How to Clearly Define Your Goals

[Black November]

Some of the posted goals are fairly vague and hard to measure. Instead having a goal to be "better" at something, try to using words that can be seen, heard, or measured. Using Behavioral Language like this, will make it easier to achieve your goals. Below are some examples:

Bad Goal:  Shooting - Improve may aim
Good Goal:  Shooting - 10 rounds within a 3 inch group at 25 feet with pistol

Bad Goal:  Black Smithing - Learn to make tools
Good Goal:  Black Smithing - Make 3 hand tools (tongs, prybar, hook)

Bad Goal:  Gardening - Improve my garden
Good Goal:  Gardening - Grow 10 lbs of food, and make a salad with ingredients only from the garden

Bad Goal:  Fitness - Get in better shape
Good Goal:  Fitness - Lose 20 lbs and run a 12 minute mile

By being more specific about your goals, it will help to set milestones and make your goals more achievable.

[rikkrack]

great post and info. I threw some out as I had no time  to define them more but this makes great points. I will incorporate into my edits.

We have to use similar writing styles when writing our own yearly reviews for my job. Yes we write our own and boss signs off on it. good and bad but using measureable/quantifiable goals you can demonstrate you succeeded and no "gray" area if you actually accomplished anything. Clearly defined and measurable.

[Crazy Fox]

Good point. I initially sped through and made very "grey" goals like "improve plant identification skills" just to get something on paper. I realized that these weren't very helpful so I went back and added things like "learn to identify 10 new local plants".

After reading your post, I realize I'm still too vague on some goals so I'll be going back over them again to make them more descriptive so that my progress will be more measurable.

[Kilted Brewer]

Thanks, this is a great reminder... some of my goals were pretty easy to define using behavioral language and I did so without giving it much thought.

I'm having a harder time with some of stuff I know very little about.  Being such a novice makes it difficult to even know what questions I should be asking, much less setting reasonable goals.

I'm going to go back and try and make some more specific, with easily identifiable progress check points along the way to the goal.

Thanks again.

[offbeatbassist]

I like the idea of the behavioral language.. I have started out with basic broad goals because I didn't really have time to put into it from the get-go. I have done better in editing them, but some will have to wait until I know a little bit more about the skills. Some of the skills I have picked, I dont really have any idea how to pick out a goal because I know absolutely nothing about it.

Thanks for the suggestion Black November... I think it's a great way to make our learning more measurable for sure. I will be working to implement it as I am able. 

[Insidious]

Something I ran into recently..

MTO goals: Minimum - Target - Outrageous
The idea is that your minimum is something there is no way you can fail at. The target is what your goal would usually be, and the outrageous is something you can't believe you could do (but you probably can).

Example:
Plant Identification:
Minimum - Learn to identify one local edible plant by July 1, 2013.
Target - Learn to identify ten local edible plants by July 1, 2013.
Outrageous - Learn to identify 20 local edible plants, and use (eat) them by March 1, 2013.


The minimum goal should feel like: I could do that in my sleep! (banish fear of failure)
The target: I could do this if I applied myself.
The outrageous: 'Wouldn't it be awesome if..!!!' (create excitement)

[cathleeninnh]

Thanks to everyone for this reminder. I had put five vague goals out there and was already starting to feel daunted by the prospect. Now I know that I can clean it up and really do them.

[ant]

MTO goals: Minimum - Target - Outrageous

I love this!  What a great idea.  I especially like that it encourages taking baby steps.  I will definitely use that as I'm making goals for myself.  Thanks for sharing!

- ant

[PaCoTx]

Something I ran into recently..

MTO goals: Minimum - Target - Outrageous
The idea is that your minimum is something there is no way you can fail at. The target is what your goal would usually be, and the outrageous is something you can't believe you could do (but you probably can.)

...


The minimum goal should feel like: I could do that in my sleep! (banish fear of failure)
The target: I could do this if I applied myself.
The outrageous: 'Wouldn't it be awesome if..!!!' (create excitement)

Awesome.  I'll be using my "minimum"  to define when i can report my skill as "in progress" .   

[Ghosthacker]

Excellent tip..never thought of writting my goals this way..looks like I
got some editing to do after giving this some more thought...

[Westonian]

MTO goals: Minimum - Target - Outrageous
The idea is that your minimum is something there is no way you can fail at. The target is what your goal would usually be, and the outrageous is something you can't believe you could do


The minimum goal should feel like: I could do that in my sleep! (banish fear of failure)
The target: I could do this if I applied myself.
The outrageous: 'Wouldn't it be awesome if..!!!' (create excitement)
[/quote]

Excellent advice. +1