Goal setting is a vital part of business planning. It helps to keep us on track and measure our progress. Meeting goals makes us feel good and keeps us motivated. So why not reward yourself when setting your goals?
That’s not to say that you have to buy yourself a new car for every goal you achieve. That could get rather expensive. But the reward should be appropriate considering how lofty the goal was and how much achieving it impacted your business.
Small Rewards for Small Goals
Every goal doesn’t have to be a huge accomplishment. Smaller goals keep us motivated until we can reach more significant milestones. This is especially important when getting started. It may take a while to build the momentum necessary to attain loftier goals, and we need to reward ourselves for the smaller things in order to remain focused on achieving the larger ones.
Smaller goals can be the steps necessary to achieve a larger goal. For example, your big goal may be to have a certain number of clients in 6 months. Breaking this up into gaining 1/6 of that number each month could give you a monthly goal to work for.
Deciding ahead of time what your reward will be can give you an extra incentive. For small goals, you could pick out a purse or a pair of shoes you’ve had your eye on. Putting a picture of the reward up on your office wall will serve to remind you what you can look forward to if you meet your goal.
Big Rewards for Big Goals
When you reach your larger goals, you will have even more to celebrate, so your reward should be a big deal. Think of a big-ticket 
item that you have wanted for a long time, or perhaps a trip for yourself and your spouse or family.
The larger reward will require some advance planning. It’s important to be sure you’ll be able to afford it once you’ve achieved the goal in question. If you reach the goal and are not able to get the reward you had your heart set on, that will lead to disappointment. And disappointment does nothing to motivate or boost morale.
Once you’ve determined that the reward is feasible, you could put up pictures to remind yourself of it just as you do with the smaller rewards. This gives you incentive to work harder to achieve your goals in both the short term and the long term.
Setting goals is important to a business, but rewarding ourselves for attaining them is equally important. By giving ourselves something to look forward to, we can motivate ourselves to reach for the stars. Once we get there, we will be ready to aim even higher so that we can continue to reward ourselves.
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Contact us today so that we can be your partner for the New Year.
Comments (0)
Denise
Yes, it is so important to reward yourself along the way. After all, success, like life, is not a destination. It is a journey to be enjoyed as much as possible.
Denise
Yes, it is so important to reward yourself along the way. After all, success, like life, is not a destination. It is a journey to be enjoyed as much as possible.
Fay
Thanks for the reminder to reward myself when I reach small goals! It’s really easy to NOT do that. But, I know that you are right, as humans we need to award our accomplishments along the way. It’s a way to help keep us encouraged on the road to the BIG goal.
Fay
Thanks for the reminder to reward myself when I reach small goals! It’s really easy to NOT do that. But, I know that you are right, as humans we need to award our accomplishments along the way. It’s a way to help keep us encouraged on the road to the BIG goal.
Wendi Kelly-Life's Little Inspirations
My goodness, you can’t believe how hard it is as a coach to get clients to embrace celebrations! It takes months to get that one to become a habit! But it is SOOOO important. It is a reminder for the brain that we want to keep on doing this GOOD STUFF! The Brain reacts to PLEASURE. That’s why we get ADDICTED to things. So By CELEBRATING in a positive way, along the way, we get ADDICTED to what we want our life to BE instead of what we don’t want. Mission Critical!
Wendi Kelly-Life's Little Inspirations
My goodness, you can’t believe how hard it is as a coach to get clients to embrace celebrations! It takes months to get that one to become a habit! But it is SOOOO important. It is a reminder for the brain that we want to keep on doing this GOOD STUFF! The Brain reacts to PLEASURE. That’s why we get ADDICTED to things. So By CELEBRATING in a positive way, along the way, we get ADDICTED to what we want our life to BE instead of what we don’t want. Mission Critical!
Aly Pain
I love your point that ‘every goal doesn’t have to be a huge accomplishment’. That is what stops people from setting goals in the first place! Going for smaller goals helps to build momentum and confidence to take on the bigger stuff. And rewards at all levels are great motivators when achieving the goal feels harder than I thought it might be.
Aly Pain
I love your point that ‘every goal doesn’t have to be a huge accomplishment’. That is what stops people from setting goals in the first place! Going for smaller goals helps to build momentum and confidence to take on the bigger stuff. And rewards at all levels are great motivators when achieving the goal feels harder than I thought it might be.
Elaine Wellman
I find that so often, when we achieve a goal we are immediately onto the next thing on our list and we don’t even pause to think about what we’ve just accomplished. We diminish our success this way. It’s a great area to focus on with clients and for myself. Thanks for the reminder.
Elaine Wellman
I find that so often, when we achieve a goal we are immediately onto the next thing on our list and we don’t even pause to think about what we’ve just accomplished. We diminish our success this way. It’s a great area to focus on with clients and for myself. Thanks for the reminder.
Jennifer Truesdale
Yes! Such an important reminder! The smaller goals are so critical to overall success, yet too often they’re diminished with so much focus given to the bigger goals yet to be achieved. Every journey truly is a series of small steps and it’s so important (and FUN) to celebrate each and every one 🙂
Jennifer Truesdale
Yes! Such an important reminder! The smaller goals are so critical to overall success, yet too often they’re diminished with so much focus given to the bigger goals yet to be achieved. Every journey truly is a series of small steps and it’s so important (and FUN) to celebrate each and every one 🙂
Jill Place
I love the Japanese idea of Kaizen . . . little steps to big wins. And I also like to remind my weight loss clients that a reward doesn’t have to be a Big Mac. But I definitely agree that you should reward yourself in some way. Celebrations are important in life. Thanks for the reminder!
Jill Place
I love the Japanese idea of Kaizen . . . little steps to big wins. And I also like to remind my weight loss clients that a reward doesn’t have to be a Big Mac. But I definitely agree that you should reward yourself in some way. Celebrations are important in life. Thanks for the reminder!
Sabrina
Great reminder. A goal is away to motivate ourselves to do and help us move forward to where we want to be in life. The trick is to determine what we what in life first. Great post.
Sabrina
Great reminder. A goal is away to motivate ourselves to do and help us move forward to where we want to be in life. The trick is to determine what we what in life first. Great post.