The new year often brings resolutions, or at least a look back and plans to “do better.”

Founders, however, have a different life than the average bear, which makes setting and keeping goals more challenging than average.

It’s easy if not tempting for the noise and chaos of running a business to distract you from solid goals or to be so slavishly focused on certain goals that important perspective gets lost.

What to do?

It’s not a bad thing to look at where you are going and what your progress is regularly, and moments similar to the New Year should probably happen once a month. To drive a car accurately (without accident), you need to mind the wheel and make small changes all the time, even when going in the straight line.

Also, realizing that your goals in January of 2023 might not reflect where you will want to be in January of 2024 when you have a year’s more knowledge. That doesn’t mean giving up, or justifying change when you encounter difficulty.

This helps you avoid the trap of detrimental slavish devotion.

Asking yourself regularly: “Is this important or just urgent” is a good way to hold on to goals that can get lost in the noise.

Remember that goals are there to guide, not to define.