Day 22 of 31 days to Creating Your Inspiring Personal Plan for 2012
Congratulations, you have reached the final step in preparing the material that will be assembled into the plan that you will share with your Board of Advisors. Tomorrow, I will share a template for assembling your package. You will then let it sit for a day while you just reflect on that you have created, before sending out your plan to your Board. While your Board is reviewing your plan, you will be transforming your plan into a powerful action plan and putting in place the support that will assure your success in 2012.
Let’s get on with this one additional step needed for the material going to your Board. Over the last week, you have developed a set of powerful strategies for accelerating moving from wherever you are to a place more in keeping with your compelling Vision. Now, you need to shape each of your strategies into a corresponding goal for 2012. To do so, you will use the SMART Goal approach that coaches and consultants have long advocated as the most effective way of creating goals that companies or individuals are most likely to actually achieve.
“SMART” is an acronym that describes the characteristics that any kind of goal should have if it is to be an effective catalyst for action. Various coaches and consultants have suggested different characteristics for each of the five letters, but similarities between these different views are much greater than the differences. Over my 25+ years of consulting work with leading companies, I have subscribed to the following five elements for setting effective goals.
S = specific
M = measurable
A = action based
R = realistic
T = timeframe
You will increase the likelihood of your achieving any goal when you frame the goal using the SMART acronym, that is when the goal is specific, measurable, action based, realistic, and time based. The order of these elements within a goal statement is not important. It is the presence of all five elements that is very, very important.
Let me give you an example. Let’s assume that one of your five strategies is to “maintain myself in excellent physical condition so as to accelerate my success.” Every one of the participants may not have included such a strategy, but few would argue that it is a fine strategy. The key to implementing such a strategy is to transform it into a goal, preferably a SMART goal.
An example of a goal that would support this strategy would be a goal of “losing weight.” Although that is a laudatory goal, as it stands it reads more like a loose New Year’s resolution. Watch how by adding the elements needed to make a SMART goal, we can transform a weak goal into a powerful framework for action.
As the goal was originally stated, it lacked specificity and real measurability. An improvement would be to restate the goal as “losing 20 pounds of weight.”
Next, we can skip down to the “T” element and add a timeframe. So, our example could be restated as “losing 20 pounds of weight by 12/31/2012.” Now, we have something that we can measure our progress against.
But, this restated goal, although much improved, is still lacking in an element critical to a person achieving such a goal. What is missing is a definition of the “actions” that must be done to achieve the desired outcome. So, let’s add in some actions. Our improved goal statement would be something like this: “losing 20 pounds of weight by 12/31/2012 by (1) eliminating all junk food, (2) working out for at least 30 minutes four times a week, and (3) eating nothing after 7PM.”
Note how our New Year’s style lose resolution has gained some real muscle. Only one element remains to be considered and that is the “R” element of “realistic.” We must ask ourselves whether our goal, as stated, is realistic. The amount of weight to be lost seems reasonable given the one year time period. The three actions are all possible, but are they realistic? A little tweaking might make the entire goal statement even more realistic.
So here is a final version of an empowering goal statement using the SMART (acronym) approach. The goal becomes ““losing 20 pounds of weight by 12/31/2012 by (1) eliminating all junk food, (2) working out for at least 30 minutes four times a week, and (3) eating nothing after 7PM (except in the case of an occasional social event [where I will forgo desert to make up for the later eating).”
New Year’s style resolutions are typically just an expression of a hope. When one takes the time to craft a SMART goal, successful implementation becomes much, much more likely.
For each one of the Success Strategies finalized in Step 21, identify at least one SMART goal. You can certainly have more than one goal with a strategy, but create at least one for each of your strategies. Make sure that each of the goals, which you create, meets the SMART test.
When you have created your set of SMART goals, you have completed all the plan elements that will get sent to your Board of Advisors. Tomorrow, I will provide you with a template for assembling your plan elements into an attractive package. I will also be providing you with an online page to which you can direct your Board members to help them understand how to perform a review that will be most helpful for you.
While your draft plan is off being reviewed by your Board members, you will be putting in place the support structure to assure that you successfully implement your plan in 2012. The finish line is clearly in sight. Congratulations!
When you have completed Step 22, you can access Step 23 here . If you want an anouncement every time a new step is posted, you can sign-up – to the right – to receive new steps by either RSS feed or email.
Please note: If you have arrived at this step first, it is not too late for you to join other high performers who are collaborating to follow the bite size steps that are unveiled here every day. Get started here.
This blog post was written by Dave Carpenter. Dave is a prolific author, inspiring speaker, and well-known consultant to professional service firms. Besides writing regularly for this blog, Dave’s writing can be seen in leading business and personal development publications. Dave is also the leader of the Accelerate Success mentoring program where he mentors high performers in a unique program designed to do great things for the favorite charity of each participant. If you are (1) a high performer who believes you still have untapped potential, and (2) passionate about a favorite charity, you may want to learn more about this powerful program. You can also follow Dave on Twitter, on Facebook, and/or on Google+.
