Research from the Harp Family Institute reports that entrepreneurs who set long term shared family and business goals with their significant other scored higher in every single area of satisfaction than those who didn’t set goals. Entrepreneurs who set those goals were upwards of 32% happier than those who didn’t. Surprisingly only one-third of entrepreneurs set shared long term business goals and about one-half set shared long term family goals with their spouse.

So why does goal setting make such a big difference to the entrepreneurial couple? To begin with, it helps to generate and maintain buy-in from your significant other about why you are on this journey together. Because if you want one thing out of life and your spouse wants something completely different, that can present some real challenge. However, if you have a shared vision for the future that has components that are important to both of you, it makes this crazy entrepreneurial journey a little easier.

So how do you begin? There are a number of ways to develop your goals; but the first step is to set a date on the calendar with your spouse. Set aside a minimum of 30 minutes to generate and discuss your own personal goals and then your joint goals. Establish timelines for which you hope to achieve your goals.

Once you have gone through the exercise of dreaming up all the things you hope to accomplish in your lives, you may find that some of those goals seem impossible to achieve. If that’s the case, whether it’s a today, 1 year or 5 year goal, I encourage you to follow the following 4-Step GOAL process to weed through the obstacles and figure out a way to accomplish your dreams together.

THE G-O-A-L