Page 9 - August 2017 Voices

more hours. of the day Wednesday I should have sold at least
I wore that jacket almost every day for the 12 this week, and by Friday it should be 20. If I’m
next five years. I was sinfully proud of it. For seeing numbers 20% or more below that, I will ask
your trial goal, set a learning goal around the my Dad for advice and I will pay extra attention to
topic you care about, that is small enough to be how people treat me when they answer the door to
doable and big enough to be worth doing. Figure see if I’m doing something to put them off.
out how you’re going to measure your results. Maintaining Momentum
If you’re wondering what topic to pick for
your trial goal, think about your life purpose, or
something that fascinates you, or something that Specifically, an
irritates you. Few things will give you greater joy
than identifying a long running irritation, taking Intention does not
a fresh look at it, and eliminating it permanently. focus you. Rather, it
SMART Goals expands your world of

Rivers of ink have been used to describe
SMART goals, but most explanations I’ve found possibilities.
to be useless. A truly excellent explanation comes
from Charles Duhigg’s book, Smarter Faster
Better. Here’s my interpretation of Duhigg’s Visible Progress—Research shows that
material (a more detailed version is available as making visible progress towards a worthy goal
a free download): provides an enormous sense of pleasure and

Goal Statement—First, state the goal in motivation. For that reason, I urge you to use a
normal language. It can be a little vague for now, progress tracker of some kind.
because the SMART prompts will tighten it up Progress Tracking—The simplest progress
for us. Example: sell enough Christmas candles to tracker is the thermometer chart. I don’t like it,
earn a jacket. because it doesn’t show time very well. I much
prefer a burn down chart. Play around until you
pecific—State the goal with more specificity, find one that works for you.
Sincluding an amount and an approximate For my own goal of establishing the habit
timeframe. Example: sell 50 Christmas candles of checking my tickler file daily, my greatest
before Christmas. success has come from using a “don’t break the
chain” calendar.
easurable—What’s my daily grind of Six-Pack-of-Change Support—According to
Mmeasurable output? Example: Each day I researchers at VitalSmarts, any goal or new habit
will knock on doors until two hours have passed.
can be supported in six different ways—I refer to
chievable-by-me—What’s my ‘task loop’ these as the “six-pack-of-change support.” I walk
Aeach day? Do I have the skills? Example: I will my clients through setting up and building out
use my map and plot out a route to walk, perform their own unique six pack for every significant
my daily grind above, and mark the map showing goal. Learn more by reading the book Change
where I walked that day. Anything, published by VitalSmarts.
The six are:
ealistic in my context—How do I fit this work 1. Personal motivation
Rinto my existing time commitments? Do I 2. Personal skills and knowledge
have the tools and supplies I need? Example: 3. Encouragers, cheerleaders, anti-
I’ll go immediately after school from 3 to 5 PM. I’ll cheerleaders, believers
always keep my order form in my backpack so I can 4. Coaches, mentors, trainers, exemplars
go right to work.
5. External payoffs (saving money, artificial
imeline—How will my time unfold across payoff incentives)
Tthe goal work period? How will I check 6. Bridges and fences (environmental
to ensure I’m on track? How will I regroup? changes that make it easier to do the right
Example: I will walk every weekday. By the end thing and harder to do the wrong thing)

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