In my last article I spoke of the importance of managing yourself and the value in having an accountability coach.  Some individuals are focused and do not need direction or motivation if you will.  However, most individuals can use that little bit of guidance and direction.

In this article, I want to talk to you about the topic of goal setting and all that it entails from my point of view.  Now I am confident that you the reader understand the definition of a goal.

Just to be certain…..”A goal or objective is a projected state of affairs that a person or a system plans or intends to achieve—a personal or organizational desired end-point in some sort of assumed development. Many people endeavour to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines.  (Wikipedia)

So, we have already established that you cannot manage time, only manage yourself.  How do we set goals?   Do we set goes on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly or a life time basis?

Now there is an acronym that I use which sums it up very well and the acronym is S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely).  Let’s take a look at each category a little closer.

A specific goal has a much greater chance of being accomplished than a general goal.  If I say I want to lose weight versus I want to join a health club and exercise 5 times a week.  I think you can see which is general and which one is specific.

To determine if your goal is measurable, ask questions such as……How much? How many? How will I know when it is accomplished?  What will be your success criteria?

A goal becomes attainable not because it is easily achieved but as a result of you changing your skill set, attitudes and beliefs in yourself.  The goals don’t become smaller, you simply begin to grow.

Realistic goals can be of a high and challenging nature because you likely are both willing and able to work towards that goal.  If it is too easy to achieve, you may struggle with it due to the fact that the motivation behind achieving it is so low.  Bottom line, a goal is realistic if, and only if, you truly believe that you can meet it.

Finally, a goal must be timely. There has to be a deadline so that there is a sense of urgency.

If you want to lose 15 pounds, you have to say I want to lose 15 pounds by Thanksgiving.

Although, you may gain it all back shortly there after…smile.

Saying “someday” simply won’t cut it.

Now that we have established what a goal should look like, I want to close with something that works for me when it comes to setting my goals.

I like taking my Sunday evenings when the household is quiet, and laying out my goals for the week.  I can also take a glance at my monthly goals to keep on track with them and more importantly, my end goals. I try to keep it simple and readjust them on a daily basis.  I also try to keep it to 3 things.  If I accomplish my 3 assigned tasks then I will obviously look ahead to other projects that I can get started on.

The reality is that most people in marketing today are part-time.  There is a small percentage of the population that are full time. When I say marketing, I specifically mean multi-level marketing, network marketing and direct sales as examples.  Knowing that the failure rate in MLM, is as high as 97% should tell that there are only a handful of individuals that have any idea of what they are doing!

Given the nature of this topic, it will likely be at least a 3 part series if not more.  So, here goes……

If you are currently part time, you know how important it is to manage your time.  Actually I need to rephrase that, you need to be certain to manage yourself.  No one can manage time, it carries on no matter what we do.  We can’t speed it up nor slow it down.

So, how can we better manage ourselves?  Well, there are several strategies that one can use:  As examples you could read up on time management strategies, use a daily agenda or use technology to keep you organized.  The method I use that works most effectively for me is having an accountability coach.  Why is an accountability coach so valuable?  It is because what is easy to do, is also easy not to do.  With that being said, if you have someone that you have to contact on a scheduled appointment whether it be daily, every other day or once a week, it is likely you will have completed the necessary work that is required.

It is very easy to say to yourself that you will complete a certain task but it is also very easy to get distracted and say you will get to it at a later time.  Before you know it, you never did complete the task and then it just snowballs!  With an accountability coach, it is far more difficult to let that task slide and not complete it because you are not only letting yourself down, but you are also disappointing someone else.

So, my recommendation is the get an accountability coach and it doesn’t even have to be with your primary business but someone who shares similar interests and has skills and talents that you currently may not have yet mastered.  If you can find someone who has strengths in areas that you need to work on, then this will benefit you.  You may have skills that they can learn and acquire from you.  If you can manage things well enough you could even take it to another level and create a mastermind group.  Should you go this route, I suggest a daily call or meeting to discuss strategies, mindset, and other concerns.  It can be a question and answer period and it is also a time to assign new tasks for the week ahead.  It can be a great way to map things out and re-evaluate your goals.

Let me leave you with this thought….if you want to take it to another level, you can’t do it alone.  You need to pool your resources with at least one other individual and you can even have more than one accountability coach.

Cheers – Steve

Wonder why your colleagues or friends, who are as busy as you are, always seem to find time to enjoy themselves after work? Do you have this feeling that time is always against you? You are always struggling against time to finish your work assignments, and after that, there’s no energy for other things.

You are tired, and it needs a lot of strength and effort even to do the basic of household duties like fixing dinner, fetching your kids from school etc. It sometimes seems that you spend so much time rushing from place to place or task to task that you don’t actually achieve anything except for feeling more frustrated. Your social life will also be affected as you hardly have time to have a coffee or simply hang out with friends.

Whether you are looking at time management from a business level, a personal level, or as a general way of life, there is one constant: time management is about getting results and not necessarily being busy. Time management starts with being centered on what you are doing at the moment. There are some people who will argue or disagree that theoretically there is no possible way to multi-task because you can literally only perform one task at a time.

What are the benefits of having a time and information management system? You can make such notes quickly before you go to bed, have breakfast, or while you watch the news on TV. Why would you want to make such memos at such times? Simply because you can, and because it produces the space for you to be your expressive self when you are doing other important things.

Ultimately we must keep in mind we can not control time. Bold statement I know, but we can not make it go faster or slow it down. Having said that, what we really need to do is better manage ourselves. If we can do this, then we will the necessary time to plan all aspects of lives.