Designing an Achievable Goal

It's just like I told one of our designers on Friday as we walked out to our cars, "One week down, 51 weeks to go."

What are you going to do with the next 51 weeks? Are some of your New Year's Resolutions already a little out of focus? What were those again? Eat healthier. Exercise more. Make more money. Sound familiar?

Last year, one of my clients said, "If you want something different, you have to do something different."

This year do one thing different.

Look at your list of resolutions and goals for 2010. (I'm assuming you have written them down? If not, do that first.) A long list can be intimidating. Circle the one big goal that will be the biggest game changer for you in 2010. Which goal would most impact your ability to live a healthier life, or most significantly change the way you do business? Next to that goal, write down why it's important. Maybe you really can achieve that, but so what? What's going to change?

Maybe your big goal is a business or marketing goal? Launch that new service package. Redesign your website to drum up more leads. Reposition your company. Leverage social media. Or simply create a real marketing plan in 2010.

Anyone who's been through a goal-setting workshop is probably familiar with the concept that to be achieved, goals first need to be S.M.A.R.T.

S - Specific
M - Measurable
A - Actionable
R - Realistic
T - Time-bound

That's a great starting point, but my guess is 99% of your goals last year were "S.M.A.R.T." and you still failed to achieve most of them. Why is that?

This year, do one thing different. Choose that single, most impactful goal and tell everyone about it. You may even try creating fun, positive and negative consequences for your performance. "If I do X on time, I'll reward myself with a new laptop. And if I don't do X, I'll owe my whole office a steak dinner." What would your rewards or consequences be?

Or try another approach. Condense your goal down to one word, print it out and post it on your wall, your desk, or your bathroom mirror. Focus on your one thing.

This year, my one big goal is to write a book. I've been talking about it for years. This year I'm actually going to get it done. Here's why. First, having a book will be a great asset for our business. And second, I made a deal with a friend of mine who is also "writing a book." We agreed that we would hold each other accountable to have a complete first draft of our books finished by July 1, 2010. He recommended that if it wasn't a short-term goal (in this case, six months) we'd put if off until the end of the year. But since July is already near, we have no choice but to get going.

In addition to being able to push one another towards this goal, we've also created some really ridiculous consequences for not achieving our goals (I won't give too much away, but the bet involves getting a tattoo and teaching a class in drag). So far, I already have one chapter written. That's one chapter more than I wrote in the past few years. All in all, not a bad start.

Think about your one big goal.

How are you going to get there?

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