Wow, January 1, 2022.
Something I admire about the month of January is the effort put forth towards identifying and planning new goals we would like to achieve in the coming year. Goals that can range from personal health, financial goals, professional goals, physical possessions that you would like to earn, travel plans (hopefully), family goals, and more.
Possibly you can relate. What goals have you planned for yourself in the coming year?
According to Dictionary.com, a goal can be defined as “the result or achievement toward which effort is directed.” With a focus on achieving goals in the transportation industry, I can think of several appropriate goals as we get after it in 2022. Goals, such as an entire year of no collisions, no tickets, or no negative results on a carrier profile. Goals of hiring X number of professional drivers to fill empty trucks, and operating in such a way that they stay for the entire year and beyond. Goals of increasing profits, while improving operational procedures… just to mention a couple.
While identifying these new goals is an important part of the process, we also need to comprehend what exactly is goal setting – basically, what is the point?
One of my virtual mentors Tony Robbins, writes “goal-setting can look different, depending on an individuals’ style, values, and definition of success. Your goals are unique to you and don’t need to look like anyone else’s.
Tony continues “the classic goal-setting definition boils down to the process of identifying something you want to accomplish and establishing measurable objectives and timeframes to help you achieve it.”
When we look at specific goals in the transportation industry, from the lens of health & safety, transportation compliance, or even budgets & profits, everything has to be measurable, and you require specific timeframes. Timeframes can be broken down into annually, quarterly, monthly, weekly, or even daily.
For example, if you are a carrier that is looking to lower their risk rating on their carrier profile, from say an R-factor of 2.5 to an R-factor of 1, this cannot be completed overnight so you must determine an appropriate timeframe to allow yourself and your staff the opportunity to improve. Then, you need to create measurable objectives to help you achieve such a goal.
When I work with carriers looking to improve their R-factor, I look at a couple of factors from the get-go that will help identify “low hanging fruit”, basically simple wins that can be knocked off right away, and then go you proceed from there.
When you are creating your 2022 goals, I encourage you to ask, “why are these goals important?”
As Tony states, “goal setting is the fundamental key to success. Whether it’s increasing your intelligence, learning a new skill, or rekindling a relationship, setting goals lets us create our future. It also helps us grow and expand, pushing ourselves to transform in ways that we never imagined.”
This upcoming year, I really challenge you to dig deep and create a clear vision of exactly what it is you want to achieve. My email is pvtlindustry@gmail.com and if there is anything I can do to help you identify which goals you would like to accomplish!
How to set goals for 2022 to be successful in the transportation industry
First, you need to brainstorm what it is that you would like to achieve, create, do, have, gift, and or/experience in the next year. For this to be a successful exercise, I encourage you to grab a pen and paper (yes, time to go old school for a moment), and start writing down anything and everything that comes to mind when you think about what a successful 2022 would look like for you.
This could include accomplishments like:
· 50% increase in profits
· Hiring 5 new employees
· Purchasing 1 new tractor-trailer combination
· Going X amount of time without any violation tickets
· Paying off the lingering company debt
· Giving your staff an increase in wages
Again, whatever comes to mind – write it down!
Second, you need to create deadlines for your goals, as this is a crucial step! Go back through all of your goals listed down, and write one year, one quarter, one month, one week next to all of them. If some goals may take more time than just one year, that is OKAY – make sure that you write out how long it will take, possibly two or three years, five years, or even ten!
If you are not sure how long a goal will take, you have a couple of options but whatever you do – do not cross it off as “impossible”. Instead, write besides that specific goal “will need more time to confirm” so that way you are not counting it out. Again, my email is pvtlindustry@gmail.com and if there is anything I can do to help you create clarity on your goals and timelines, please reach out!
Thirdly, you need to connect your goals to your purpose. Go over all the goals you wrote down and pick four or five goals that excite you the most. They would excite you the most because they connect you to your purpose! From here, you need to write a small statement next to each of the ones selected about why you will achieve them over the next 12 months. This will help create mental clarity, and really empower WHY these goals matter to you.
Finally, you need to ensure the goals you are going to pursue are smart goals. Smart, as in are they measurable and can they be achieved in the timeline you set out for yourself?
Achieving your goals in the transportation industry
Now comes the hard part, achieving your goals. While writing out goals and creating realistic timelines can be a daunting task, taking action to achieve your goals is the most crucial part of being successful in accomplishing them!
As Tony says “where focus goes, energy flows” – it’s critical that you focus on your goals first by visualizing yourself accomplishing them. You already know what the goal is, and you’ve already written down why the goal matters to you and how it aligns with your purpose. Now, you must visualize yourself accomplishing such goals. When you visualize your goals daily as if you’ve already achieved them, you align your purpose and daily actions to taking the appropriate action.
Say one of your goals is to go an extended period of time not receiving a violation ticket – by visualizing yourself driving in a safe manner before you even enter the cab of the truck, you are already in a mindset of success.
Accountability is essential for you to accomplish your goals. The thing is accountability is also uncomfortable! So, prepare yourself to be uncomfortable as you work hard towards achieving your goals by holding yourself accountable, or allowing others to hold you accountable.
If safety is a goal on your list, consider having a conversation at an upcoming safety meeting on this goal and how everyone is now going to hold each other accountable to accomplish such a goal!
As you start to work hard towards accomplishing your goals, it is crucial that you track progress and celebrate your successes! Tracking progress does two things. First, it allows you to see just how far you’ve come. Secondly, it acts as an encouragement or butt-kicking tool if you find yourself falling off track for a couple of days as the progress will stop.
Celebrating your success along the way is how we stay motivated on the uphill climb, and as the late Zig Ziglar says “people often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing, that’s why we recommend it daily!”
In closing, I really encourage you to take your goal setting seriously and ensure you take appropriate action each and every day to ensure you accomplish them! Again, my email is
pvtlindustry@gmail.com and if there is anything I can do to help you achieve your goals, please reach out!
Let’s create a pivotal impact!
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