The coming of a new year tends to bring a renewed focus on one’s goals. Many business owners have trouble defining goals with enough precision to execute them effectively. Then they are subsequently paralyzed by conflicts between their need to create new work and launch it quickly while being strategic enough to consider what work is even worth creating and launching in the first place.

All too often this leads to doing whatever work is easiest for the dopamine hit rather than tackling the harder work with the potential to have the greatest positive impact on your business. If you’ve taken a look at your last year and know you failed to hit important goals, chances are you’re making one or more of three mistakes in your goal setting right out of the gate.