by Stella | Fitness, Food + Nutrition
So glad you’re back for Part 2: Measurement!! This is how you make your goals measurable.
If you haven’t already, click the image below to download the FREE SMART Goal Setting Workbook!
I love this quote because so many things (especially mini-goals and micro-tasks) can cloud the view of your path when working toward goals. You need some sort of measurement system to determine if you’re actually making progress. You need to make your goals measurable.
“M” Measurable: Goals should have some measurable aspect.
The main gist of making goals measurable is pretty self-explanatory. You must have some way to measure and know that you’re making progress. There must be some sort of metric to your actions and where you are so that you’ll know your progress.
So, for example, I’m still working on my novel–the editing phase–to start querying agents. My goal is to snag the most awesome agent in the universe by December 31st. (At which point we’ll bust out our most expensive bottle of wine and get delirious while we celebrate.) But, obviously, I have to finish all the editing first–because you only send the most polished gem you can, right? So since there are ‘phases’ I go through with editing, I’ve broken down measurable blocks of editing so that when each is completed by a certain date, I’ll have the editing complete and will be ready to send out those queries.
So, for example, my pass-through to eliminate all passive sentences has a deadline of April 30th; restructuring chapters for better flow by May 31st; additional character development by June 30th; then critiques set up by July 15th so that any rewrites or additional edits can happen by the deadline of August 31st. At which point I’ll begin sending queries. (Notice that I have no clue how long it will actually take to GET an agent yet…this is the guess-part of goal setting where you will need to go back and review/revise goals if you discover that you were a little naive about timelines, or every person in your house got sick and set you back two weeks, or you have to talk your sister down from a ledge who’s in a mid-life crisis…whatever the case may be!)
Think about how your goal can be broken down into chunks you can actually measure. Create a reward for yourself for each small thing you accomplish. I promise you’re gonna get burnt out at some point. These little rewards will help you move on to your next phase!
SO HERE’S THE ACTION PLAN to make your goals measurable:
1-Break your goal into chunks
2-Sequence those chunks accordingly
3-Decide if you’re going to reward yourself for accomplishing certain steps, or the whole enchilada!
Got it? Awesome!
Don’t forget to download your FREE SMART Goal Setting workbook to walk you through as you create your own SMART Goals! Just click the image below!
Next post we move on to step 3: ‘A’: Attainable.
If you missed ‘S’: Specific, Part 1, go HERE.
Can’t wait for next week! In the meantime, figure out how to break your goals down into chunks to make your goals measurable over time. You really need to set the ruler for your success early on!
Know someone who could use help setting their very own SMART Goals or making their goals measurable? SHARE this post!
by Stella | Fitness, Food + Nutrition, Getting Organized + Productive
Walt Disney said, “The way to get started is to quit talking and start doing.” (And who in the world doesn’t want to listen to Walt Disney??) So you’ve quit talking and have decided to start doing. But where do you start… to start? Well, if you want to create an effective road-map to your goals, you should definitely start with SMART goals.
My ‘start’ with goals
Back before my first pregnancy, we had moved to New Mexico for the hubby’s job, and I was basically starting all over in my job search. We had been trying to get pregnant, and that had sort of sapped all my emotional energy and motivation. (That’s a whole other post, as we had a long road of fertility issues, if anyone’s interested…) Anyway, I went through several different random jobs before moving, while we puttered along on our horrible finances.
Once we got to Albuquerque, I finally settled into my longest job (except the stay at home mom gig), and got another really big dose of structure and goal setting. In insurance, you have a daily checklist of ‘to do’ items called your ‘diary’. This is how your manager keeps up with what you’ve gotten done on each claim.
That was my first time dealing with corporate goals, and I’ll tell ya—there was no actual structure to the goals (that I could see.) But when I decided to stay home with the kids, I realized how important all that structure was—including the goals, even if I couldn’t see the process in setting or attaining those goals. I mean, when you don’t have a reason to even get out of your jammies all day since they’ll probably be covered in food and spit up within the hour, you start to lose motivation and focus. (Pretty sure 100% of stay at home moms agree with me on this one.)
I started researching goals a few years later (after I was convinced I would go nowhere forever, career-wise) and found SMART goals. And let me tell ya—they’re not the end-all, be-all to goal setting, but they’re still a pretty friggin awesome way to work out your goals, order them, and make a plan to tackle them!
What SMART goals are
SMART is (obviously) an acronym. But it actually has had different meanings for each letter. This usually just depends on what company is using the method for goal setting. As I’ve skimmed through every source imaginable looking for the true definitions of each letter, I realized it doesn’t matter… What does matter is how you use it.
What I mean by that is that a corporation may use the ‘A’ in SMART goals to mean ‘agreeable’. As in–everyone that matters agrees on the goal. But that won’t matter if you’re setting personal goals. In which case, the ‘A’ is much more effective with the definition of ‘achievable’. So even though you may hear a different definition of each letter at some point or another, I’ve done my best to use the most applicable definitions of the letters for personal goal setting.
Follow the series
This series starts here with ‘S’ in SMART goals, and ends with ‘T’, each letter being allotted a weekly post. I truly hope that you find the SMART Goals series helpful, and will download the FREE workbook for SMART goal setting (by clicking the image below) to follow along in. It will join you in the Stella Nadene weekly Wellness + Lifestyle Newsletter, but you can unsubscribe at any time if you don’t feel we’re a good fit.
So here we goooo!!
“S” Specific: Goals need to be specific.
Ok, just stating, “I want to lose weight” is actually more of the whiny statement I expect from my bestie than a specific goal. And seriously won’t get you very far. You need a good clear definition. “I want to lose ten pounds.” That’s better, but how long do you have? “I want to lose ten pounds by the summer.”
Ok, so what DATE is defined as the summer? The beginning of summer? Middle? Official first day? Give it a date, a deadline…create pressure for yourself. “I want to lose ten pounds by May 31.” That’s better.
The more specific you can get, the better your definition will be to achieve the next steps in your goal-setting expedition.
So go ahead and write down your goals (as specifically as possible!) in your workbook. If you’d like to know why listing your goals is crazy important, check out THIS post. Making your goals specific is just the starting point in your SMART goal setting. It’s the foundation to making a clear path. And making effective mini goals to get you to the end point, ie. achieving your goal!
So to RECAP, your goals need the following elements:
1-an end (what you call your goal),
2-a defined amount,
3-a deadline.
Once you’ve specified your goal, it’s time to move on to step 2: ‘M’: measurable.
Can’t wait for next week! In the meantime, think over your goals and really make sure these goals are essential to your overall life plan. Make sure they’re YOUR goals. And that accomplishing these goals is what will truly make YOU happy!
Join the Stella Nadene Wellness + Lifestyle Newsletter and get your FREE SMART Goals workbook! Click the image below! 👇
Know someone that could use help with goal setting, and creating SMART Goals? SHARE this post!!
by Stella | Fitness, Food + Nutrition, Getting Organized + Productive
4 reasons why effective goal setting depends on mini goals.
Several years ago, when the hubby and I were deep in credit card debt, we got to the point that we knew something had to give. We were paying so much every month just on credit cards that it could’ve paid for me a housekeeper once a week, an extravagant date night at least twice a month, and way nicer clothes than I was buying. Since I’ve always paid the bills, I was solely the person who held the stress and anxiety of these bills being paid every month. (I can’t tell you how many times this sent me into nervous breakdown mode and caused a giant fight between the two of us.)
Then one day, the husband came across Dave Ramsey on the radio and was utterly entranced. He shared with me all the things this mystical ‘Mr. Ramsey’ shared about how to get out of debt and make a financial plan to cover your be-hind should anything happen. I listened to him drone on about it for so long I finally gave in–I mean, I would like to buy clothes somewhere other than Target someday, right? So we decided to get serious about a budget and paying off those credit cards.
The method Dave Ramsey recommends is his ‘debt snowball method’. So we decided–Hey, we can spare X amount every month to apply extra on our smallest amount owed. (If you’ve heard of the method, you know how it works.) So there we went, budgeting…me being the evil financial sentinel that had to put my foot down multiple times a week on going out to eat, buying extra clothes, going out of town on trips to just sight-see, etc.
I hated it. He hated me. We hated the whole situation. But we thought we were sacrificing for the greater good, and accomplishing something.
But what really happened was that we got a little paid off, then had some emergency and put off paying the extra toward debt. And it would happen over and over so that we weren’t making headway. Finally we got so frustrated that we tried to figure out if it was even worth it for me to go back to work–factoring in daycare for 2 kids. {For those of you saying that’s a stupid question, I should add in that my husband’s job has ALWAYS included travel an average of 3 nights a week, and extensive travel other days where he may not get back until 8pm. So if anything happens with the kids, I am the SOLE person leaving work, or coming in late, or taking the whole day off. It’s SO hard to find something that incredibly flexible that we finally just gave up. Well, until I found blogging. 🙂 }
After some time, I became seriously depressed at our situation, and felt like there was no hope. I honestly wondered if we should file for bankruptcy at one point. My whole point of this story is that even though we set a goal to pay off credit card debt, we never detailed out our goal. We never had a real plan. (Or a backup plan for that matter…)
>>>>We never created mini-goals.<<<<
So you’ve written down your list of goals, imagined yourself achieving these goals, and set a deadline for them.
Now what? Just live your life as usual and wait for the magic to happen??
Yeah, I wish, too. In real life, the next step would be breaking each goal down into ‘mini goals’. A mini goal is a stepping stone needed to ultimately reach your goal. So what’s the friggin’ point of mini goals when I’ve already listed my shiny golden goals? Well, my friend, there are several.
1. First is the simple fact that you’re breaking your goal down into steps.
Some people don’t think they need little steps detailed out, but unless you have a photographic memory and laser-focus, it’s so easy to wander off the pathway to your goal, you probably won’t even realize you wandered until you’re nearly lost!
Little steps are so easy to break up and do one at a time, with a deadline, that it makes it easy to have a little checklist to make it clear what needs to be done one thing at a time.
2. Mini goals let you feel progress being made.
Seriously, do you feel like you’re making progress if you ‘think/feel’ like you’re doing well on your journey, or if you can SEE the checklist being mowed down like the boss you are?? If you know for a fact you’re halfway to your goal, rather than ‘think’ you’re there–that’s half the battle. Seeing progress is serious motivation!
3. Mini goals let you track the progress.
Ok, try to follow me here… If you have a list, you know what’s to come, and what you’ve already knocked out. So what happens if something comes up that pushes everything to the wayside for a few days/weeks/months?? If you’ve broken your goal down, there’s no need to worry. You just look at your list and pick up where you left off.
And–if there happens to be any step that was time-sensitive, you can easily see which one that was and reassess your list if things need to be reordered or dates need to be pushed back.
4. Mini goals and your checklist allow you to reassess and re-evaluate easily and effectively.
For example, if you’re taking a week longer to achieve each mini-goal than expected, and it’s stressing you to the max just to do that, maybe you can see at this point that you need to extend each mini-goal deadline by a week to keep things moving at a more comfortable pace that doesn’t make you want to drive off a cliff every day just to achieve each mini goal. This process of reassessing and re-evaluating makes all the difference in the world when it comes to keeping the momentum of your goals going.
I’ll be honest, the thought of breaking down our debt issue into bite-sized steps seemed a little overwhelming at first. But once we did it, and posted our goals, mini-goals, and deadlines in a place where we could both see them, we both had to be on the same page–I mean, they were staring us both in the face all the time! Plus, every time we achieved one of those mini-goals, we would cross it off. It’s so exciting to see actual progress being made!!
Have you broken down your goals into mini-goals yet? Read here if you’d like to learn the S.M.A.R.T. Goal setting method!
Join the Newsletter and get your FREE SMART goal setting workbook! Just click the image below!
Let me know how your goal process is going, I’d love to hear from you!!
*By the way, we DID get all our credit card debt paid off, plus we both own our vehicles outright, and have the savings accounts built up that that crazy-smart ‘Mr. Ramsey’ recommends. So I’d say we finally got our goal-setting down and figured out. 😉
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