These are certainly fine qualities and they make for a very clever acronym.
However if we look at them more closely, we can see that two of those letters are unnecessary. We can easily cut them out and have our goals be no worse off.
As I am about to demonstrate, we really need only 3 letters: S, R, and T.
A solid goal then should be:
Specific – what exactly do you want? You need to know exactly what you are working for, otherwise how will you know when you’ve achieved it?
Weak goal: Become rich. How rich is rich? How will you know that you have achieved this goal?!
Solid Goal: Have £100,000 in my bank account within 5 years. This is much better! Now you can start breaking it down further and create milestones for your goal.
As you can see from the above, a goal that is specific is by definition also measurable, meaning that we don’t need to worry about the letter M. By making it specific, we make it measurable automatically!
Realistic – Ask yourself- is it really possible for me to achieve this? Some things are just not possible, no matter how hard you work at them.
For example, as much as I would love to be a professional basketball player the fact that I’m 5 foot 8 and have never played basketball in my life means that it’s supremely unlikely to happen. I accept this and rather than dwelling on what I can’t do, I focus on things I know I can achieve
By the way, I’m not suggesting for a moment that you sell yourself short when goal setting. By all means be ambitious. Actually, I’ll repeat that: BE AMBITIOUS!!
In fact, it’s often better to be over-ambitious than it is to be under-ambitious when it comes to goal setting.
“Aim for the stars and maybe you’ll reach the sky”
As you can see a realistic goal as outlined above is no different than an attainable one. The effect is the same.
Timely – Although the word timely may sound a little mysterious here, all it actually means is that your goal should have a time limit. If you are anything like me then if you don’t have a deadline you likely will not push yourself to get things completed.
When you introduce a time limit however, you are immediately guiding your subconscious mind towards success and towards achieving that success ASAP!
Weak goal: Complete my novel. When will you complete it?! Publishers give authors deadlines for a reason!
Solid goal: Complete my novel by the 31st of December 2011. Much better! From here, it’s easy to break your goal down into specific actions that ensure your novel gets written before the deadline.
In the words of Peter Druckers, “What gets measured gets done.”
Incidentally, this explains why SolidGoals.com is such a HUGE HELP in hitting your targets.
Not only do we help you to set your goals and to break them down into milestones along the way, but we also make sure that you stay on track by emailing you when the time limits for your milestones are approaching.
These features may seem fairly small individually, but when you combine them you can skyrocket your chances of achieving your goals. We literally HARRASS you into getting the success you deserve!
Best of all, you can meet other positive people who share your goal and are excited about supporting you on your path.
So there you have it, the three qualities that make a goal SOLID!! Please don’t just read them and nod your head – go and put them into action.
Set some goals NOW!