Handling a loss

If you're coming to the end of your annual holiday campaign, and you haven't reached your goals, you'll have to deal with that, one way or another.

Failing at a goal is not fun. But it's also not a complete loss.

Instead, it's a win for your information gathering.

After all, you did set a goal. And then you worked for it, and then you paid attention to the results in comparison to your goal.

Those are things that a lot of people just don't do.

But the real point here is that you are gathering information.

The goal outcome was of course something that you wanted to achieve, for its own value.

But more importantly, the goal served as a test of your methods. Because even if you had reached that goal, you wouldn't just stop there; you’d go on to set more goals.

Win or lose, your ability to reach your goal is an indication of the strength of your methods.

The real win here is that achieving the goal — or failing to achieve it — gives you the chance to improve your methods so that you can make better results in your next effort:

• More realistic goals.

• More effective tactics and strategies.

• More focused effort by the right team members on the right tasks.

Here's the thing:

Failing to achieve a goal is not a failure, unless you let it pass without learning and improving.

All the best,
A.