One of the interesting things about goals is that we all tend to set them, but the vast majority of us don't really have any kind of plan for when we do reach our goals.
Yes, I realize that doesn't necessarily hold true for short term goals like "mow the lawn," or "do the grocery shopping", but it does tend to hold true for some of the larger undertakings we involve ourselves in.
I have a goal of saving $100,000!
That's a nifty goal, but what happens when you actually have that $100,000? Are you going to extend the goal? Or are you going to sit back and relax and celebrate the fact that you set a goal and you reached it?
So why am I even bringing this up?
Back when I had a freelance business consulting service I was always amazed by the number of people who wanted to start a business, and "quitting their corporate job and starting a business" was one of their major life goals.
What almost always revealed itself — in time — was that people's thought pattern was restricted to the first part which was quit their corporate job, and the second part which was start a successful business. The entire (and very important part) part of the process which is running a business on a daily basis for months and years and decades was generally not part of the goal setting.
And that tended to bring up this question of "you have this goal and when you get to the goal posts what happens then?" You’d better have a plan because life doesn't just stop, all of a sudden, just because you reached a milestone!
One of the important lessons I learned during those consulting years was that visionary business people tend to be great at inventing new ideas and setting up goals to reach them... but they often are lousy at maintaining their creations in the long run.
Hence one of the most important questions became "What are your plans once you REACH your goal?"
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