09.08.08 Achieving Goals
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Quote of the Month:
“Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.”
—Sir Francis Bacon, English lawyer/writer/philosopher (1561-1626)
Ryan Lisk, a partner (with his dad) at Lisk Associates, calls on medium to large businesses to transform intangible assets into tangible results. His areas of expertise are talent management and selection, communication skills, and sales processes.
“We’re great goal-setters but terrible goal achievers,” Ryan said, speaking on behalf of most of the world.
There are three types of goals: long-term (years), intermediate (months), and short-term (days/weeks). With long-term goals we think with our hearts and with midterm goals, we think more with our heads, getting a plan together. For short-term goals we think with our hands, actually doing something.
What’s the most important thing to achieving a goal? Writing it down. If you don’t have pen or paper handy when ideas come to you, Ryan recommended jott.com, a service that allows you to call a phone number and record a message. It then sends a text version to your e-mail address or destination of your choice.
Here’s a goal-achieving tip: WDEP. What do you want, what are you doing, how are you evaluating it, what’s your plan. Be specific with each step.
An example of what you want could be: “I want to be a millionaire.” But it’s fuzzy. “I want to be a multi-millionaire by age 55″ is a little more specific, but what does ‘multi’ mean? “On February 7, 2026, I want 5.5 million dollars consisting of half in investment, 30 percent in property, and 20 percent cash.” That’s more specific.
What are you doing with your goals? “Write it and file it,” said Ryan, who loves reading Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich. One piece of advice from that 1937 book is to get your arms around a goal, write it down, and read it every morning and every night.
Ryan carries a calendar (yea for appointment books with paper!) and starts the year with a list of goals on the first page. “I look at it every day,” he said. “Some are very scary because I wrote them last December and they’re still there.” (Crowd empathy nodding.)
Take a minute now and write down some long-term goals. “The Google Earth perspective, a satellite view of where you’re going,” said Ryan. “These are in your heart, things you want.” Be very detailed and write ‘em down.
Now make another list of ways you have failed to achieve past goals. Why did you miss them? Our crowd answers included procrastination, conflicting goals, lack of training or education, coasting, not giving it 100 percent, expectations too high, psychological barriers such as the need to be liked vs. not letting anything stand in your way.
Intermediate goals, the things you want to accomplish within the next six months or year or two, are ones you’re going to use your head, not your heart, to achieve. Write down the acronym SMART. Specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, timely.
Make goals that are specific, not vague. Next, if you don’t know whether you’ve had a good day or a bad day at work, you don’t have the measurability factor. Find some way of quantifying success. You can read all the books in the world and attend seminars and collect success tools till you’re blue in the face but until you actually do something, not much will work. Action is a key element to achieving goals.
Realistic goals are actually achievable. Save those idealistic goals for “heart thinking” and concentrate on something practical for short- and mid-term goals. “You’ll lose momentum and not follow through if your goals aren’t realistic,” said Ryan.
Timely can be interpreted a couple of different ways. It’s a goal that is topical and appropriate for this stage in your career, and it can relate to setting a timetable for the goal to be accomplished, particularly in manageable chunks.
September may sound like an odd time to work on goals, because we should be three-quarters of the way through our goals for this year. If you’re tempted to scrap them and start fresh in January, don’t. That’s just feeding the procrastination monster. Go for it now.
An example of a SMART goal might be increasing your number of paid projects/clients. To be specific, write down a certain number (one new client per week or month, e.g.). The measurable factor would be checking in with yourself each week/month to see if you’re on track. An actionable step could be making contacts with people. The realistic part would be contacting people who can hire you or know someone who can. The timely aspect would be setting aside some time each day to work on this goal.
Once you have a SMART goal or two, create an action plan. Ryan likes the continue-stop-start approach. Continue to do whatever is working. Stop doing what isn’t (look at that failure list). Start doing something new or different to make your goals happen.
To keep you accountable, Ryan recommends a mastermind group. He gets together with two other people on a regular basis to discuss business issues. “There are three keys to having a group that works,” he said. “You have to trust one another, everyone has to understand that what happens in the group stays in the group, and you have to be optimistic.” The despondent Eeyore attitude just doesn’t work. But you can certainly question or challenge each other’s goals and ideas, if the trust factor is firmly in place. “Work with someone who will hold your feet to the fire,” said Ryan.
Personal accountability is a fabulous quality to have, no matter what you do for a living. If you fall short of a goal, apply those lessons to a future success. Don’t put the blame on external circumstances or other people. “It’s ultimately up to you to achieve your goals,” he said.
We thank Ryan for his presentation. Feel free to contact him with any questions.
Ryan Lisk
www.LiskAssociates.com
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RECOMMENDED READING:
The 7 Minute Difference: Small Steps to Big Changes
by Allyson Lewis
Leverage: How to Create Your Own “Tipping Points” in Business and in Life
by Darby Checketts
Power of an Hour: Business and Life Mastery in One Hour a Week
by Dave Lakhani
Think and Grow Rich
by Napoleon Hill
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WEB SITES OF INTEREST:
Article: 7 Trend Tips
http://www.writersdigest.com/article/7-trend-tips
Online habit/goal tracker
http://www.joesgoals.com
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Have a fabulous month!
KS
Kathie Stamps Contact me
ISBO.biz Web content and meetings
Charlotte Caldwell Contact me
ISBO.biz Web design and technology
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This is a recap of the September 2008 ISBO.biz luncheon in Lexington, KY. We meet the second Monday of each month and would love to see you at a lunch meeting. Please e-mail us for more information.
If you notice any typos or broken links, please let us know.