The path to our goals and dreams is not a short one. There are many directions we will take to achieve victory and there will be many times when a dreamer might feel lost, time when we feel like we are not making much progress. How can we avoid this? How can we make goals that prevent us from losing focus, goals that keep us on track so we don’t wander off and do something else? We make goals that we can track.
Last week we spoke about the importance of setting goals that are very specific. This is important for two reasons, the first is so you set real goals and not just concepts (i.e. I want to lose weight vs. I want to lose fifteen pounds). The second reason is that the more specific a goal is, the easier it becomes to measure and track it. How do you know if you are staying true to your goal if you are not keeping track of it? How do you know if you need to adjust your goals if you are not measuring them? A good example of this is the brains behind NaNoWriMo. WriMo automatically sets and tracks goals for the writers who are using the website. Every day you are asked to input your word count and every day the website charts your progress in visual graphs and charts that quickly and easily tells a writer where they are with their word count goals. Its easy and simple and effective. I am very motivated to hit those daily word counts and I love to track my progress with the graphs and charts.
How can you set up your own goals so they can be measured and tracked? Take your very specific goals and break them into smaller and smaller chunks. Figure out what steps you need to achieve on the way to achieving your goal. How much time will you need? Is this a daily goal? Is this a goal only done once a month? It is taking those “How” questions from last week and assigning a “When” to them.
Here is how I go about this. As we stated last week I want the rough draft of my book finished before the end of March. That is a when, but lets keep breaking it down. Sections 1-10 need to be completed by the end of February and 11- 18 through the end March. I need to break this down further to keep better track though. Sketch drafting (this is what I have come to call the thing I produce during WriMo) should be completed on Jan 25th. Following that the rough draft of section 1 will be completed Jan 26th. Section 2 was completely scrapped so I need to write it again so thats a few days which takes me to Jan 31st. The first week of February will be dedicated to clean up since rewriting section 2 will change a few things. Then we are back to the one section per day rough draft process. I personally like my goals to have a daily component to them if I can. So how can I keep this pace while traveling for work, keeping a social life, staying healthy and trying to accomplish my other goals for 2021??? I do this by tying three of my goals into one big daily goal. I have thirty minutes dedicated each day to writing (I will do more but this is a minimum), another thirty minutes for reading and another thirty minutes for exercise. It is a neat and tidy way to remember to do these things and it’s only 90 minutes out of my day.
The past two posts we have taken my vague, “finish my book this year,” goal and turned it into something concrete. Its gone from a nebulous idea with no time frame to specifically completing a task (rough draft) and giving it not just a timeframe (end of march) but also a specific list of goals with their own dates that I can use to gauge how well I am doing. In addition I also have a daily plan for how to get all of this done. This is the beating heart of the goal making process. Setting specific goals and setting up ways to track and measure them will help you keep your goals into the new year.
Wait? Isn’t there two more aspects of goal making to talk about? Yes! I have mapped out one of my smaller goals for 2021 to use as an example on how to set goals that are specific and measurable. Next week we will talk about something that will be very important for those of you with big ideas and big goals to accomplish. Setting big goals that are realistic and achievable. Come back next week!