear on your business goals. I challenge you to put a timeline and quantity to your goals.

 
It’s scary to go from not really setting goals to saying “I want to make $60,000 this year” because it means that you’re holding yourself accountable and that you have to hustle. I get that and it’s scary for me too. Sometimes it means you have to reevaluate your pricing which isn’t the easiest thing in the world but it’s worth it.

You’re setting & forgetting your goals

 
The vast majority of people who set goals set them and forget them. They’re super optimistic in December and January and set lofty goals but then never look at those goals again. They get written in a notebook somewhere and are left to die. It’s not enough to set a goal, you have to check in to see how you’re doing and what needs to change. This is why I host an annual Goals Workshop inside The Wedding Business Collective and a Mid-Year Goals Workshop every June to check in on those goals.

Maybe you’re crushing your goals for this year or maybe you’ve really fallen off the wagon. Maybe you’re not even sure where you stand at the moment. This is exactly why I am such a big advocate for checking in with your goals through the Goals Workshops we do inside The Wedding Business Collective as well as weekly CEO Dates.

Not checking in on your business goals is like saying you want to lose weight but never stepping on the scale. Sure, it’s scary to see if you’ve actually made any progress, but how else are you going to know if you’re moving forward?
 

You’re holding yourself back

 
As a business owner, your mindset has a lot of control over your success. If you have a fear of failure or a fear of success, your mindset can prevent you from taking the steps you know you need to take to reach your goals.

You know how you sometimes avoid things that you know will make a big impact? That’s exactly the sort of thing I’m talking about. Be aware of your procrastination and avoidance because they can be clues to bigger mindset issues. If you find yourself in productive procrastination mode there are things you can do about it.
 

You’re not adapting

 
What’s working for you when it comes to generating leads and booking clients? Is it the same thing that worked last year? Sometimes your best lead sources shift and if you don’t adapt, you’ll find yourself spending a lot of time on something that doesn’t work for you anymore.

The market changes fast so you have to be able to adapt to those changes. What worked last year may not work this year. Hell, what worked last month may not work this month and if you don’t check in on your progress and what’s working, you won’t be able to adapt quickly and your business will suffer.
 

You’re not breaking your goals down into tasks

 
How exactly do you take action on something like “Book 40 weddings this year”? Where do you even start? You can’t take action on it because it’s a goal, not a task. If you’re going to take action, you need to break your goals down into tasks.

The largest chunk of time you should be breaking things down into is a 90-day plan. Don’t try to plan the entire year out in detail because it’s only going to change. This is a planning technique we go over in depth inside The Wedding Business Collective but in a nutshell, the goal is to break down what you’ll accomplish in the next 90 days.

From there, back up and set these milestones for 60 and 30 days from now. You’re not done yet though! From there you’ll back up even further and set weekly milestones. What do you need to do this week or next week to make progress toward your goal?

If you want to stop trying to figure this out on your own and get some guidance on your goals and your plans, join us inside The Wedding Business Collective and go through our Goals Workshop. Click here to start your free 10-day trial!