We have to remember too, we all have different goals.
I'm not so sure about that.
If you asked 100 expediters what their goals were, I think a strong majority of them would say things like "be happy" "keep busy" or some such thing. Far too many expediters are just wandering through the business, using their feelings to decide if they are doing well instead of using their brains.
For a goal to be a real goal you have to have a way to know you are achieving it. Allow me to use Dreamer's home Sunday words as an example.
He said "...99% of the time, I'm home on Sunday." That is not a goal. It is a description of a desire. It states the fact that he is home nearly every Sunday.
Goals talk about intended future results. To translate "home Sunday" into true goal language, include who, what, where, when and why:
Goal: I (who) will be home 99% of Sundays (what, where and when) because I want to be home on Sundays (why).
This is a statement you can now use to evaluate your success. If it is Sunday, you can look to see if you are at home or not. If you are, you are on target. Over time you can track the number of Sundays you are home. If you are home 99 Sundays out of 100, you are achieving your stated goal.
The goal to "stay busy" is a poorly worded goal. A better-worded goal might be something like:
"I (who) will complete 15 or more loads each month (what), staying east of the Mississippi (where) for the next six months (when) to generate the money I need to pay all expenses and put some money away (why)."
How will you know you are achieving this goal? You will keep track of the loads you do over six months and see if you do 15 or more each month. You will review your routes to see if you stayed east of the Mississippi. And you will look at your bills to see if they are paid, and your bank balance to see if it has grown in the stated time period.
Notice how goals set with language like this force you to think more deeply about your business and state more clearly what you really want.
Dreamer's goal to be home on Sundays can be easily achieved by never leaving home at all. But there is of course more to his expediting business than that.
The "stay busy" goal can be achieved by taking a whole bunch of short runs that pay just enough to meet expenses and increase the bank balance by just one penny over six months.
That's the thing about goals, setting one usually moves you in the direction of self-improvement. Someone serious about an activity goal would better quantify the financial component -- the "why" -- because a one penny gain over six months would probably not be satisfactory. Knowing one's precise financial goal will naturally lead one to think about the runs one takes. It may come to mind that 10 good runs are better than 15 not-so good runs, or 20 short runs are better than 10 long runs.
If 15 runs a month gets to be too much, the statement can be refined to something more flexible, enjoyable and realistic by saying "a monthly average of 15 or more runs over the next six months."
Stated goals are powerful because they increase your likelihood of success. They are challenging because they force you to focus on results and examine core issues. They are oppressive because they make it clear when you fail. They are fun because they give you a reason to get up in the morning and a sense that you are doing something meaningful.
Do you have goals? You do if you can evaluate your performance by answering the who, what, when, where and why questions built into your goal statement.
If you cannot explain the who, what, where, when and why of what you intend or are trying to do, you don't have a goal, you have only a desire or intention.
What's the difference between a goal and a desire or intention? A goal is specific and proactive. Setting a goal moves you beyond a desire or intention by injecting committment to achieve exactly what you set out to achieve.
Waking up in the morning with the desire to keep busy leaves it up to others to keep you busy, and it makes no difference how much the run pays. Waking up with the goal to haul 15 loads per month because you want to grow your bank account gets you looking for ways to do exactly that.
