Page 5 - April 2015 Voices!
P. 5
er Story. . .
Got Goals?
Your Roadmap to Success
Mike Raffety, DTM, PID—Guest Contributor
What if you never set any goals? Where do you think you would
end up? Would you get a great job? Would you have a family? Would you have a nice
home? Would you take fun vacations? Would you have even graduated from high
school, let alone college?
Goals are a roadmap. To where? That's up to you. Decide where you're going. Your
goals are different than anyone else's. Decide on your priorities, among basic things like
faith, family, career, education, retirement savings, college money for kids, and vacations.
It's unlikely any one priority will be absolute, at all costs, over other priorities, there is an
interaction and dependency, and some
will even overlap. Money for
retirement, or college for kids? Maybe
the kids will get a scholarship, freeing
up that money for retirement!
Once you have those in mind, you can
set goals within each. Keep them
simple, as they might (will!) change as
time goes on. Set a date to accomplish
that goal, too. Perhaps you want to
earn a graduate degree within five
years, or you want to have X dollars saved up for retirement by the the time you're 65, or
start a new career by 2017.
For example, you might start with a goal of earning a Toastmasters Competent
Communication (CC) award within a year. A year is a good time frame for that, it's one
speech a month, with a couple extra months for holidays or other surprises. This will
depend somewhat on your club—can they allocate a speaking slot every month for you,
or are there too many members to do that? You might need to ask your club to schedule
a "speechathon" (a special meeting with just speeches and evaluations), or consider
visiting or even joining a second club.
If you're past the CC level, then set a goal for your Advanced Communication Bronze
(ACB), your Competent Leader (CL), or another award. Most all of the awards are able to
(Continued on page 6)
5
Got Goals?
Your Roadmap to Success
Mike Raffety, DTM, PID—Guest Contributor
What if you never set any goals? Where do you think you would
end up? Would you get a great job? Would you have a family? Would you have a nice
home? Would you take fun vacations? Would you have even graduated from high
school, let alone college?
Goals are a roadmap. To where? That's up to you. Decide where you're going. Your
goals are different than anyone else's. Decide on your priorities, among basic things like
faith, family, career, education, retirement savings, college money for kids, and vacations.
It's unlikely any one priority will be absolute, at all costs, over other priorities, there is an
interaction and dependency, and some
will even overlap. Money for
retirement, or college for kids? Maybe
the kids will get a scholarship, freeing
up that money for retirement!
Once you have those in mind, you can
set goals within each. Keep them
simple, as they might (will!) change as
time goes on. Set a date to accomplish
that goal, too. Perhaps you want to
earn a graduate degree within five
years, or you want to have X dollars saved up for retirement by the the time you're 65, or
start a new career by 2017.
For example, you might start with a goal of earning a Toastmasters Competent
Communication (CC) award within a year. A year is a good time frame for that, it's one
speech a month, with a couple extra months for holidays or other surprises. This will
depend somewhat on your club—can they allocate a speaking slot every month for you,
or are there too many members to do that? You might need to ask your club to schedule
a "speechathon" (a special meeting with just speeches and evaluations), or consider
visiting or even joining a second club.
If you're past the CC level, then set a goal for your Advanced Communication Bronze
(ACB), your Competent Leader (CL), or another award. Most all of the awards are able to
(Continued on page 6)
5
