Hi, today I’m going to talk about SMART goals. I think the reason that most people fail when they set out to, I guess, make a change in their life or the way they do business is because they aren’t setting SMART goals and SMART goals aren’t about, well, I’ll just tell you what SMART goals are.
SMART stands for, in this case, specific, measurable, assignable, realistic and time related. Okay. A SMART goal isn’t something like, “I’m going to lose 20 pounds in two weeks or two days.” That’s even less realistic. It’s also not necessarily in your control.
“I’m going to work out three times a week.” That’s something that is in your control, specific, and measurable, time related. You can see what I’m saying here.
Okay, so let’s say you’re an author and you want to make an appearance at a library at least once a year. You’ve just decided you want to do that. That is specific: library event. Measurable: once. Assignable to yourself: you can set that up. Realistic. Yes, it is. It’s totally doable.
Find the contact at your library who handles community events, whatever it’s called, whatever the position is called, community affairs, library events, whatever, and get in touch with them. Set it up within a year. There you go. That’s a smart goal, and it all depends what goal you set particularly depends on what it is you’re trying to achieve.
If you’re trying to achieve greater awareness where you live, of who you are and what you write, obviously you can do lots of local events. You can set up signings at local bookstores or simply make appearances at non-traditional places that will let you sign like coffee shops. I’ve done a signing at a coffee shop at least once.
Well, actually twice if you count England, which was an informal signing to say the least.
Having said that, that’s really all I had to say today. I just wanted to talk about SMART goals, and then I ended up talking about signing in coffee shops in England of all places. Yes, that was fun and I’ll never forget it. So that’s all for today, and I’ll talk to you later.
PS: I neglected to mention the signing I did in Dublin, Ireland! Very informal. 🙂
