Anatomy of a Good Goal

         Goals. Resolutions. Objectives. Whatever you call them, they are basically the same thing. And January seems to be a time of year that incites people to make them, to put unrealistic expectations on themselves and then spend the next year (or 10!) beating themselves up for not succeeding. I’m not sure why that is, but I suspect that in many cases these resolutions are unrealistic (I’m going to lose 50 pounds without changing my lifestyle or I’m going to write 5 hours every day when I really only have 15 minutes free in my schedule from 6 am to midnight). It is also possible that there is nothing holding the resolutions together, no common theme or objective. I’m going to discuss that next week. This week I want to identify what makes a good and helpful goal, one that will aid you in accomplishing it and encourage you to continue past it.

From my experience, I’ve learned that a good goal is:

• concrete,
• specific,
• achievable and
• has a time limit.
• And, to really be successful, it needs a reward attached to it, something motivating that will kick you into high gear when you start to lag and create excuses to quit.

         I’ve talked about this before, but it bears repeating. Goals have to be concrete, specific. “I’m going to write more” is not a good goal. You will never know when you accomplish it. And, if you are like me, even if you do somehow convince yourself you did it (I wrote more than I did yesterday), it is too nebulous to be maintained (everyday you have to write more than the day before? Or more than your best day? How do you decide?) So the first rule is that any goal you make must be specific.

         It must be achievable. If your schedule is so full during the week that you fall into bed exhausted every night, a goal of writing 5 pages every weekday is unrealistic. It’s good to stretch yourself, but don’t set yourself up for failure. If you get an hour for lunch each day and can eat at your desk, maybe a goal of writing for 30 minutes each workday is doable. Keep in mind that goals you make for yourself must be achievable by yourself. If the success of a goal depends on someone else (“get an agent,” “sell my book”), it is not a goal. It is a dream. Achieving goals can lead to obtaining dreams, but it is not guaranteed. Make sure your goal is really a goal, achievable by your effort alone.

         A good goal must have a time limit. There must be a time when you know if you succeeded in accomplishing the goal. As I said, “I want to write more” is not a good goal. “I want to write 30 minutes each day,” would be a better goal. It is specific, most likely achievable and you know how well (or not) you succeeded at the end of the day. To make it even better, you could say, “I want to write 30 minutes each day by 11 pm.” or “2 hours before the kids get home from school.”

         Keeping those three “rules” in mind when you plan your goals will ensure you set good goals. There is one more thing you should consider, though. I used to think it was optional, but I’m learning that, for me at least, it is absolutely necessary. A reward must be associated with each and every goal. It doesn’t have to be a huge reward. In fact, it should only be a huge reward if the accomplishment is a huge one. Treating yourself to an expensive meal with champagne for writing 30 minutes on Thursday is just a bit over the top. (I have a friend who says I’m Queen of Understatement. She might be right. LOL) That same champagne meal is much more appropriate a reward for writing 30 minutes every day for a year and completing your novel.

         Let’s not kid ourselves. Accomplishing our goals is never easy. It’s often hard work. If we want to achieve our dreams, though, we must spend the time working on those goals that will help make the dreams a reality. Keeping these rules (or guidelines, if you don’t like the word rules) in mind when you plan how to reach your dreams will hopefully make the hard work just a bit easier to plan and do. Good luck with making your goals!