Goals should be smart!

byjelly

104 followers

11 years ago

I tend to pay a lot of attention to detail. A lot. Some would say too much. But I have very selective hearing, so they don't bother me. Not surprisingly, I have technically regressed a step, just for a minute, from studying my niche to re-evaluating my goals.

One of the first tasks given to newbies here is that list a set of financial and non-financial goals. Simply identify your comfort zone income, your happy place income, and estimate how much time you can contribute to your new business. The four non-financial goals are broken down into time frames of 10 days, 30 days / 1 month, 6 months and a year, with no other rules except that they cannot be financially related.

This was pretty easy, right?

We want ALL of the monies!

However, after doing a little research and thinking, I realized none of these things were actually goals at all. They were wishes, dreams, aspirations. I remembered a goal needs to be SMART. Specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timed. They need to be as specific as possible with a deadline. Otherwise it will forever and always remain a dream.

So I went back to first round of "goals" and made them SMART.

"I want to make a comfortable income of about $3k" turned into "Earn $3,000 a month, or $100 a day, by June 2016 (three years time)."

"I can dedicate 14-20 hours a week at least" turned into "Three hours work minimum a night, with 2-3 articles / blog posts a week."

"Pinpoint a niche within 10 days" turned into "Define niche with a mission statement and have 20 article ideas by July 2 (10 days since joining)."

I have quite a few more, and I'm creating something like a business plan in order to set these goals into action. I want as wide and clear a visual as possible. That's probably why I hate FPSs...