When it comes to running a business, we all set business goals and aspirations, and have targets around where we want to be. But if you want to achieve those goals, aspirations and targets, you need to have regular check-ins with yourself to monitor your progress and to check if you’re being honest with yourself over your results.
In our previous blog post, we looked at the questions you need to ask, to check if you’re on track with your business goals. (If you haven’t read that blog post yet, you’ll find it here: LINK) Now it’s time to check if you’re being honest with yourself over where you are and what you’re doing to achieve your business goals and aspirations. Here are 7 key questions to ask, to help you get clear and honest with yourself.
#1: Are you doing what you love?
Do you wake up each day, looking forward to the day ahead? Does the idea of doing what you’re doing fill you with joy? It’s understandable that there may be certain elements of your business that you dislike, but if you don’t feel inspired and motivated to do what you do, you have a big problem.
You need to be honest about what it is you want to be doing and if you’re willing to put in the work to get it.
#2: Are you on the right path?
When you start out in business you don’t often know where you’ll end up. You have an idea and set up your business goals and aspirations around that initial idea, but with each decision you make, the direction changes. And before you know it, you may find yourself either being happy with where you ended up or wanting to be on a completely different path altogether.
And that’s ok – make a decision to change direction or path, if needed. But if you stay put just because it’s where you ended up, you need to be honest about your reasons for doing so.
#3: Are you doing all you can to move forward with your business goals and aspirations?
If you love what you do and are on the right path, it’s time to check that you’re putting in the effort to achieve your goals. Are you doing all you can to move forward, or are you holding yourself back where it feels comfortable? Getting visible, putting yourself out there, creating new products and services, outsourcing – they’re all things that can help us move forward, but we can shy away from them because they scare us.
Are you shying away from something or not moving forward as you don’t understand what you need to do? Really get honest with yourself here, as we can often fool ourselves over how much we’re actually working to achieve our goals.
#4: Are your words and thoughts matching your actions?
This is another area we can fool ourselves over. Are you walking your talk or just talking? Having big ambitions and goals is great, but if you’re not putting in the effort to move forward, you’re not matching your words and actions together. It’s the same with your thoughts.
If you want to achieve something, but you’re thinking it’s not possible and you can’t do it, you have to address that imbalance and work on your mindset.
#5: Are you on track for the lifestyle you want
For anyone who works for themselves, the goal is to achieve a certain lifestyle for yourself and your family. The financial goals and business ambitions you have, all serve to get you that lifestyle – your big picture goal and often, your big why. But often, you can get so lost in the work involved in your business, you lose sight of that big picture. It’s this loss of focus that can lead us to end up on a path we dislike or feeling hollow when we achieve our business goals.
So check-in with yourself and be honest about what kind of lifestyle you want and if you’re on the right track to achieve it.
#6: Are you connecting in with your aspirations?
It’s easy to get so wrapped up in your business goals, you forget about those bigger aspirations. Not sure of the difference? Well, your goals are those trackable things you aim for – see them as the what’s and the when’s. Aspirations, on the other hand, are those things you want to achieve that can’t be measured – the impact and the benefits you want to enjoy, as a result of your goals. You need both business goals and aspirations if you want to be truly happy.
So ask yourself, what are your aspirations? As explained in this article by Will Mancini, these are those things that are added to your bucket list, the experiences, places and things you want to achieve and have. Be honest with yourself and get clear on what you want out of life, out of running your business.
#7: Are you growing as you go?
As a business owner, you’ll inevitably grow and change, as your business evolves. But are you using that to help you move forward or are you letting it hold you back? Whether it’s key skills, general knowledge, mindset limitations or beliefs, the key to successful growth is to become aware of what needs to be learnt and changed and make course corrections as you go. However, far too many business owners either don’t learn from their mistakes and limitations or choose to work on them to the detriment of their business.
Be honest with yourself here, are you working to grow? Are you removing the mindset beliefs you have, learning what you need and dropping what you don’t? Or are you stopping forward progression to work on mindset issues, instead of working on them simultaneously? Are you growing as you go?
When it comes to running a business, you need to have regular check-ins with yourself, to monitor your progress and check if you’re on track. But it isn’t just the business goals you need to check in on – you need a combination of business goals and aspirations to be truly happy. By asking yourself these questions you’ll know you’re being honest with yourself over your progress, your goals and also ensuring you’re doing what’s best in terms of your long term aspirations, for you and your business.
Here at Virtual Hand we can be that ‘business check-in’ for you. Asking, challenging those decisions, results and progress on business goals and aspirations. Book a call to see how we can do that for you.
