Goals - The KEY to success for Drone Pilots (especially if you want a successful drone business)!

Hey there, it’s Matt Williams, I am The Drone Mentor and in this blog, we're going to be looking at one of the most important things for any drone pilot to do if you want to become successful... Especially if you want to start, build or grow a drone business!

On the first Monday Motivation episode of The Drone Mentor Podcast (you can listen to the episode HERE if you missed it :) ), I talked about taking action.

Taking a few small, positive steps forwards that got us some instant wins and some quick gratification.

If you did catch it, hopefully, you managed to set yourself some achievable mini-goals and smashed them. If so, good for you – give yourself a pat on the back and drop me a line with what you achieved so I can give you the recognition you deserve for taking that first step… If not, don’t worry – just work out WHY you didn’t manage to tick off those success boxes last week.

Was it because you didn’t set yourself any mini-goals? If not, that’s fine… Make it your goal this week to get started and start taking those first steps! Was it because the mini-tasks you set actually turned out to be a little bigger than you expected? If so – don’t worry… This is a journey for all of us… Discovering what we’re capable of is a huge part of that journey and, if this was your experience last week in terms of your success boxes, then do you know what the take-away from your week last week needs to be?

That you actually managed to set yourself some tasks and mini-goals and you TRIED to achieve them…

It’s the positive action of setting those tasks and trying to take positive actions forwards, to build your momentum that counts!

Don’t beat yourself up if you didn’t manage to tick off those boxes – LEARN from the trials and tribulations of last week and then this week, break those larger tasks down into smaller, bite-sized chunks… Then make it this week’s mission to get those smaller pieces of the puzzle completed and ticked off!

The thing we’re going to focus on together in this blog is setting your longer-term goals…

If you'd like to listen to the podcast episode of this blog, rather than reading it; you can catch it by clicking the image above!

Goals are a strange thing; they can be SO powerful but also, when some people teach others about setting goals, they totally miss the point…

Setting achievable and realistic goals is absolutely key when it comes to becoming successful… When we set goals that are correct for us, they enhance our drive and fuel our passion. They make us want to get up every morning with a zest for life and a desire to achieve. They make us want to tell the world about what we’re doing and WHY… They make us want to keep working all night on the laptop, long after everyone else has turned out the lights and gone to sleep.

Setting yourself achievable and realistic goals is the key to YOU becoming the best version of yourself and making sure that you keep taking positive action, every day, towards your aim.

Towards your success.

BUT; your goals need to be flexible… You need to realise that they’ll change over time, from season to season… Sure; they’ll generally keep you on a similar path and have a similar theme but we need to be open to the fact that as we Learn, build and grow as people, our perspectives and viewpoints WILL change.

And that’s ok!

Provided that the things were doing, the tasks we’re ticking off each week are moving us in the general direction of the long-term goals we’ve set for ourselves, then just keep jogging - keep striving every day to achieve SOMETHING that helps you build and continue that positive momentum.

People often ask me how I manage to get so much stuff done… How I stay so self-motivated and manage to squeeze so much into each day but there’s no secret… There are still 24 hours in my day too. I’ve got a young family, run a couple of businesses, and deal with the usual problems that life throws at us, those curve balls that none of us are expecting (and some that we know are just waiting around the corner).

The only way I’m able to achieve what I do, how I’ve managed to achieve everything I’ve done so far is that I’ve always got my long-term goals set in my mind and I’m laser-focused on doing the tasks I need to along the way, to keep me moving towards those goals… Doing the things I need to to build that momentum and help me achieve MY success.

Do I always manage to do this without faltering? No… I sometimes find myself feeling lost and confused… Recently, I found myself in a place where I felt like I was falling off the rails… I ended up in a pretty bad place mentally, & I felt like I was losing myself and my desire to achieve. 

I tried to work out WHY this was happening and what I could do about it but I felt like I was being swallowed up; like I was about to drown in quicksand and couldn’t escape until one day…

...BAM...

I managed, thankfully, to join up the dots and realise that what was dragging me down and taking me to a dark place was that I was reflecting back on the biggest negative thing that’s happened to me. I’d stopped looking forward and trying to maintain momentum towards my goals and found myself surrounded by the darkness of the ‘what-if’... What if I hadn’t flown THAT helicopter that night, what if the seat hadn’t failed, what if I hadn’t damaged my neck, what if I had managed to keep flying in the military?

Who cares about the what if’s?

Sure, if there’s something to be learned from the past that’ll help you in a positive way moving forward, then, by all means, take that lesson and hold it close but if that reflection doesn’t help you maintain your positivity and serve you in a positive way then mourn for it, cut it off and leave that lead-weight behind.

So, right now, you’re probably asking; what has this got to do with us as drone pilots? How can this help ME?

Well, it’s actually pretty simple and for me, this is where so many people I’ve met in the drone world have gone wrong or come at the industry with the wrong attitude.

What we’re doing here with our drones is way more than just flying a drone… If that’s what you want to do and that’s all you’re here for, then that’s awesome - I’m really glad for you. You’ve found a way to relax, enjoy some downtime and spend your money on a hobby that is so diverse in terms of the places it can take you, the people you can meet and the things you can see and learn about… But even for you; I’d say that setting some goals is the thing that’ll drive you to improve, to get better at flying; to learn more about the technical aspects of photography and videography.

Setting some simple goals will be the thing that takes you places and actually gets your heart fired up to get out there and capture this amazing planet that we’re blessed to be on. 

But if you’re here for more; if you’ve stuck around this far through today’s musings, then setting some goals for yourself isn’t just a nicety - it’s an absolute MUST!

So, getting down to the crux of it then; it’s time to take some action… If you do nothing else this week after having listened to this - I want you to make 5 minutes… That’s all this takes - just commit to setting aside 5 minutes of your time; that’s half the time it’s taken you to listen to this episode, grab a piece of paper and at the very top, write down what it is that you’d like to: Achieve in 6 months' time… Then what you’d like to achieve in 12 months' time. What are the GOALS you’d like to achieve by these dates? 

Then, I want you to set an item in your diary for those dates, with your goal as the headline…

Once you’ve done that… On the same piece of paper, in the space underneath your goals, I want you to draw three large boxes, one underneath the other on the right-hand side, going down the page.

Then, next to each of these, in the space to the left of each one, I want you to write down 3 tasks that you can achieve by the end of this week, that will help move you towards your goal and start building your momentum towards success.

Then, throughout the week, as you complete those goals - go back to your piece of paper and put a HUGE TICK mark through the box so you can celebrate your success in moving the needle forward on achieving your goal. 

These boxes are what we call your success boxes and EVERY week, you need to be assessing your goals, laying out your 3 success boxes and doing everything you can, to celebrate your successes by getting your success boxes ticked!

Now, we’ve actually created a worksheet for you with all this laid out on it that you can download, print out and complete… And do you know what I’d do? I’d grab the worksheet, fill it out tonight and then, as crazy as this sounds, I’d pop it somewhere you’re going to see it every day - stick it next to the bathroom mirror, so you can see it every morning whilst you’re brushing your teeth.

So you can be reminded of your goals, why you’re getting up each day and what successes you’re striving for today and then, the wins you’ve had this week as you tick off those success boxes one by one.

You can go grab your worksheet now by clicking the image below!

Once you’ve done that and completed your worksheets, every week - come let me be your cheerleader and share your goals and weekly successes with us inside The Drone Mentor community on Facebook, which you can find by clicking the link HERE! :)

With that, that’s all for this week - I hope you have a great 7 days and are able to make the most of the opportunity that each morning brings.

Until next time, fly safe & blue skies,

Matt Williams

The Drone Mentor