128: Setting SMARTER Goals.

Have you ever taken a road trip without a map or clear directions? Maybe you want to take your wife to a fancy 5 Star Restaurant but you failed to set the reservations. This is what happens in our life if we desire something but we never set a written goal with specific action steps to get us from point A to Victory.

For years, I desire to write a book. The dream so realistic, I could taste it. However, I never put action steps in place to make it a reality. I would Flounder with the idea 4 months or years on end before writing the very first word. When the book was finally finished, I desired to write more and yet, it took 5 years to write another short book.

Why? Because I never set an action-oriented goal.

I recently received Michael Hyatt’s new book, Your Best Year Ever. This book is designed to help us create a five-step plan for achieving our most important goals. Seth Godin said about the book; “Generous goals work if you write them down, and powerful books work if you read them. Michael Hyatt has created a fun, fast way to find your dreams and then turn them into reality.”

Everybody has dreams, very few people put actions to those plans. When I finally made my action plan last year to write my newest book I did it. Why? Because I held myself accountable and I did not want to fail those plans.

I want to give you seven steps for creating an action plan this year to help you write more effectively and get the things done you want to see accomplished in 2018.

These seven steps come from Michael’s book and spell out the word SMARTER.

SPECIFIC

Goals need to be identified, and if we can put a face those goals they can be visualized. The purpose of smarter goals is to make sure that we create specific goals. If we’re not specific, and we don’t take the time to figure out how to be specific, will fail every time.

In 2017 I set the goal finish writing Purgatory Creek. I wanted to make sure the goal was very specific so I knew exactly what I was to accomplish. That is a very specific goal.

Michael Hyatt gives an example in his book; “If I was to say learn photography. Is that specific? No. In other words, what aspect of Photography do you want to learn? A better go would be, complete Lynda.com photography 101 courses. That’s specific.”

MEASURABLE

It’s one thing to have a goal now, the question you have to ask yourself, is it measurable? In other words, how do I know when I have accomplished the goal?

Take making money, for example, you want to make more money in 2018. The question you must wrestle with, how much more money? If you’re not specific with your goal setting, you won’t know when you have accomplished that goal. Maybe, your goal is, I want to make 10,000 more dollars this year. That is a realistic and measurable goal.

When you write your goal down, make sure you are objective so that you can measure yourself against the goal. Set an objective Target so you know when you reach certain markers or Milestones along the way.

actionable

Is easy with goal-setting to be passive. When we write our goals we tend to say something like, I want to be a better writer in 2018. That particular goal is not very actionable. You can’t measure it and you can’t take action to it.

But if you say I want to write 12 short stories, an outline my first book, that is very specific and very actionable. Why? Because writing 12 stories and an outline for your book will make you a better writer.

Michael Hyatt encourages the use of strong verbs when writing your goals. He says “be clear and directive about the action.” He also says this, “goals are fundamentally about what we’re going to do”, as a result, is essential to get “clear on the primary action when formulating your goals.”

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