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What kind of goals are there?
One way to categorize goals is by their subject matter. Just as a chart of accounts is useful for
categorizing similar accounts together, we can use the broad categories of business, family, and
personal goals to gather similar goals. These categories may overlap, and some goals may be
equally at home in two categories, but you should pick one category for the goal. Your family
and personal goals may be difficult to distinguish, but it should be pretty easy to separate
business goals from family and personal.
One of the primary goals of the ABM program is to help business owners divide business from
the rest of their lives. It is essential to separate your goals into at least business and personal
categories. If you decide to modify your business pursuits, or get out of the business altogether,
you still have family and personal goals. We can assume that most of them would not change and
would still be reachable if the business changed.
Business Goals-the goals of the business. These goals are usually the most measurable, and the
outcomes are most easily compared to other businesses. The language of business goals is
simpler. Examples:
To increase net business income by $xxx in the next business year.
To spend no more than $xxx on inputs.
To market my product in the top third of the market.
To enter my transactions as written instead of waiting for the bank statement.
Family goals-these goals have to do with your family. While the emphasis of this class is
obviously on managing the business, it is important to know your goals for the family.
Examples:
Develop and stick to a family budget.
Write a savings plan for the kids' college needs.
Plan for and take a 10-day vacation.
Write or update our estate plan.
Remodel the kitchen.
Personal Goals-these are the goals that have to do with the self. Goals in this category are
frequently called "personal improvement" goals, but shouldn't be considered merely a laundry list
of all the things you want to improve about yourself. They can and should include your "dreams"
of "some day." If you "have always wanted to" do something, chances are it is a dream ready to
be expressed as a goal. Examples:
Be able to find something efficiently on the Internet.
Spend one evening a week with my spouse and family.
Become more organized by handling papers only once.
Finish building the ship in the bottle.
Sort your goals by how far into the future they go
Another good way to categorize goals is to arrange them by the time limit for reaching them.
Many people suggest categories of short, intermediate, and long-term goals. Short term would
generally be anywhere from one week to one year away. Intermediate would be from one year to
five, and long term goals would be greater than five. These divisions are arbitrary, and a person's
definitions of short, intermediate, and long term will vary with others, and perhaps with a person's
