Business and Personal Objectives and how they align to your ideal lifestyle.

While your business and personal life are two different things they are aligned. As a coach I find when business people align their business goals with their personal goals, they are much more likely to achieve both.

Successful businesses will often have owners that are incredibly passionate about their chosen path and getting passionate about their businesses. It is easy to prioritise the business over personal objectives and goals.

Ideally, every time you say “yes” to something in your business it should be because that something is moving you closer to your personal objective for the type of lifestyle you wish to create for yourself – whether it be freedom to work and travel simultaneously, a flexible schedule to attend all the kids events or the ability to take a step back from the business, relax and enjoy life while someone else runs it.

So how do you know if your objectives align?

Typically, as the owner of your business, you are so closely aligned to the business it can be hard to identify if you have alignment between your different objectives.

Simply put – does the requirement to meet the goal mean you will be sacrificing what you want to be doing? Does your day flow with a sense of ease and comfort that decisions and actions are happening for the right reasons or are you constantly feeling a sense of sacrifice when progressing through your day?

Sometimes there will be compromises like working very hard in the business for a period of time to build it up, when this occurs you will want to set definite time goals around how long this period will be.

If say you have an education business, does your desire to be teaching in a small group setting aligns with the creation of an online course that puts you behind a computer all day? Or are you satisfied when turning down a booking because it will mean still having time to catch the kid’s sports games?

No one else can really determine if your objectives align as every person’s path is unique, the only way to truly ascertain this is to ask yourself the hard and honest questions about what you really want and why.

What to do if your objectives don’t align?

If, after reviewing your objectives they find that they don’t align to where you want them to be, what can you do to reset and realign?

Ask yourself the hard questions:
1. What do I value?
2. What do I envision my lifestyle looking like?
Look closely at your current situation and identify how this currently does or doesn’t fit your personal objectives.
What steps do you need to take to move forward to a place of alignment? This may require an outside opinion from someone who is not as close to the business to help provide perspective on succinct actions to implement.
As you achieve your business goals and see the positive changes in your personal goals, recognise and celebrate your successes.

It’s not easy to make changes, but the end result will be worth it when personal and business goals are in balance, and you get the lifestyle you desire. If you, or anyone you know, needs advice or help with any of the topics we’ve covered this month, or if you have any questions or comments about this month’s content, please get in touch with me via telephone on 027 447 7577, or email at steve@stevehockley.co.nz.