The life of a Dad who strives to be the best dad possible

Goal Setting and 2012 Objectives

Well, it is that time of year again.  Another year is done with a new one just starting.  Taxes are close but still distant.  New Year’s resolutions are still firmly entrenched (or are they???)  Most people are fully recovered from a possible “holiday hangover” from eating, shopping, drinking, and an assortment of other merriments or even combinations of all those.

For me, this time also represents two things I enjoy, (1) assessing my performance from the prior year and (2) setting some goals for the upcoming one.  I enjoy reviewing my prior year’s goals and seeing what I accomplished as well as what I missed.  That gives me some good ammunition and motivation in creating a new set of goals.  I have found that far too many people underestimate the value of thinking about what they would like to get from life, what they would like to accomplish.  Goal setting can be a powerful method to think about your dreams and for creating the motivation to turn that vision into reality.

This process helps you know what you want from life.  By knowing, you can focus your efforts and energies towards your goals.  You also can reduce or eliminate those things that distract you and lead you off target.  By setting clearly defined goals, you can see progress and measure your achievements.  This will raise your self-confidence as you get closer and closer to your dreams.  Seeing that you are, in fact, advancing towards what you truly want gives you the needed motivation to keep going when things are tough.

For me, I have a list of BIG objectives.  Things that are very important or desirable and that will take years to reach.  For instance, one dream of mine is to be able to walk to a decent surf spot from my home, ideally before returning home to walk my kids to school!  These “large-scale” goals can be those things that are five, ten, or even more years in the future.  From there, break down those big goals into, smaller, more manageable targets.  Using my example again, a stepping-stone goal might be living debt free so that I can increase my savings, which in turn might be saving a certain minimum of money each month.  This bigger-to-smaller process can turn those massive goals into much smaller, bite-size, and digestible portions.

One thing to ponder is what is it that you really want to achieve?  Often, our first thought isn’t truly something we deeply desire.  Make certain you take sufficient time when creating your “big” goals.  They should be very motivating and powerful to you.

When setting those smaller, stepping-stone goals, create plans based on set periods of time.  For instance, you can make a 5 year, 1 year, 6 months, and 1 month sets of plan in pursuit of one large prize.  Returning to the beach house, my five year target could be having a set dollar figure in savings, my three year target could be eliminating all debt, my one year target could be reducing my debt to a certain maximum, and so on.

One other note here, your list of goals, regardless of size or timing, is something you will revisit and potentially revise.  As your life evolves and changes, so will your goals.  What seemed critically important three years ago might naturally become significantly less important as the circumstances of your life change.

A useful tool in making your goals is to use the “SMART” acronym.  While there are plenty of variations, SMART typically refers to:

  • S – Specific
  • M – Measurable
  • A – Attainable
  • R – Relevant
  • T – Time-related or Temporal

The more your goals, again regardless of size, meets these criteria, the greatest the chance you have of obtaining it.  For instance, I could likely purchase a beach house much sooner in a cheaper location than La Jolla.  But, I don’t really want to live in El Salvador, as gorgeous as it may be.  My wife might kill me if I required the family to move there so I could surf every morning.  Thus, I need to be more specific in defining my goal.

A few other thoughts…

  • Be Positive: Expressing your goals in a positive manner, rather negative, is superior.  Better to say, “I will a minimum quota everything month in sales” than “I will not miss a month of the sales quota”.
  • Be Precise: The more clear and defined your goals, the greater the likelihood is you will achieve them.  You want them to as specific as possible so you can measure your success and enjoy the achievement.
  • Prioritize: You are almost certain to have more than one goal.  Therefore, rank them or categorize them as A, B, C, and so on.  That way, you know where to focus your energies and time.
  • Be Realistic:  Make certain all your goals are possible achievements under the parameters you create.  If I said I wanted that El Salvadorian Beach House tomorrow, that might be possible but not likely.  Even less likely were I to specify La Jolla or Orange County.

Lastly, and potentially most importantly, let’s discuss Achievement.  When you reach any goal, take the appropriate amount of time to celebrate.  Enjoy your accomplishment!  But, also, take some time to reflect.  Was the goal too easy?  too difficult?  Did you learn anything?  Apply anything you can to the remainder of your goals and modify them accordingly.

So, back to my goals.  In 2011, I had six goals, which you can see in the pic above.  I obviously made some and missed some.  But, the ones I missed definitely taught me a few lessons AND gave me extra motivation for 2012!

With that being said, here are my 2012 Objectives:

  1. Triple my gross monthly income from Beachbody from Jan 2012 to Dec 2012.
  2. Qualify for Success Club 5 or 10 every month.
  3. Qualify for Elite status.
  4. Advance at least two of my Beachbody business centers to Diamond status.
  5. Set a new Personal Record in both a 70.3 and 140.6 distance event, ideally earning a spot to the 70.3 World Championship in Las Vegas, NV in September 2012.
Thanks for taking the time to read and go set some goals!

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  • stay-at-home Dad
  • Independent Coach
  • Beachbody Bussiness