When a financial advisor creates a business plan and an investor creates a financial plan, they both run the risk of making the same mistake. In short, both groups struggle with focusing on "things" rather than outcomes.
Instead of reflecting on the great "things" that already have happened, the human inclination is to do the opposite. Rather than appreciate what we've got, we instead look ahead at what we don't yet have and make goals to get more.
The best leaders I've had the privilege to work with, who also are growing the fastest, don't fall into this thinking trap. They simply celebrate their progress and avoid setting a goal that will always move forward once the previous goal is reached.
Here's how to plan your business with better thinking — and be a lot happier as a result. Let's start with how we think and the mental errors leaders make along the growth track.
Comparisons Wear People Down
It's easy for a firm's leadership to assess where they are now and where they want to be. The problem firms run into is not in wanting to achieve; it's how easy it is to move the goal posts over and over so that they never reach a destination. It's exhausting.
When you don't stop to focus yourself on current achievements, it's easy to burn out. Every goal reached is simply another marker on your journey to never-ending thinking that you always need more, and that type of approach to business and to life doesn't allow room for appreciating and celebrating how far you've come.
If all you do is compare yourself to your future self (or to other firms who are ahead of you), you'll wear down everyone on your team, including yourself, and keep moving the goalpost. However, if you celebrate small progress, you'll begin to fuel more progress. It's not so different from the compounding interest, what you fuel, grows.
