Before you, as an entrepreneur, can hope to successfully start a new business, you need to set some goals and milestones to lead the way. It’s easy to talk in the abstract about all the possible applications for a new technology, but you don’t have a viable business plan until you have specific targets on what you will produce, when, and how.

Yet many people avoid these specifics out of fear of the unknown, or set some totally unreachable goals. I’m a believer in having a healthy disregard for the impossible, but it does help to have a structured path to get there. Only when you have conceptualized your idea into realistic goals can you move on to prepare an implementation plan.

Yet even the best entrepreneurs are not sure why they succeed or fail. As a result, they blame failures on the wrong things, and are surprised when they can’t reproduce successes. Heidi Grant Halvorson, Ph.D., in her classic book “Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals,” gives six great recommendations around goal setting in general, and I’ve adapted them to the startup environment as follows:

1. Formalize your goals. Setting a goal requires the conceptualization of an idea into structured thought, and formalizing that thought into one or more goals. For a startup, that formalization is a business plan. It’s hard to know when you have arrived, if you have never figured out and declared where you are going.

2. It’s about execution. Most of the time, startup founders know what needs to be done to reach a goal, but just don’t manage to actually do it. Focusing on execution is essential for success, whether it be for business or personal goals. Action trumps thinking, especially when the future in uncertain.

3. Seize the moment. Given how busy most entrepreneurs are, and how many goals they are pursuing at once, it’s not surprising that most routinely miss opportunities to act on a goal, because they simply fail to notice the opportunity. Startups who move swiftly get traction with customers and investors.

4. Know what to do. Once you’ve seized the moment, you’ve got to figure out exactly what you’re going to do with it. This is why experience in your business domain, and experience running a startup are so valuable to investors. Everyone can learn, but it takes time, and goals are jeopardized by time in this rapidly moving world.

5. Put your shields up. Goals require protection – distractions, temptations, and competing goals can steal your attention and your energy, and sap your motivation. Entrepreneurs need to focus on creating value for their customers and investors, and be sure to spend time on critical business issues, rather than the current crisis.

6. Know how you are doing. Achieving a goal also requires careful monitoring. If you don’t know how well you are doing, you can’t adjust your behavior or your strategies accordingly. Check your progress frequently against milestones and financial projections of the business plan.

When you create goals in business, no matter how unrealistic they might seem, you are deciding that they are possible and that you are going to find a path to meeting them. To make this happen, you need all the motivation you can muster, and all the guidance from experts, to achieve success in these goals, and achieve your long-term dreams.

It probably means stretching beyond your comfort zone, by developing creativity if you are mainly practical, and mastering the art of execution and organization if you are mainly creative. Also, you need to really believe that you can achieve your goal, even if it’s taking longer than you planned. Don’t concentrate so hard on reaching your goal that you lose sight of why you set it in the first place. Enjoy the ride.

Marty Zwilling