Don’t Just Dream About Goals

This post was edited by Sam Von Tobel on 5/6/2020

Success is not always something that is easily definable. Sure, in grade school it might have been getting a B in your math class, and perhaps in college it meant not failing your advanced calculus class. And in learning a foreign language, success can probably be defined by fluency. Learning something new is a wonderful way to help you feel that wonderful, glowing feeling of success, but what happens when success in that new thing isn’t necessarily so cut and dry?

In order to keep pushing yourself, it’s much easier to stay motivated when you have something to work toward. For some, it might just be as simple as the weekend, and for others, it might be to exceed a personal sales record. When you have something to look forward to, things seem more manageable. If you don’t have a goal in mind, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the dread of existence – that’s not just me, right? – and quit.

Define Your Own Goals on Your Terms

Your goals are probably not the same as a massive company like Amazon. Their website is great, and billions of people do a little bit of online shopping or just browsing there every month. Don’t let the bigger acts in town hold you back from shining on a smaller stage. What you do is special and unique, and your goals should likely differ from the business down the street. For the very same reason that you are in business, people should be utilizing your website to get you closer to the goals of your business as a whole.

The most important thing about setting goals of any kind, whether building a website or business operations, is to keep your goals reasonable and to assign milestones that you can hit along the way to your ultimate end goal. With a website start with things like establishing dates for completing a sitemap. Other important milestones to establish are dates that you want to have all your content written by, and of course when you want to launch.

Take a look at your website. What do you want to accomplish by driving people there? Are you hoping to showcase something unique that your service provides? Some potential goals you could have include, but are not limited to: getting people to sign up for your email newsletter, sending a request for a consultation or meeting with you, downloading your new booklet, or signing up for one of your classes. There should be something for the user to do, and you should gain something in return.

Check Yourself

Stagnation is something that is both inevitable and exhausting. It’s okay to feel like there’s nowhere else to go, as long as you only let it get to you for a moment. Fear and stagnation are sometimes the greatest motivators; they’re perhaps even nipping at your heels right now. Don’t be consumed by those negative feelings; let them propel you forward, motivating you to achieve new things and exceed more expectations. If you don’t like your website, change it. There’s always something good mixed in there with the bad. Whether it doesn’t reflect your true personality enough or it’s not pushing users to do something, it’s okay to like the colors or feel of the site. Don’t be afraid of the negative, but do whatever you can to turn it into a positive. You should feel proud of your online presence, and you should feel that your website reflects your message.

There are incredible amounts people out there willing and interested in helping you tell your story and meet your goals. You simply have to reach out.