Donald Deibler, a business owner based in Hegins, Pennsylvania, has formalized a personal rule that shapes how he runs two food and beverage operations: no goal counts unless it is written down first. The policy, which he applies to both yearly and monthly objectives, is not a marketing device but the same operating rhythm he has used for years, now made explicit for anyone who asks how he keeps multiple ventures moving in the same direction.
Every January 1, Deibler sets goals for the year. At the start of every month, he sets smaller ones. Both lists stay in front of him, not buried in a notebook he forgets by February. "I like to set yearly goals every January 1st and monthly goals at the beginning of every month," Deibler said. "I keep these in the back of my mind daily." The policy is simple on its face. The discipline is in the follow-through.
Running a bakery and cafe operation alongside supporting a second food and beverage business means Deibler's days rarely look the same twice. A written goal is something he can return to when the schedule gets noisy. "By taking everything one task at a time," is how Deibler describes handling moments of doubt. The same approach applies to goals. A big yearly target gets broken into monthly pieces so it never feels like one overwhelming task. He measures whether it worked in plain terms. "By accomplishing your goals and exceeding past that," is his definition of success. There's no external scorecard involved. He checks his own list against his own results.
The monthly goal isn't a smaller copy of the yearly one. It's a specific step toward it. On January 1, the year's goal gets written down in full. On the first of each month, a smaller, specific goal gets added underneath it. Daily, both stay visible enough to shape decisions, not just sit on a page. Deibler says the habit of setting new goals is also how he keeps growing once an old goal is met. "By setting new goals," is his answer when asked what continued growth looks like. Nothing about the policy assumes an endpoint. One goal closes and another opens.
The policy isn't limited to one business. Deibler manages All Stars Ice Cream and Cafe Bakery, and separately supports his wife's ownership of Dead Horse Beer and Burritos. Two operations means two sets of goals running at once, sometimes overlapping. He credits his family for shaping how he approaches this kind of structure. "My family, including my parents and siblings," is who he names as his biggest influence. Growing up with five siblings in Donaldson, Pennsylvania, meant learning early how to divide attention across more than one priority without losing track of any of them. Outside the businesses, the same habit shows up in how he treats commitments to the community. Deibler has stayed involved with local youth sports donations and volunteer coaching, work that also runs on a calendar rather than good intentions alone.
Deibler is direct about what makes the policy work rather than fail. "Hard work and a positive attitude," he said, are the qualities he considers most important. Neither shows up on a to-do list, but both determine whether the list gets finished. He also measures the whole approach by a standard that isn't borrowed from anyone else. "By my own standards," is how Deibler describes gauging his own success, whether that's a monthly goal for the bakery or a longer-term plan for the burrito business. For Deibler, the written-goal habit is the mechanism that keeps two food and beverage operations moving in the same direction without losing sight of either one. It is a simple rule with significant implications: accountability starts with a pen and a page, and success is defined not by external validation but by whether the list gets finished.
