In the last blog, Goals, we discussed dreaming, creating SMARTER goals and developing a plan to achieve them. Now let’s look at one of my goals as an example:
Personal development is one of my primary focuses this year.
My Goal: Read 15 personal/professional development books by December 31, 2015.
Let’s check this goal against the SMARTER criteria.
Is it specific? Yes, it focuses on reading books.
Is it measurable? Yes, there is a firm number, either I read 15 books or I do not.
Is it attainable? Yes, I can read, and this is a little more than 1 book a month; Iam capable of doing this.
Is it realistic? Yes, I enjoy reading and learning, and this goal makes it intentional.
Is it time-bound? Yes, the date is the deadline.
Is it enthusiastic? Yes, consider that a college text book might be 700-800 pages, reading 3750 pages would be equivalent to reading about 5 college text books or 5 semesters of college on a specific topic.
Is it resourced? Yes, I am scheduling time every day to complete the necessary reading and I am maintaining a list of recommended books to choose from.
Great, this goal meets the SMARTER criteria. Now I need a plan to achieve this.
I start by making an assumption that there are about 250 pages in the average book, which means I plan to read 3,750 pages this year. With 12 months in the year, to meet this goal, I need to read 312.5 pages per month or approximately 10.5 pages per day.
I keep a record of the books I have read, and as of this writing, I am ahead of schedule currently working on book number 14. Although I have not been perfect in my reading of at least 10.5 pages per day. As is the case with everything, life sometimes gets in the way, but I have made up the lost days and incorporated audio books into my personal development lifestyle.
Now it’s your turn. Start with your dreams, wants and desires. Create your SMARTER Goals. And develop a plan with checkpoints to keep yourself on track. If you do this, you will be surprised with what you can accomplish.
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