Average Joe

It is very likely that anyone who is asked this question would say that they plan to be successful. But I wonder how many really do plan for success. Real success in business, or in life, takes planning. Spontaneity has its place in life, and even in business, but only proper planning will guarantee success.

Below are some tips that will help you plan for success:

Set Goals In Varying Terms

Start with longer term goals, then work your way to the short term goals. Write them down. Long term goals are those that, obviously, will take more time to reach. These could be educational goals, career goals, etc. Write these goals as headers, then identify the steps that will be necessary for accomplishing them. These steps become shorter term “benchmark” goals, and should be listed, chronologically, below your larger, long-term goal.

Identify Your Needed Resources Early

You will need resources to accomplish your goals. As you think of your goals, identify those resources so you can begin to gather and collect them. You may need a network of people. Start networking. You may need books or educational materials on the subject of your goal. Check the library, or check for the availability of continuing education classes at your local college. Whatever your goals are, you will need resources. You need to identify those resources early on so you can begin to collect them. The last thing you want is to get close to your goal, only to find that you are missing resources that you didn’t plan for.

Use Smart Goals

Last week I discussed SMART goals to some degree. It is very important that your goals be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely. Think of it like this: If you don’t write down your goal as specifically as possible, have a way to measure success or failure, make sure your goal is achievable and realistic, and if you don’t have a time frame in which to reach your goal, then do you really have a goal? Or, do you just have an idea? There is a difference. I can say to myself that I’d like to make more money. But, until I put that desire, or idea to paper and give it substance, it is just an idea, and nothing more.

You MUST Want To

I used smokeless tobacco for about 30 years before quitting last year. In fact, the 23rd of this month makes one year that I’ve been 100% tobacco free. I tried many, many times to quit, but always ended up going right back to the habit. I made plenty of excuses. It was too hard, or it helped me handle stressful days. Sound familiar? What I found out when I really did quit was that I had the ability to quit all along. What I didn’t have was the desire to quit. You can write goals and plan for a wonderful future, but if you don’t have the “Want To”, you won’t follow through. Having the “Want To” will make you do what it takes to reach the goal. It will give you the drive and ability to get over, through, or around any obstacle because you WANT TO  achieve the goal. Your plan is important because you want the goal. You follow the plan and make adjustments as necessary because you WANT the prize.

I honestly believe that the #1 cause of failure when it comes to our success and goals is the lack of “Want To”. I had to want to quit tobacco more than I wanted to use tobacco before I could accomplish the goal. No matter how specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely your goal is, if you don’t WANT TO, you won’t reach it. If you DO want to, then you will, and it’s as simple as that.

We’ve discussed how to prioritize our goals, identify our needed resources, setting SMART goals, and Wanting To. Next time we’ll discuss the possible obstacles that we may have to face, how to either avoid or solve those problems, and some examples of SMART Goals, how to measure, and waypoints. Be sure to stay tuned.

In the mean time, please leave a comment below and let me know what you think of this series.

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Every year, we make new years resolutions. We intend to keep them, but somehow, they tend to get pushed aside or re-prioritized into obscurity by sometime around say, mid-February. I don’t know about you, by my 2009 pretty much sucked wind. It was a very rough year for me career wise. In fact, I ended up joining the ranks of the unemployed in late October, and as of today I have submitted resumes or bid on over 200 “open positions” or contract jobs. I’ve had 6 interviews.

In this article, I’d like to share with you how I plan to create and keep my resolutions for 2010. It will involve setting clear goals, identifying waypoints along the way to those goals, and re-directing efforts whenever things get a little off course. It’s really pretty simple.

1. First, prioritize what’s really important. I know that things change over the course of time, but when setting your goals, one has to try to look ahead and determine what is absolutely most important, what is very important, and what would be nice, but not absolutely necessary. Setting goals without prioritizing them is a recipe for the February Failure.

2. Set SMART Goals.  Don’t just say you’re going to lose weight, or that you will be a better person in 2010. If you need to lose weight, how much weight do you need to lose? Is it 10 lbs? 20 lbs? More? Less? Make your goal/resolution as specific as possible so you have measurable results when you reach your goal. I have always subscribed to the SMART Goals template. It makes real sense to me. Goals should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. Know what you want to accomplish specifically. If you can measure it, you can manage it, so make sure your goals are measurable. Achievable simply means don’t bite off too much at one time. It is extremely unlikely that you will lose 25 lbs in one week, but it is achievable to lose 2 lbs in one week, and 25 lbs in 13 weeks. it is better to have 20 achievable goals than one unachievable one.  Being realistic in your goal setting simply means to keep the goal do-able. For example, if you do not have access to the resources you will need to meet your goal, it is not a realistic goal. Finally, set a time table for the goal. Hold yourself accountable to that schedule. Work toward beating the deadline, or at the very least, meeting it. 

3. Set waypoints along the way to your goal. I’ll use weight again because it simplifies the point. If your goal is to lose 20 lbs and exercise at least 3 times a week. Then you need to set yourself a realistic deadline, as stated above. Now, let’s say your goal is to lose 20 lbs in 20 weeks, and exercise 3 times a week for at least 45 minutes each time. Your waypoints should be scheduled far enough apart to show you real impact and allow you to measure successes and opportunities, and to give you the time to re-direct if necessary to get back on track. They should also be scheduled regularly, say weekly, so that your reviewing your successes and/or opportunities in “equal installments”. Having a weekly touch base with yourself is absolutely a great way to keep on track.

4. Have a plan. Having priorities and goals is great, setting a schedule to review your progress is necessary. But without a solid plan as to how you’ll achieve your goal, it’s just ink on paper, so to speak. Write it down (Or type it out). Make sure you try to think about the possible obstacles and how you will need to deal with them. What resources do you need? Where will you get them? A good plan will help you stay on course, and will help you adjust your pace, etc. as required.

Think about your Goal Planning for 2010 like this: “My goal for 2010 is to (insert smart goal here) by (insert deadline here). To do this, I will need (needed resources), and these are the steps I will need to take to reach my goal (begin listing steps to be taken). I will review my progress each week on (day of week), and re-direct as necessary so that I achieve my goal by (date) or before.

Of course you don’t have to write it out like that, but if it helps to keep you on track, why not?

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