Perhaps it has just been procrastination, but I have always struggled to articulate and document my business goals. Individual and short term projects are no problem – it seems much easier to have clear and direct goals for these.
And then a business mentor suggested to me the idea of “milestones” rather than goals…a lightbulb moment! He said that goals imply you have “arrived” or “finished”, whereas milestones are markers that I identify as important. You reach a milestone on an ongoing journey, rather than “ticking off” a completed action.
The use of milestone vs goal is a little about semantics. But sometimes using different language can make all the difference to how something is perceived and accepted. Viewing my business as a journey with milestones, as opposed to, say, a race with goals, has lifted a load from my business shoulders!
Yours in Design
Michelle Grice
Lightbulb moments are always good! It might be about semantics, but I firmly believe in working with what works for you. If milestones is something you can relate to, that’s the term you use.
I tend to break my major goals into baby-steps and take one of these steps at a time.
To me, the word ‘goal’ sounds competitive whereas ‘milestone’ signifies an achievement.
I agree – the change of a word can make a huge difference to someone’s understanding or how they relate to something. I think that is why a peer sometimes explains something better than an expert – they use familiar terms.
Good luck with those miltestones Michelle
[...] example is calling goals or targets ‘milestones’ instead of goals. Michelle of Shel Design was struggling with the concept of setting goals – to her, the word [...]