time with her. He promised his kids that he’d spend more time with them.
When he got to bed, he’d look at his watch, then look at the photos of his family on his nightstand, and realize that once again he hadn’t spent “more time” with his family. Richard knew in the back of his mind and in his heart that he wanted and needed to spend more time with his family. He knew that his family was a priority, so why couldn’t he make this happen?
He knew this, but those thoughts had not been moved to the conscious part of his brain. He had no visual reminders of his priorities and targets that would focus his thinking.
GOAL
Make any and all decisions in work and life based on your targets. Post your targets in a place where you can view them daily.
TACTICS
Capture Your Personal Targets
1. Take out the personal priorities list that you created in the previous chapter.
2. From this list, write down your top three personal (and measurable) targets.
3. View your personal targets list every day.
4. Make decisions in your personal life and in your work life based on these personal targets.
Capture Your Work Targets
1. Take out the work priorities list that you created in the previous chapter.
2. From this list, write down your top three work targets. (These also should be measurable.)
3. View your work targets list every day.
4. Make decisions in your personal life and in your business life based on these work targets.
STRATEGY
According to multiple studies, we are more successful when our goals are challenging yet realistic — and they can be measured. When your goal cannot be measured, it’s easy to bow out and, therefore, never obtain the success you want.
If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.
— Laurence J. Peter
The research says it all. Be specific.
Because most people never sit down to define specifically what it is they want, they feel as if they’re constantly chasing what they can’t reach. But if you don’t know what you’re aiming for, how do you know that you’re not there already?
How do we know if we’ve hit the bull’s-eye if we don’t know what the target is?
So many times, we feel like we need to keep burning the midnight oil because we haven’t made it yet. In actuality, many of us have accomplished far more than the average bear, but we haven’t given ourselves credit because we didn’t know what our specific target was in the first place.
If your health is one of your priorities, you can choose a target related to it, like walking 30 minutes each day. If spending time with your spouse is a priority, you can choose a target related to that, like spending two solid hours with him/her this weekend. Creating a specific target from your priorities list will help you to focus on creating a life outside of work. Having this target will help your brain to make better decisions about how you use your time.
A major snag in the goals lists I’ve seen people create is that they contain intangible or unmeasurable goals. When I ask clients what their goals are, here are typical examples they give:
I want to…
• be successful in my career
• make enough money to support my family
• spend time with my family
• be healthy
• be happy
All that is wonderful, but how do you measure it? Does the airline website on which you book your plane ticket post a notice stating, “You’ll earn a wad of miles for this flight”? Or does it clearly state, “You’ll earn 5,321 frequent flier miles”?
When you say, “I want to get better” or “I want to make more money” or “I want to spend more time with my kids,” those aren’t specific targets. Words like more and better are relative. It’s crucial to choose measurable targets — numbers.
It’s time to be specific so that you know what you’re trying to achieve. Let’s take apart the sample goals listed above and transfer them from general, unmeasurable terms to specific, measurable terms.
Be successful in my career = I will…
• work X hours per week
• make $X per year
• get X new clients
• earn the X title
• earn X percent on customer service ratings
• earn X on my employee evaluation, etc.
Make enough money to support my family = Our monthly budget is $X, so I want to make $Y in order to live comfortably.
Spend time with my family = I want to…
• spend X hours per weekday with my kids
• spend X hours per weekday with my significant other
• spend X hours per weekday with my ______ (insert other family member)
• spend X hours per weekend with my kids
• spend X hours per weekend with my significant other
• spend X hours per weekend with my ______ (insert other family member)
Be healthy = I will…
• use no more than X sick days this year for actually being sick
• have a cholesterol level of X
• have a blood pressure level of X
• get X hours of sleep each night
• drink X ounces of water each day
• walk for X minutes daily
• eat out no more than X times per week, etc.
Be happy = Is this a separate definition, or is it what you defined above?
When you write down your goals, you’re more likely to accomplish them. So in addition to being specific, it’s important that they be written down. If you write down your targets, you’ll be more likely to reach them, since you’re bringing them out of the mists of your subconscious and into the forefront of your brain, as Richard (whom you met in the beginning of the chapter) eventually did.
