Carol Bentley

It’s nearly that time of year again - you know… New Year Resolutions! And many experts will be advising you to review your business plans as well.

So what are your goals for 2008 and beyond? Have you got specific targets in mind? Are you focused on achieving them?

Here are a few tips on making realistic goals and, more importantly, increasing your chances of achieving them… You can use these steps for both your personal and your business goals.

The most successful people; whether in business or personal achievement, frequently have one thing in common; they write down what they want to achieve using the SMART acronym.

1. What is your goal? Write down what you want to achieve. Follow the SMART structure:
   1. S - Specific e.g. ‘Increase sales by 28%’, rather than just ‘get more sales’ or ‘lose 2 stone’ rather than ‘lose weight’
   2. M - Measurable. This is linked strongly with specific. If you have a specific goal you’ll be able to measure how close you are to achieving it.
   3. A - Achievable or Awesome. Most people say this stands for achievable but I think the word awesome given by my good friend Steve Pipe of Added Value Solutions is a better. Why?
      Because your goal must be awesome for you; fill you with excitement and inspiration. You see if it isn’t an awesome goal for you to achieve the chances are you’re not passionate about it and you are less likely to take the action needed to make it happen.
   4. R - Realistic. If they are realistic they are achievable. By all means stretch yourself; you don’t want to be doing the ’same-old, same-old’ but make sure what you set is practical. For example increasing your sales by 100% or 200% may be achievable - but can you handle that increase in business logistically?
   5. T - Timed. Set a date when you intend to reach this goal. E.g. ‘reduce my working days to 4 days per week’ is not as powerful as ‘reduce my working days to 4 days per week by February 2009′.
2. Why do you want to achieve this? Is it a “it would be nice to…” or is a passionate “I absolutely must do this”? A weak reason for reaching your goal is not going to inspire you.
3. What will happen if you fail to realise your goal? What pain will you experience by not achieving it?
4. What do you stand to gain when you succeed? Will it light your inner fire? Give you less stress and worry? Make you feel happier? Give you a feeling of pride? Draw the admiration of your peers and superiors?
5. What are the steps you must take to achieve this goal? Write the key things you need to achieve this goal. Not the finite detail, enough to identify what action you need to take. For example if your goal is to increase your sales in 2008 by 28% you might decide you need to put your sales team through the latest sales training. At this stage you would not say it has to be training with ’such & such a company on this date’.

Repeat this sequence for all your personal and business goals.

Prioritise Your Goals

Some of your goals will be more important to you than others. Some may be dependent upon you achieving another goal before you can get started. For example if you have a goal that says ‘increase the profitable response to my direct mailing campaigns by 300% by June 2008′ your goal to learn good copywriting skills would have to be achieved first.

And others may, on reflection, not be as important or inspiring as you first thought.

Decide which are your most meaningful goals and write those on a separate planning sheet. Constantly monitor your progress towards your goal as you take the actions needed.

Does Writing Goals Down Work?

In my personal experience, Yes! If I decide I want to achieve something but I don’t write it down, following the SMART structure, it just doesn’t get done or it takes an inordinately long amount of time to achieve a less than satisfactory result.

When I write my goal down it does 4 things for me:

1. It focuses my mind on the outcome I want and when I want it by.
2. It programmes my subconscious to find solutions for me.
3. It clearly identifies the actions I need to take and when they need to be done by.
4. Things happen! Unexpected opportunities that help me achieve my goal suddenly appear. Now some people will argue that’s because I’m more focused and aware of what’s going on around me. So I see those opportunities more clearly. Maybe; I really don’t care- it works!

Sometimes Sharing Helps

For some people stating a goal in public or sharing it with a mentor or valued colleague gives added impetus to achieving the goal.

Let me give you an example. In 2003 I decided I would write and publish a book. It didn’t happen. Why? Because the goal, although stated, wasn’t written down and wasn’t specific.

In 2005 I committed to a group of business people that I would have the manuscript for my book on how to write sales letters completed for the next meeting, which was 1 month away. I did it!

So what was different this time?

I stated my specific goal (to write a book on how to write sales letters)

It was measurable (a completed manuscript ready for publishing)

It was awesome (I was very excited by the prospect of sharing my expertise in a book that would be available to the public)

It was realistic (I had the knowledge, expertise and material for the book content)

I said when it would be done (in 1 month)

And, for me crucially,

I stated the goal to people I respected. (My reputation was on the line. What would they think if I didn’t achieve what I’d stated?)

If you find sharing your SMART goals helps you to achieve them feel free to share with me. You can do so publicly (if you are very brave) by adding a comment to this post or privately using the blog contact form. But be warned - I just might ask if you achieved what you set out to do when your stated time scale is reached.

~ Carol Bentley

technorati tags: goal setting self achievement business tips

Date: Wednesday, December 19th, 2007 at 10:00 am | Category: Inspirational, Business Tips | RSS Feed: RSS 2.0 feed.
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