Momentum Is Key

A few years back, I read a quote from Volvo’s chief technical officer stating that we are over-estimating the impact of self-driving cars in the short term, and under-estimating it in the long term. In other words, we wrongly assume we won't need steering wheels in 3-years time, but ignore the possibility that in 20-years time, there may significantly less vehicles on the road. 😲

Business planning is often the same. My experience is that people tend to set wild 12-month goals like, ‘By December 31, I want to increase revenue from $1M to $10M’. But when stretched to think out 5-years+ are often very conservative with their targets, ‘Maybe just a small increase from $10 to $11M’. 🎯

The truth, is that over-stretching in the short term is a motivation killer. A superior approach is to build momentum by setting a series of easily achievable goals on your way to bigger milestones. See ‘Atomic Habits’ by James Clear for more on this. 📘

When you’re thinking about planning during 2020, make sure you remember this principle. And, if you don’t already have a plan for your business, now’s a good time to get started. 🚀