SMART Goals, Small Wins, & Coconuts

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This is a follow up to my last post on how to FOCUS & WIN!

Today I want to talk about setting Goals and the road to success.

It seems every second post in the blogosphere nowadays talks about the importance of setting goals and managing your workload, pushing your limits and staying true to yourself. I took all this on board and started setting myself weekly goals, but come Sunday when I had not achieved them, I became disheartened and ironically achieved even less as a result. The problem was not in my motivation, nor was it in the way I applied myself to the task at hand. The problem was in the way I was setting goals and the type of goals I was setting for myself.

My good friend and business coach helped me address these issues and taught me about the power of SMART goals and the SMALL WINS STRATEGY, which I now use – and the results are incredible.

So what is a SMART Goal?

A SMART Goal is an acronym that serves as a guide or framework for all the goals that you set.

• SPECIFIC – Is this goal specific enough?

Does this goal have specific requirements? Eg: Build backlinks – NO, Build Squidoo Lenses- YES

• MEASURABLE – Is this goal something that once achieved, can be measured? (is it quantifiable)

Will this goal eventuate in quantifiable results? Eg: Build squidoo lenses – NO, Build 8 squidoo Lenses – YES

• ACTIONABLE – Is this goal something that you can action now or does it rely on other elements?

Setting a goal to build a plug-in for wordpress when you have never used it, don’t know PHP or CSS and are not really technically savvy is  1: downright moronic, and 2: Definitely NOT a SMART goal

• REALISTIC – Is this goal something that you can achieve? Is it Attainable?

Above example is perfect, is it realistic to build a plug-in when you are not technically savvy? NO!

• TIMELY – Is there a definitive date or time that the goal needs to be met by?

Does this goal have a ‘due date’? eg: Build 8 squidoo Lenses – NO, Build 8 squidoo Lenses by Friday lunchtime – YES! ALL your goals need to have a date or time of completion! How else can you remain accountable??!

Example of SMART Goals

Let’s give some examples (I feel like a teacher now – OK class, tell me if you think these are SMART Goals?)

Setting a Goal of “I want to replace my fulltime income by this time next year” is not a SMART Goal. Sure it’s a fantastic positive statement, but you know what, it’s not even a goal at all. It’s AN OBJECTIVE.

Let’s assume that it is a goal and look at why it is not SMART. It states a Timeframe (12 months from now) and it is Measurable (you can quite clearly see whether you have achieved this simply by looking at the income generated online – ok, so it’s quantifiable)  but as far as being Specific, Actionable or Realistic, does it really outline what steps you are going to take, does it give you specific actionable steps to take to meet this goal? Is it realistic to achieve this without any steps at all?

Another example I see is the following approach: “My Goal is to get 1000 visitors to my website” Again this is not a goal, it’s an objective! And where is the Specific, Measurable and Actionable step? Already you are behind the eightball and of have no course of action to follow. Breaking this up into SMART Goals makes the objective not only attainable but also makes it seem possible! (and I can’t even begin to explain what it will do for your confidence!)

See, you’ve just set yourself up for failure!

The problem here is that before you have even started you have set yourself up for failure! How can you meet this expectation with yourself if you have not given yourself any framework with which to be supported? How can you measure how you are going if the goal has nothing quantifiable to speak of? Or worse! What if you achieved your goal and someone asked how you did it. Would you be able to show them the processes you followed, the achievements your reached, and the goals that you met that all culminated in success?

In order to drive your business forward, build your confidence and keep achieving those goals you need to be SMART about it.

And this is how I do it:-

OBJECTIVE: To replace my fulltime income by this time next year!

Overseeing ALL goals that I set is the one objective. A common destination that each and every goal I set is helping drive me closer to.

SMART GOALS TO ACHIEVE THIS OBJECTIVE (week 1)

At the beginning of each week I create SMART Goals. These goals fit all the criteria and an example would be “create 5 squidoo lenses for my baby niche site by Tuesday” This goal is Specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and timely and when I achieve it I move into the next stage of this awesome system, SMALL WINS!

How good does it feel when you achieve your goals!?

Remember that feeling you have when you achieve what you originally set out to do. Isn’t it just the best feeling in the world! But I bet you my next affiliate sale that even this feeling does not seem to carry enough motivational weight to drive you toward achieving your next big goal? This is because there is far too much time between goals being achieved, and because the goals set were never really that SMART in the first place.

The SMART Goals scenario sets you up for success. Each time you meet a goal it’s a SMALL WIN. That’s pretty obvious I know, but something that so many people fail to incorporate into their plan. As you achieve goals, you get these small wins, and over time they add up. As your confidence grows so too does the win.

The BIG WIN now becomes an inevitability not a maybe.

Small wins culminate in BIG success

How do you set goals?

What are your biggest challenges you face online when building your business?

Why are there coconut sprinkles on my keyboard?

Alex Uses and Highly Recommends:

Tagged as: blog goals, goal setting, road to success, setting goals, small wins, smart goals