It’s that time of year again. The ball has fallen. The decorations have been taken down. The confetti has been swept up. It’s time to face the reality of a new year with the clean slate upon which each of us will write the story of what we do in the next 365 days.
I like watching old movies and there is a scene in a movie where the captain of a ship instructs his navigator to “plot a course thataway“. Can you imagine the thoughts that must have gone through that poor navigator’s mind? “Thataway? Whichaway?”
The navigator in our minds needs to know where we want to go and what we must do to get there. He/She needs goals. So, in order to give your mental navigator the guidance needed, let’s take a few minutes to focus on goal setting and what helps us set goals that take us where we want to go. What are the characteristics of goals that truly take us to the destinations we want to reach? Goals should be …
- Written down and made public – a quick search of the internet will yield a multitude of websites designed to help us set goals. Some tell us to write them down on a piece of paper. Others instruct us to record them in a page on-line. Still others will suggest that we post them on one or more of our social media pages. Whichever method we choose, the important thing is that we have them written down someplace so that we can see them regularly. Making them public doesn’t necessarily mean that they must be posted to social media; but, it is important that others know about them and will hold us accountable for them.
- Believable – for a goal to truly motivate us, we have to believe that we can achieve it. W. Clement Stone wrote that, “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve”. To believe, we must be able to visualize ourselves reaching the goal and feeling the satisfaction that will come with the achievement.
I once knew an agency manager named Ray who measured his own success by the number of individuals that he recruited, trained, developed, and promoted into leadership positions in the company he worked for. One day, he asked a young man what his ultimate career goal was. “To become an agency manager and replace you” was the young man’s answer. While some would have thought that to be an arrogant and presumptuous answer from someone just entering into a career, Ray grinned and invited the young man to come into his office and sit in his chair. Then, Ray took the young man’s picture while he was sitting in that chair, handed it to him, and told him to put that picture on the bathroom mirror where he would see it every morning while he was shaving. “That will remind you, everyday, why you are getting up and working hard”, Ray told him. He made it possible for that young man to literally see himself reaching the goal that he had set for himself.
- Specific – Goals that are vague (“thataway”) aren’t really goals. They are vague suggestions that provide no ultimate end point. One person says, “This year, I’m going to lose weight”. Another person says, This year, I’m going to lose 25 pounds”. Who do you think will be more likely to attain the goal? Specific goals require that specific actions be taken. “To lose 25 pounds, I’m going to stop taking “seconds” at dinner; skip desserts; and, walk for 30 minutes every evening”.
- Measurable – For a goal to truly motivate us, we have to be able to see how we’re progressing toward it and to know when we’ve reached it. Let’s assume that the goal is to create an emergency fund that has 2 months of actual living expenses in it. Since we know that our basic living expenses are $2,000 each month, we know that we need $4,000 in the fund. Each month, we deposit $167 into the account and, when we get our bank statement, we can see the balance increasing by not only the deposits we make but by the addition of interest as well. Viewing the increasing balance each month allows us to measure our progress toward reaching the goal.
- Challenging – Our goals need to be big enough to make us stretch. Doing just enough to get by may keep our heads above water, but it won’t help us grow. The sales person who knows that by doing the same thing every year he can reach his/her quota won’t grow and advance. But, the sales person who challenges himself/herself to increase sales by an amount that requires a bit more effort is the person who rises to the top of the organization; both in terms of professional responsibilities and financially.
- Inspirational – As the great motivational speaker Jim Rohn once suggested, setting the goal of earning enough to pay our bills may be a goal, but it seldom inspires anyone. Goals that inspire us to “go the extra mile” lead us to greatness.
- Have deadlines – Ray, the agency manager referred to above, told everyone that “goals are simply dreams with deadlines”.
“Someday” is not a deadline. “Someday” is a dream … an illusion … a mirage that may appear to be leading us somewhere we want to go; but, is really leading us to nowhere. When the young man above told Ray that his goal was to be an agency manager and replace Ray, he was told to set a deadline … when was this going to happen?
The young man set a date … exactly five years from the date on which he was hired. Did he replace his mentor? No. But, exactly three years after the date on which he was hired, he was appointed as the agency manager for an agency that was struggling. He’d reached his goal of agency management; and, somewhere, I believe that there is a picture of him sitting in a chair just like Ray’s.
If the story of this new year in your life is to have a happy and satisfactory ending, the course you plot will be guided by the goals you have set. If you have not already done so, today would be a good day to begin writing down your goals. Some should be long-term goals (where you ultimately want to end up) and some should be short-term goals. There will be professional (career) goals and there will be personal goals. Some of the goals will be big goals and some will be small goals.
Short-term goals may be things that you want to accomplish within the next week; the next month; the next year. Short-term goals may be way stations on the road toward your long-term goals.
Professional goals empower us to grow within our chosen vocations. Personal goals enable us to become better spouses … better parents … better people.
Big goals could be long-term goals but are not required to be long-term. Small goals are little things that help us feel we are making progress. Don’t underestimate the importance of these small goals. There is something incredibly satisfying and motivating about being able to go down our list of goals making check marks as we say “got it … got it … got it”. The more often we are able to say “got it”, the more motivated and inspired we become to continue working toward the attainment of the goals still unchecked.
One year from today, each of us will look back at what we have accomplished. Will we like what we see; or, will we look back with regret for what might have been? Only you can determine what you will see.
Make 2012 your best year yet!