Goal Setting Lesson Two: General Goal Setting Techniques
posted in Goal Setting, Secret Formula, Practical Tips |Hey Folks,
Welcome to Goal Setting Lesson Two. I will be covering some basic, time-tested goal setting techniques here so you can write down your first goal clearly.
SMART
It is general accepted that goals need to be SMART. So what does SMART mean? It’s actually an acronym for:
Specific
A goal has to be specific so you know the direction you are heading towards.
“I want to grow my business” is a loosely defined goal. Which part of your business do you want grow? The revenue? The profit? The size of the company? It has to be specific.
A specific goal should sound like “I want grow the revenue of my business“. Now you know clearly which part of your business to focus on growing. No more ambiguity, right?
Measurable
A goal has to be measurable so you know the distance you need to cover to reach your goal.
“I want grow the revenue of my business” could not be measured. How much of the revenue do you want to grow? 5%? 10%? 100%? One thing for sure is that you will never know when you have grown sufficiently and you will never know exactly when you have reached your goal.
A measurable goal should sound like “I want grow the revenue of my business by 20%“. Now you know which part of your business to focus on growing and how much you want it to grow .
Attainable
A goal has to be attainable with your current resources at hand, level of competency or state of being to handle that given goal. In another words, do you have the physical means and resources to achieve the goal you set.
“I want our new advertisement to attract 10,000 customers a day” might be attainable by a business with a big budget to advertise on TV, Radio, does branding and the like. But will the same goal be attainable for a neighborhood convenience stall that only have a budget to distribute pamphlets only?
Knowing all your physical means and resources you have at hand will help you set attainable goals.
Realistic
A goal has to be realistic. Where attainable relates to your physical means and resources. Realistic relates more to conditions and circumstances surrounding us.
“I want to grow the revenue of my business by 500%” might be realistic for a new business in it’s expansion/growing phase in a new market but for a matured business that has grown almost to it’s current market limit, it is unrealistic.
A more realistic goal for a matured business would sound like “I want grow the revenue of my business by 500% by expanding into a new market“. Make sense?
Time-Bound
Every goal needs to be bounded by a time frame so it can be measured and a baseline can be formed for future goals of similar capacity. Also a time-bound goals will lead to an urgency to take action and measure performance against.
“I want grow the revenue of my business by 500% by expanding into a new market” would not give you any urgency, you could take a year, two years or maybe forever. When it takes forever, it’s called day dreaming.
“I want grow the revenue of my business by 500% by expanding into a new market by [fill in your date]” would give you a dateline that you can start measuring your progress against. A dateline would ensure that you move towards your goal in a steady and consistent manner. Even when you missed the dateline, it would not be far off the mark as compared to not having one.
Summary
Look at the goal(s) that you have set, are they SMART enough? If not, isn’t it time to do something about it.
Cheers
James
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