From Goals to Growth:
How to Shift from striving to thriving
I operate under a big assumption that growth is good. When you grow, you make a bigger impact on the world around you. Your growth, in turn, inspires others to grow and creates more opportunities to make things better for everyone.
I’m not referring to growth for growth’s sake. Traditional business goals focus on increasing revenue while lowering costs. When I worked for Expedia, they referred to setting BHAGS - Big, hairy, audacious goals. If we set the goal big enough, the results would come.
The BHAGs themselves were not the catalyst for achieving growth. It was only when we connected the goals to how each team member would benefit and contribute that we inspired change.
People need to know that they matter and that success is only meaningful when it includes everyone on the team.
Growth unleashes the potential in all of us.
In the same way, money does not buy happiness; big goals do not necessarily make things better.
A 10X goal without a vision, system, and the people to achieve it creates a striving mindset. Striving keeps us suspended in an unrealistic future, eventually leading to burnout.
It’s a matter of getting better before bigger. When we get better, we grow into our goals. What seemed like an impossible goal last year feels much more attainable this year.
This table summarizes the difference between striving and thriving.
Striving | Thriving |
Growth for growth’s sake | Growth for unleashing potential |
Feeling inadequate | Feeling inspired |
Future state fog | Present state clarity |
Bigger | Better |
A simple formula for growth is to set inspiring goals for the future:
Inspiring Growth Goal =
Clarity of your current state + One thing that will take you closer to your future state.
Consider these three steps:
1. Set a truly inspiring GROWTH goal.
Decide what you want - really. Don’t hold back! Creating a future that is so compelling that you get excited every time you think about it. Goals inspire us when we attach emotion to them. What would unleash your potential as well as lift up those around you?
2. Get clarity. The vision for your future needs to line up with your operating system.
Your travel business has many moving parts. If you were to look down on those parts, they would look like plates spinning. Those plates are your core processes such as: sales, marketing, servicing, product procurement, recruitment and finance.
You must step away from your business to clarify your core processes. It can be scary to step away and let a plate drop, but not stepping away keeps you spinning out of control.
First, you make it visible, and then you make it better.
3. Get focused on how today connects to your future state.
The mistake most of us make is making big swings for the future without connecting what we are doing now. We make excuses such as “just this once” or “I’ll get to this when things slow down.”
The other day I was coaching a client who was determined to stop taking leads, so she could focus more on coaching her team.
“I start out my day with the best intentions, and then I get a call from an old client.
The team seems so busy, and I just cannot say no.” Carol, Travel Business Owner
It is easy to fall back into old habits, especially when breaking new ground. Take time to consider your decisions carefully. Approach each day with two questions:
1. What must I do today to bring me closer to my growth goal?
2. What do I need to do next?
“It’s better to be at the bottom of the ladder we want to climb
than the top of the one we don’t.”
Stephen Kellog.
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If you are a business owner with a team looking for clarity, take the quiz!
I am excited to provide this exceptional resource for Travel Agency Owners with teams! This quiz will give you instant insight into where to get clarity. Isn't it time to stop striving and start thriving?
Take the Travel Business Success Scorecard. You will receive a comprehensive, personalized report to help you map out your growth goal.
If you are a Travel Advisor looking for a practical, hands-on roadmap to build your business, consider my online course: Flying Colours Academy - Online.
My books are available online: Flying Colours CAD, Flying Colours USD, 10X My Travel Business CAD, and 10X My Travel Business USD.
For more resources, check out: www.geraldineree.com
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