Spending 35+ years working a “real job” in corporate America, I had so many opportunities to write yearly goals that I lost count. How I would dread the annual conversation when your boss would tell you that it was time to write your goals for the next year. These were the goals to drive your success, maybe lead to qualifying for a bonus or a promotion. Oh, how I hated that time each year. And almost all of my cohorts felt the same way. Writing goals, what a waste of time. Do you get the feeling that I was just not a goal guy? Looking back I wonder if this was part of my generation? Or had I never been taught the value of goals? Or was I just lazy? Depending on who you ask you will probably get an affirmative to each of those questions.

Flash forward to the present. I have been out of the corporate world for a couple of years. The decision for that change will have to be another story all together. So, back to the present. I am now firmly entrenched as an “entrepreneur” although I am not sure about that title. How about, I am a business owner? That seems a better description to me. And I actually own multiple businesses. Some on my own, some with a business partner and one with my wife. Yes, it has been a crazy couple of years. But I digress, back to goals being your boss.

The one thing you hear so often when people talk about wanting to own their own business is that they are tired of having a boss. Heck yes, I agree with that fully. I hear and say that at every seminar, mastermind or workshop that I attend. But it is a big mind shift and it hit me hard just this week. I have spent more than 35 years with somebody telling me what I need to get done. No matter what level you are within a company, how high you climb on the corporate ladder, somebody still tells you what you need to get done. One way or another, at some level our job involves tasks. And those tasks are passed down from someone else.

I was in one of my businesses this week, going through my “to do” list for the day and getting stuff done. But, I was also spinning in circles about some bigger picture items for which I just had no idea on what I needed to do. My business partner was in the office at the time. We actually share an office like old time business partners. The only thing missing is an actual partner’s desk. Anyway, he sees my frustration and listens to my whining for a bit until the coach in him comes out. He simply asks, what are your goals for what needs to be done? I look at him and give him my usual answer to that question. “You know I am not a goal guy”. But this time he follows up with the nugget of this story. He says that now that I don’t have a boss telling me what to do, my goals are my boss. Dang, that one was good.

I had been laughing off goals for all of my years working in other people’s businesses.  Goals were just something that we were told that we needed to create. But I had never thought about or really been taught the actual value of goals.

Goals are your boss! Think about that for a bit. What do you really want to get done in your business in the next 90 days or the next 12 months or the next 5 years? Now the goal is personal, it is real and it is tangible. It is yours because it is your business. Total epiphany. I had never looked at or felt this way about setting some goals. Now it became obvious that the goal was needed to define my destination. After that, it was up to me to come up with the pathway to that destination…the plan. It is like looking at a paper map. The map does not really mean anything until you mark where you are and where you want to go. With that destination or goal set you can determine the path to take.

Now I look back on 35 years of wasting opportunities to develop truly meaningful goals or destinations each year. In business. Oh well, we live and learn. Some of us just learn later. But wait, there’s more. Now I am thinking about and developing goals for each of the pillars for the Balanced Business Dad. What are my goals for a thriving business that doesn’t control me? For a passionate marriage? To have kids who adore me? To be healthier both physically and mentally? To have deeper relationships with my friends? To be stronger in my faith? An entire new world has opened up from the simple nugget that is “your goals are your boss”.

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