goal setting

By Jennifer Allen

Your Best Year Ever: A 5-Step Plan for Achieving Your Most Important Goals by Michael Hyatt. is aspirational for any set of goals–career, personal, or both–but I couldn’t help but read the implications for leaders in accessible travel in every chapter. 

Clarity hit when Hyatt revealed that the big driver behind meeting your goals is to just start. 

We’ve heard that before. That’s what Kevin Wright said last month when I asked him what advice he’d give destinations who may be inspired and want to follow his lead as a repeated award winner for multiple accessibility initiatives, including leading the first ever Accessibility Verified State. That’s what a panel of accessibility champions advised at a past TravelAbility Summit, it’s a theme that comes up in almost every accessibility champion interview, and it’s a mantra that our CEO, Jake Steinman keeps coming back to.

The point isn’t that resources don’t matter. It’s that lack of perfect resources can’t become an excuse for permanent inaction.

Jennifer Allen

“Just Start”

People often wait for the perfect circumstances before pursuing meaningful goals. “It’s a lot easier to plan than take action,” Hyatt states. There will never be enough money, staff, data, time, executive buy-in, or infrastructure to make accessibility perfect. 

That sounds remarkably familiar to anyone working in destination accessibility.

Don’t wait for the accessible destination master plan to start. Start with the website. Start with one accessible itinerary. Start training front-line staff. Start talking to disabled travelers. Start fixing the barriers you already know about.

The point isn’t that resources don’t matter. It’s that lack of perfect resources can’t become an excuse for permanent inaction. Hyatt recommends doing the easiest task first. That sense of accomplishment will give you a quick boost to keep going. Like Jake always says, there are multiple starting lines–the point is to start.

Here are the steps Hyatt recommends to take your vision and make it a reality.

1. “Believe the Possibility” 

“Our thoughts determine our lives,” quotes Hyatt. Our limiting beliefs are keeping us from stepping up as accessibility champions.

Maybe you believe accessibility is too expensive to tackle without a dedicated budget. Maybe you assume leadership won’t prioritize it, your destination isn’t ready, or your organization lacks the expertise to make a meaningful difference. 

Identify those limiting beliefs, then replace them with liberating truths: You can start with the resources you have. You can build buy-in by demonstrating what’s possible. You can bring disabled travelers into the conversation rather than needing all the answers yourself. Your DMO can influence accessibility across the destination, even if it doesn’t control every business or infrastructure decision.

Then lead as though those new beliefs are true. Put accessibility on the agenda. Invite disabled travelers to advise your team. Build partnerships. Make the case for investment. Take the first step before you have every answer.

2. “Complete the Past”: Stop Repeating the Same Accessibility Mistakes

Hyatt asks readers to look honestly at the previous year before setting new goals.

For a DMO, that could mean asking:

• What accessibility initiatives actually happened?
• Which ones stalled, and why?
• Did we ask disabled travelers what they needed, or did we guess?
• Did our accessibility messaging match the actual experience?
• Where did we spend money without creating meaningful access?
• What did we learn from complaints or failed experiences?

The goal isn’t a self-congratulatory annual report. It’s institutional learning.

If you can’t describe the future, you can’t build toward it.

Jennifer Allen

3. “Design your Future:” What Would Inclusion Actually Look Like?

Accessibility goals can easily become vague: Improve accessibility. Become more inclusive. Do better.

What would be different if your destination genuinely worked better for travelers with disabilities?

Maybe it means 25 businesses completing accessibility training. Maybe it means creating verified accessible itineraries. Maybe it means accessible transportation information that travelers can actually use. Maybe it means hiring disabled creators to tell the destination’s story.

If you can’t describe the future, you can’t build toward it.

Instead of: “Increase accessibility awareness.”

Try a SMARTER goal – Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Risky, Time-keyed, Exciting, and Relevant. Something more like this:

“By June 2027, train 50 tourism businesses on accessibility and publish 10 verified accessible experiences.”

The second goal gives a team something to do, measure, celebrate, and improve.

4. “Find Your Why”: Accessibility Isn’t Just Another Project

Hyatt asks readers to understand why a goal matters.

Over and over accessibility champions have shared a defining moment or relationship that sparked their passion for inclusion. If it’s not personal, the motivation wanes. 

Accessible tourism means more people can experience the destination, more families can travel with confidence, businesses can serve a broader market, and disabled travelers can see themselves represented as ordinary travelers rather than as an afterthought. 

If this isn’t personal to you, it may be time to go deeper and build the connections that will make it personal. Then motivation becomes bigger than checking an accessibility box.

5. “Make it Happen” 

I opened with Hyatt’s final step. Every journey begins with the first step. Get started. Set triggers to keep you on track. Review your progress daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly to stay on track. Don’t set a goal and forget about it. 

Celebrate each milestone achieved. Recommit to goals you haven’t reached, yet. Revise goals to make them more achievable.

Remember it’s a process. You don’t need to have everything figured out to begin. You just need to begin.

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