How Do I Set Goals and Reach Them

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How do I Set Goals and Reach Them?

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How Do I Set Goals and Reach Them?

Introduction

Ask anyone who has been really successful in either their personal or professional life for their secret, and they'll tell you about the importance of goals. When you have goals, you have a destination to reach. Whether it's a short term goal (to phone all your friends about a party on Friday or finish your "To Do" list for the day!), a longer term goal (to go back to school to finish a degree or save enough money for your dream vacation), or an even longer term goal (pay off your mortgage or your kids' education), goals are things to work toward. Although we believe the sky’s the limit as far as what goals anyone can reach, any goal will be difficult to achieve without a path for getting there. You will want to be able to realistically identify goals and define executable strategies for attaining them. Let's get started!

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Knowing What you Want Take the TIme The first step to setting goals and actually reaching them, is knowing yourself well enough to know what you want. That may sound like a funny statement to some of you who are very self-aware, but the reality is that most of us don't often stop and take time to assess what we want beyond the present moment. As we mentioned in the introduction, people set both short-term and long-term goals. Short-term goals refer to your immediate needs and desires. If you're not sure what those are, think about the things that are giving you stress right now; usually, setting a goal and knowing how you're going to reach it will reduce anxieties.

For example, perhaps you are concerned about saving enough money for holiday gifts or a home repair, and wondering where it's going to come from. A way to relieve your stress is to figure out how much money you'll need, and set a goal of making that much money by November. (We'll get to strategies in a minute.) Maybe you're worried about finishing something that has been on your "to-do" list for far too long, and you just can't seem to get motivated to finish it. A way to reduce your worry is to set a simple short-term goal: "By Saturday, I will write a list of the supplies I'll need to get it done." Long-term goals are just what the words imply: They can be more challenging to attain, and will usually take longer than accomplishing short-term goals. They're also more difficult to identify! It can be very difficult to answer the questions:

"Where do I want to be in five years?" or "How will I save enough money for my children's education?" Even though "five years" or "by 2012" seem pretty far off, you'll quickly see how time flies and you'll want those "destinations" to have a road-map for getting there.

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But How Do I Know What I Want? Defining goals (especially professional ones) involves understanding, realistically, what your interests, strengths, and weaknesses are. By understanding what skills and interests you already have, you can identify what is realistic to achieve and what special training or experiences you will need in addition. For example, you may know that you:

Are a good writer Enjoy interacting with people Have a positive, attractive self-image Are very organized

And as a result of these attributes, you may be interested in building a successful business or a solid, steady income. But, in order to get there, you need more than writing skills and a good personality. You will need to be organized, motivated and disciplined. Now we have the beginning of a realistic strategy for accomplishing a relevant goal. On the next few pages you will find some self-assessments for defining your strengths and personal qualities. Spend some time reading the materials and completing the exercises to get a better idea of just exactly what you want!

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SKILLS Employers and the business community rate communication skills, written and oral, as one of the most effective characteristics. They are also concerned that these are the skills that are most lacking in job candidates. It is well known that those who master these skills can set themselves apart when striving for their goals. Each year, the National Association of Colleges and Employers surveys its employer members about their hiring plans and other employment-related issues. According to the current annual survey conducted by NACE, Job Choices 2007, when employers were asked what qualities they want most from the prospective workers they consider as candidates for employment, the focus was on specific skills. Communication skills, honesty and integrity, and teamwork skills are at the top of the list, according to respondents.

Top Qualities/Skills Employers See

Communication skills (verbal & written) Honesty/integrity Teamwork skills (works well with others) Strong work ethic Analytical skills Flexibility/adaptability Interpersonal skills (relates well to others) Motivation/initiative Computer skills Detail oriented Organizational skills Leadership skills Self-confidence

What if you do not have many of these skills, or you feel your skills could be stronger? Source: Job Choices 2007, National Association of Colleges and Employers.

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What are my Skills? Let's do some self-evaluation. (These are worksheets for your eyes only - be honest about your answers, and learn where you can improve) Use both professional and personal experience in your answers. Go to the Resources page and print out the following: 'Skills Sheet' and 'Interest/Activities Sheet'. These are the worksheets you will be using for the self-evaluation.

What skills do you have? Check the skills you feel you currently have in ‘column 1’ and the skills you enjoy in ‘column 2’. Do you see any overlap between the two columns? If yes, think of some examples and consider incorporating these skills into your resume.

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Defining Your Strategy

Being Smart

We've already mentioned that in order to reach a goal, you have to have a plan. For example, a vague goal is to "be a successful Shoutback Community Page Editor." But to be successful, you need a strategy. A more specific goal is to "recruit twenty Community Page members this week." Again, you'll need a realistic, executable strategy for accomplishing this goal.

We recommend a five-step strategy for accomplishing your goals once you've set them. It's easy to remember, because it's based on the acronym SMART: S pecific

M easurable

A chievable

R elevant T imely

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Being SPECIFIC A specific goal has a much greater chance of being accomplished than a general, vague goal. To set a specific goal, you must answer the six "W" questions: WHO: Who is involved? WHAT: What do I want to accomplish? WHERE: Where do I need to accomplish it? WHEN: When should I be able to complete it? WHICH: What are the requirements and constraints? WHY: Why am I doing this?

Who? Which? What?

Why? Where? Why? What? Which? Who?

Where? When?

When you can answer all of these questions, you know that you have thought through the goal sufficiently to make a specific plan. When you are unable to answer all of these questions, your strategy won't be as complete, and is less likely to work, than when you have defined a specific goal.

For example: a very general goal would be - "I want to get more traffic to my site this month." A more specific goal would be - "I will recruit thirty members this week, and fifty next week."

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Making Your Goals MEASURABLE

When you set goals, it's important to simultaneously set criteria for success for knowing how well you're doing along the way, and when you've reached your goal.

It is important to ask yourself questions to determine if your goals are measurable. You would ask questions like:

How much?

How many?

How will I know when it is

accomplished? For example: a measurable goal would include a statement like: "I will send out twenty emails by the end of today."

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Making your goals ATTAINABLE

Achievable, Actionable, and Acceptable

Sometimes, when working with long-term goals, you have time to control the factors that will influence whether your goal is really achievable. For instance, if you know you have six months to save $1000 for your vacation, you have plenty of time to budget your income and set aside the appropriate amount each month. However, suppose you have a big home repair that needs to be started within two weeks, and you want to pay the contractor in cash. Such a goal may not be attainable since it's not actionable: There's not much you can do, short of a home-improvement loan.

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And what about "acceptable?" The last component to examining whether your goals are actually attainable is to look at whether they are actually acceptable goals. Is there anything risky about them? Do the benefits outweigh the costs? Could anyone be hurt if you accomplish your goal? These are important factors to consider when determining if a goal should even be attainable.

For example, if you are married with a young child and decide to quit your job and train for a marathon full-time, you are putting others (including yourself) in serious financial risk in order to attain a goal. Or, if your child's "dream college" is far beyond your financial means to pay for, and your planned career is not a high-earning one, taking on large amounts of debt to pay for school doesn't make sense. In that case, you'd want to examine more cost-effective alternatives. These are all possible hurtles you will have to overcome has you determine if a goal is realistically attainable or not.

Making Your Goals RELEVANT Even though it's important to take into account your responsibilities to others when you're setting goals, it's also important to understand what personal goals are really all about – reaching an objective that can ultimately benefit you. Sometimes, we all fall into the trap of setting a goal or working toward something because it's what we think is expected of us. For instance, there's the classic example of the son who decides to go to medical school because his father, grandfather and great-grandfather all practiced medicine (but who isn't passionate about it himself).

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There's the daughter of two high-achieving parents who feels she "has to" get on a fast management track when she lands her first job (but who isn't sure she's really a good manager of people). There's the pressure some people experience to have a beautiful house, expensive cars and send their kids to the country's best colleges.

Clearly, others' expectations shouldn't dictate the goals you set. Remember, your goals are your goals! They must be relevant to what you want, what your interests are, and what you're good at. Setting a goal because you think it's what others expect of you isn't likely to result in success or personal satisfaction. Goals must be relevant and meaningful to who you are, what you enjoy, and what you're good at. Being TIMELY With Shoutback, you set your own schedule. It's flexible. It should "fit" into your life. But, you also need to set time management goals, and work hard to achieve them. Example: "By the end of this hour, I will have completed my email blasts and finished uploading the needed Community Page content." You will want to give yourself a realistic time frame in which to complete the goal. Don't give yourself too much time or this will affect how well the goal will be achieved or if it will be achieved at all. And obviously, do not procrastinate. The quicker you achieve your goals, the better chance you have of surpassing them.

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My Goals with Shoutback

Goals for My Community Page

As you begin to market your page to the community and introduce the concept of the site to its residents, it will become easier and easier to share the site with others. Obviously, the more people you talk to, the more traffic you can create for your page. But, you can create even more traffic on your page if you take the time to contact groups, and not just individuals. By talking to community groups you will reach more people and more diverse congregations of people by doing so. Remember, we are using Viral Marketing techniques to promote the use of your Community Page. With this in mind, let's look at a list of groups you could contact and you can then estimate the number of households associated with those groups in your area:

High School Jr. High/Middle School Elementary School Parochial Schools Community Colleges Trade Schools Churches/Synagogues/Temples Shelters/food Banks Civic Organization/Community Clubs

Bringing one of these groups of people to your site could end up covering a large percentage of your community. If your goal were to reach 25% of the families with children in your community, this simple breakdown of the community could help you eventually target that particular segment. Another example could be that you have a goal to contact all of the principals of the schools in your community within the next two weeks and invite them to your page as contributors. The principals might not end up being the ones to actually submit material, but they might ask the school newspaper editor to keep the community informed on the school’s behalf. Either way, you will have a great source of content. In turn, when those principal/newspaper editors submit articles, they will share the site information with the students and their families. You could see traffic increase simply with each submission.

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As a long-term goal, you may want to contact all of the faith based and civic organizations in the community. This can end up being a larger project depending on the size of your community; so breaking this down into short-term goals may be the way to start. For example, you could call or send letters to all of the faith based organization one month, and then follow up with a visit in person the next month. This could help you attain contributors as well as supporters. Another example could be that you email all of the religious leaders in your area with a brief introduction or invitation with a link to your page one month, and then send information to the shelter and food banks the following month. It’s easiest to break your goals into daily, weekly or monthly goals to eventually reach your long-term objectives. Our goal at Shoutback is to help you build a successful page that gives you a sustainable return on your investment of time and effort.

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How do I Make Money? As the Shoutback Market Development Managers (MDM’s) begin to convince local advertisers the importance of using this form of advertising, it will become easier to recruit these businesses to your page. The more advertisers Shoutback recruits, the more money you can make, justifying all the work that you have put into the page. There are a few options for the advertisers to choose from to pay for the ad space on a Community Webpage. They will have an advertising fee agreement either as a three, six or twelve month contract. The longer the contract, the more discounts the business will receive. There will be twenty ad spaces available on each Community Page on the Shoutback website network. The advertisers’ participation not only benefits their businesses, but it will also help keep a local web page up and running, so it can continue to supply a valuable service to its community. But, again, these advertisers will not participate unless they can see the benefits of exposure. Keeping the page populated is your job. Ad space cannot be sold on a blank web page that doesn’t have any visitors. As we stated before, it is up to you to determine how you will get these visitors to the site. Remember, you set your schedule, and you decide how much time you want to commit to the program. The more time you use effectively, the more users you will be able to recruit to the page, which will give Shoutback a better chance of convincing advertisers of the importance of using your page as a marketing tool. It’s that simple. You can find ‘My Goals as Editor’ in Resources that can give you general goal setting parameters. Or you could simply use it as a template to create your own goal sheet.

Documents

How Do I Set Goals and Reach Them