Goals 2023 and why they are important

I love cartoons! We had sooo many DVDs (around the turn of the millennium :-)) in the cupboard at home and I loved watching selected movies with my kids at the weekend. With popcorn and potato chips.

... and during my trip to the USA in the 1980s I went to Disneyland in Los Angeles - it was great! I knew Walt Disney very early on: as the father of Mickey Mouse and Goofy. He was the founder of the Walt Disney Company and fulfilled his lifelong dream with Disneyland.

But he failed several times. He went bankrupt. Tried many things. And started again.

But Walt Disney did NOT give up.

He lived his saying:

Why are goals so important?

Here are 5 reasons why:

• Goals motivate: Ambitious and achievable goals are a real incentive for you and for your team.
• Goals have a clearly defined end: Goals precisely describe the destination. And the goal is not achieved when you think it is. It is achieved when a tick is clearly visible to everyone at the end point.
• Goals as a decision maker: what is the next step? Goals help you to make clear decisions about how to set sail when the wind blows from a different direction.
• Goals as the basis for binding agreements: Goals are defined in contracts and in specifications, for example.
• Goals as a mouthpiece to the outside world: "What is your project all about?" - "We are working on giving product A a new design." This tells your customers where the journey is heading and, incidentally, you are doing marketing.

And now? What could that mean for you?

New year. New opportunities. A turn of the year is a reason to reflect, to sort things out, to refocus. In Germany, everything revolves around work - and the family takes a back seat. It's usually the women and mothers who organize the family, the household, the children, look after the parents and manage everyday life.

I recently read the following and I had to smile, because the effort involved in these activities is simply underestimated. A woman was allowed to listen to the following statement:

What if she were to respond with the following counter-question?

Especially if it were an executive or even the BIG BOSS of a company, then the rabbit is buried somewhere.

If the business results do NOT justify the gigantic workload: People work until they drop. 60 - 80 hour weeks are not uncommon.

That's why I'm making a plea today for an appropriate balance between work and leisure.

Otherwise, the mental and physical health of managers and, above all, managing directors will suffer. Relationships get out of balance. Families break up.

Stress takes over. This leads to stomach aches, tense necks, sleepless nights. Rotating thoughts. A miserable working atmosphere. Burnout.

Are managers allowed to show that they are at the end of their tether? At the end of their tether?

Such a turn of the year has the taste of something new. A fresh start. The old year is over. The new one begins. With new possibilities. New opportunities. New goals. Just a cautious hypothetical assumption:

How would it feel if there was more time? For the family? For yourself? For friends? For a (I don't even dare to write it ...) hobby? If things were easy at work?

If things here in Germany were handled similarly to Denmark, where the job is organized around the family and not the other way around?

What if you took the turn of the year as a reason to make a few resolutions for the new year?

Let's leave the budget figures out of it for a moment. No turnover or profit targets.

Today we're not talking about unrealistic New Year's resolutions. It's about small steps: a few more days of vacation - without phone calls. More free time and perhaps only working a maximum of 50-70 hours instead of an 80-hour week?

I am aware that it is not easy for many leaders, many managers, to jump out of the daily hamster wheel.

I would therefore like to suggest the following sentence to you:

"How could it work?"

Ask yourself the following questions: How could it work ...

• that I work fewer hours per week for my job?
• that I schedule more breaks?
• that I spend more time with my partner, my children?
• that I take care of my health despite my high level of motivation?
• that my project still achieves great results with less work?

This is how you slowly rewire your subconscious and tame your inner bastard.

Sometimes it works and you find the answers on your own. Sometimes you need external support to find suitable solutions.