I want to begin this post by apologizing. Due to a software glitch, I have not been receiving the thoughtful comments many of you have posted to this blog. This has been going on for the past six months or so. I was wondering where all the comments had gone. That glitch is fixed now. Yesterday I found almost a hundred comments which I had not read, and to which I had not responded. I spent a couple of hours reading and responding to them. I believe the software problem is fixed now and this won’t happen again. I really value all of the comments I receive. I appreciate you taking the time to write them. I promise to respond to them in a timely manner in the future.
On to today’s post — a continuation of the series further explaining the ideas in my new book Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less. I am giving away the eBook version of this book to promote my career success coach business. My goal is to giveaway 10,000 eBooks by the end of June 2010. If you would like a copy, go to www.SuccessTweets.com. Feel free to send your friends there too.
I am on to the second section of the book and the second C of Success: Commitment. Today, I am focusing on Tweet 22…
Set and achieve S.M.A.R.T. goals. S.M.A.R.T. goals are Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Relevant and Time Bound.
Outstanding performance and life and career success begin with S.M.A.R.T. goals. Let’s look at the S.M.A.R.T. goal criteria
Specific – Your goals should be targeted, nor broad and general. They should be unambiguous and explicit.
Measurable – You should be able to tell quickly and easily if you’ve met your goal. Develop a set of criteria that will be indicative of success or failure in meeting each of your goals.
Achievable – Set goals that are challenging but not incredibly difficult to achieve. A challenging goal is motivating, an impossible one is demotivating.
Relevant – Set goals that are related to your purpose and direction in life. Your goals need to be consistent with your life purpose – your mission. Goals are stepping stones to making your vision of your career success a reality.
Time Specified – Set deadlines for achieving your goals. Well developed goals come with time limits.
Once you have developed a set of S.M.A.R.T. goals, you need to work them. Here are some ideas for accomplishing your goals and becoming the life and career success you deserve to be.
Write your goals. People who take the time to write their goals accomplish them more frequently that people who don’t.
Keep your goals with you – in your wallet, on a clipboard, on your screen saver. In this way, they’ll be a constant reminder of what you are going to achieve.
List at least one reason you want to achieve each goal. These reasons will help you stay focused when you get tired and frustrated and begin asking yourself questions like, “Why am I working so hard on this?”
Share your goals with people with whom you are close. These folks can be a big help in achieving your goals. Goals become more real when you share them with others. Goals that you don’t share are merely aspirations.
Talk about your goals at social and networking functions. The help you need to achieve one or more of your goals can come from some surprising places. You never know who might be the one person who can offer the assistance it takes for you to get over the top on one or more of your goals.
Focus on your goals several times a day. Ask yourself, “Is what I’m doing right now helping me achieve one of my goals?” If the answer is no, stop what you’re doing and do something that will help you reach your goals.
Stay balanced by creating goals in all areas of your life: career, business, personal, family, hobbies, health. These goals will help guide you to where you want to go.
Have congruent goals. Make sure your goals are congruent with one another. Conflicting goals create undue stress. If you have a work or career goal that is going to take up 60 to 80 hours a week of your time, it will be pretty difficult to realize a goal of running a marathon. You simply won’t have time to train.
Consider the sacrifices – what you might have to forego or give up in order to reach your goals. This could be things like family or hobby time. Ask yourself questions like, “Is this goal important enough for me to give up time with my kids or my weekly yoga class?”
The common sense career success coach point here is simple. Successful people follow the advice in Tweet 22 in Success Tweets. “Set and achieve S.M.A.R.T. goals. S.M.A.R.T. goals are Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Relevant and Time Bound.” Once you set S.M.A.R.T. goals, work them. Focus on them. Do whatever it takes to achieve them. Setting and achieving S.M.A.R.T. goals is some of my best career advice. I hope you take it to hear.
That’s my take on Tweet 22 in Success Tweets. What’s yours? Please take a minute and leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us. As always, thanks for reading.
Bud
Dear Bud:
Great series, but I’m concerned about your blog’s missing comments, mentioned in your apology.
Is there some lessons you can share from the experience, i.e., something other blogs should be concerned about?
Were there any other symptoms you noted, or something we should be aware of, so all of us can do a better job of monitoring our blog’s commenting performance?
BTW, I have your Success Tweets on my desk, and find something new every time I pick it up and open it at random. Great job!
Roger