Last Friday, I listed my goals for the new year. I have to share some insight I gained while writing that post. The wording changed dramatically from the first to final drafts. It shows how to write goals that are possible to reach through discipline. It very nearly showed how NOT to write a goal.
In my first draft, this is how my first goal read:
Goal: I will improve my health by tracking what I eat and exercising.
I wrote that, looked at it and smacked myself in the head. For years, as a manager of teams, I have taught SMART goals to my guys. If one of them had turned in that goal, I would have had a long chat with them about how to write a goal. Fortunately, before I hit the button to publish the article, I caught it and had the conversation with myself. Here is how the conversation went.
"That isn't a SMART goal."
"Sure it is. It is smart because I am not committing to a specific weight, but to a change in behavior. That is what I am focusing on this year - changing behavior. I'm actually proud of myself for that goal."
"Um. So how are you going to know if you achieved it?"
"Simple. I'll weight less, have better endurance and feel great."
"How much less? Are you going to weigh 150 pounds like the Nintendo Wii tells you you should weigh?"
"Well of course not. That is ridiculous. I don't want to lose 85 pounds. That's too much."
"But how much are you going to weigh? You want to celebrate, don't you? When are you going to celebrate?"
Oh yeah. You know me. I love a good party. Let's have a party."
"But when? At what milestone do we pull out the Martinelli's and cheer?"
Oh. Yeah. Well. Um. Uh. But...."
I'll spare you the rest of the whining about how I didn't want to set a specific goal because I might not hit it and I didn't want to admit it to the world, etc. I sounded just like some of my team. Fortunately, I didn't let myself off the hook. I forced myself to get concrete on the targets and timeframes. Interestingly enough, that changed a couple of goals completely, as I realized I didn't know how to measure them. That is why I ended up with goals and strategies.
So what are SMART goals? Go here to read up on them. The real important letters are just MT - Measurable and Time bound. We have to know the target and when we are going to hit them. All the rest of the letters don't matter as much as long as we know the measure and the date.
Why strategies? These are the links to creating discipline. A strategy is an idea on how I am going to achieve that goal. It gets me to the day to day activities necessary to achieving the goal. A goal of "weigh 200 pounds by October 31 can't go on a task list. I can't just say, "Today I am going to weigh 200 pounds." If it were that easy, there wouldn't be an obesity problem in America. I need daily tasks that I can work on that will get me to that goal.
Perhaps instead of Strategies I should have called them Disciplines. Regardless of the name, the concept is the same. I can take "Run 3 times weekly" and put that on a task list. In fact, it is on Monday's task list right now. If I exercise 5 times per week and reduce the number of calories I eat, I believe the side effect of exercise and eating less will be weighing 200 pounds. That is what I want - use discipline to alter my daily behavior that results in some of the big, difficult goals getting done. One day at a time.
As you look at your goals this year, make sure they are Measurable and Time bound. Then write down some strategies on how you are going to make it happen. Take those strategies and employ discipline to make the behavior change. Before you know it, you'll be partying and breaking out the Martinelli's. Good luck!
This post first appeared on my personal blog, Dan In Focus.
Picture credit: http://www.smart-goal-setting-tips.com/