Not achieving your goals? Maybe they are not CLEAR

Two weeks ago I wrote about reevaluating and recommitting to your goals as most of the nation “sprang forward” with Daylight Saving Time.  Since then I have had multiple people question me on how to actually do that.  So, I want to focus this week on how to set goals that are energizing and achievable.

There are many methods for establishing and working toward goals.  I have found that setting CLEAR goals works best for me.  CLEAR is an acronym that stands for:

Calculable
Limited time
Exact
Agreed upon
Realistic

Calculable – A goal must be easily broken down into smaller tasks and achievements that combine to create the larger objective.  There have been many times in my life and career that I have established goals for myself that seemed unattainable until I broke them down into smaller, “bite-size” pieces.  Broken down they are less daunting.  This is achieved by taking the whole of the objective and dividing it by the time-frame you have established for achieving it.  That way you create milestones for yourself annually, quarterly, monthly and weekly.  If, for instance, you have a goal to achieve $100,000 in gross revenue in a year – that means you need to target roughly $8,333 per month.  Breaking that down further (utilizing the IRS average of 4.4 weeks per month), you would need to target $1,894 per week.  Furthermore, if you know what your average revenue per sales call is, then you could calculate how many sales calls you would need to make per week to achieve that revenue target.  Break it down and make it calculable.

Limited time – A goal without a set time frame is just a dream.  Determine a time by which you will achieve this objective, otherwise it is a “someday” goal, or a “get around to it” goal.  I have yet to see “someday” on a calendar and “get around to it” goals rarely get gotten around to.  Without a set target date there is no means by which to establish the milestones you need to make it measurable and less daunting.  Often people hesitate to establish target dates for their goals for fear that if they miss the target they will have “failed.”  Not so.  A target is just that, a target.  If you miss the target, the goal does not change – only the time frame does.  Simply reset the target achievement date, recalculate the milestone dates and get back to work on the goal.

Exact – Vague goals are rarely attainable.  Unless they are exact, there is nothing specific to break down into bite-size pieces.  To establish a goal that you will be the “best widget salesman you can be” is setting yourself up for disappointment.  There is no way to measure when you have achieved the goal.  (Furthermore, I find that we never believe we are ever the best that we can be, so it is not an attainable goal.)  Instead, utilizing this scenario, decide that you will exceed last year’s widget sales by X%.  That is exact – something that can be measured and broken down.  Look at the goals you have established for yourself and make sure they are unambiguous and clear-cut.

Agreed upon – Your goals must be in writing and shared with like-minded individuals or associates.  Mary Kay Ash, the late Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Mary Kay Cosmetics often said, “the faintest ink is better than the most retentive memory.”  A goal that is not in writing is too easily adjusted when the road to achieving it becomes rocky.  Make sure they are written down (in ink!).  You also need to share your goals with the balcony people in your life (those people who believe in you and encourage you forward to action), and give them permission to inquire about your progress.  Doing so will make you more accountable for actually doing the work necessary to obtain your objective.

Realistic – I believe a goal that does not make you just a little nauseated about how you are going to get there is not a big enough goal. That having been said, your goal must be realistically obtainable with sufficient effort.  If you have never been on ice skates before, to set a goal of achieving a world championship in figure skating this year is not a realistic goal.  You set yourself up for failure and disappointment.  The goal should not be easy, but it should be realistic.  Establish a realistic goal that you feel comfortable in achieving – then stretch it to half again what you think you can achieve.  That will make it obtainable and a little bit scary at the same time.

High Road challenge for the day:  Examine the goals you have set for yourself.  Are they calculable, limited time, exact, agreed upon, and realistic?  If they fall short in any of these critical areas, tweak them to make them more attainable.  Set time frames so you can break them down into measurable milestone achievements. Write them down and share them with the balcony people in your life.

“What the mind can conceive and truly believe, you can achieve.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson