Are Your Goals Measurable?

When you chose to write goals for 2010, some of you neglected to do one very important thing – Make your goals measurable and something you can control. I know this because I have been reading many blogs by others who took the time to make new goals for the year 2010.

What does measurable mean? Well, it is something that you have control over. It is something you can quantify. For example, let’s say I have a recipe that says to add some eggs to the bowl. Is that measurable? No – you need to quantify how many – but not only that, you have to be in control. You can control how many eggs go into the recipe. A recipe tells you exactly how many eggs to put in.

Now, let’s say you want 100 people to visit your website every day. Is that measurable? Yes it is – it is quantifiable in that it has a set number. But is it something you can control? No it is not – you cannot go up to 100 people and force them to visit your site every day. But you can control the number of people you ask to go to your site.

In sales, can you control how much money you make each month? No, but you can measure the number of calls you make per day. You can measure the number of appointments you set up per day (because you keep going until you set up that number of appointments).

Let’s say you want to lose 20 pounds. Can you measure how much you lose per week? No, but you can measure how much of a workout you do and work backwards to find out how often and how much you need to work out to help you lose that weight. For instance, you may figure out that going for a thirty minute walk helps you burn one half pound per day. You can also measure how much you eat each day. But if you say you will eat four biscuits with butter instead of six, that doesn’t help you very much. You need to actually count your calories. “Eat less” just doesn’t work.

Lastly, you need to monitor and adjust. If what you are doing isn’t helping you set your goals, then you need to figure out why, correct it, and adjust.

Keep those New Year’s Resolutions! You will be better for it in the years to come.

Namaste