The Goal Formula
Goals are an important facet of making progress in life. I’ve talked with a lot of times and I find that sometimes people talk about their goals, but they are not really talking about their goals. They are talking about wishes. When I hear someone make a wish it sounds something like this. I want to grow my business. I want to make more money. I want to take more time off. I want to improve the relationship with my son or daughter. I want to have a better marriage. The problem with these “goals” is they are not goals.
Let’s deconstruct one of these wishes and see where the problems are. I want to grow my business. Here are the problems I see with this wish:
- There is no measurable criteria in this wish. How is one to know when the the business is grown? Am I looking to grow sales? Am I looking to grow profit? Am I looking to increase my market share? What exactly is my objective?
- There is no deadline in this wish. It does not give one a timetable to work on. Without a deadline, once could wait 30 years to reach the wish.
- There is no starting point with this wish. Where are we currently. Without a starting point I don’t have a basis for measuring progress.
- There is not end point. When do I know that I have accomplished my goal?
There is an acronym for what makes a good goal. It should be a S.M.A.R.T goal
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Results Focused
- Time Bound
I think this is a good starting place for developing goals. There is a way to simplify the goal. When I set goals I use the following Goal Formula
Starting Point to Ending Point by Deadline.
By putting a goal in this formula you define where I am starting. Next one is defining where I want to arrive. Without the ending point I do not know when the goal is achieved. Finally, there is a deadline set. I have a time frame for when I want to accomplish my goal.
Let’s rephrase my wish of I want to make more money.
Increase my monthly business income from $20,000/month to $30,000 by June 30, 2018.
- Starting Point – monthly business income = $20,000
- Ending Point – monthly business income = $30,000
- Deadline – June 30, 2018
There is complete clarity in this goal. I know exactly what I’m working on and when I want to accomplish the goal. All I need to do now is do the work to complete the goal.
