Donald Deibler Writes Down Goals for Bakery and Burrito Businesses

Donald Deibler, a business owner based in Hegins, Pennsylvania, is formalizing a long-standing personal rule: no goal counts unless it is written down first. Deibler, who serves as business manager of All Stars Ice Cream and Cafe Bakery and supports his wife's ownership of Dead Horse Beer and Burritos, sets yearly goals every January 1 and smaller monthly goals at the start of each month. He keeps both lists in the back of his mind daily, ensuring they shape decisions rather than sit forgotten on a page. The discipline, he says, is in the follow-through. Running two food and beverage operations means his days rarely look the same twice, so a written goal provides a stable reference point when the schedule gets noisy.

Deibler breaks big yearly targets into specific monthly steps, avoiding the feeling of one overwhelming task. He measures success simply: by accomplishing your goals and exceeding past that. There is no external scorecard; he checks his own list against his own results. Continued growth, in his view, comes from setting new goals—one closes and another opens. The policy applies across both businesses, meaning two sets of goals sometimes overlap. He credits his family, including his parents and siblings, as his biggest influence. Growing up with five siblings in Donaldson, Pennsylvania, taught him to divide attention across multiple priorities. Outside work, he stays involved with local youth sports donations and volunteer coaching, commitments that also run on a calendar rather than good intentions alone.

Deibler is direct about what makes the policy work: hard work and a positive attitude. Neither shows up on a to-do list, but both determine whether the list gets finished. He gauges success by my own standards, whether that is a monthly bakery goal or a longer-term plan for the burrito business. The written-goal habit is not a marketing device but the same operating rhythm he has used across both businesses for years, made explicit for anyone who asks how he keeps two operations moving in the same direction without losing sight of either one.