Who needs a ball when you have SMART Goals that are RED-E to rock?
It’s the 10th frame, 2nd ball; you’re hands are a little sweaty, your firing arm floats gently by your side as you await the return of your round instrument of destruction, and you know there is but one thing left to do. You must take this 15 pound lug of a thing and hurl it down, with just enough finesse and power, to mow down the remaining 3 pins that stand before you.
It’s not the easiest shot in the world, but then again it doesn’t matter all that much as you’re way ahead of the rest of the competitors… let’s shake that for now – why settle when we can aim for the top?
You reward yourself with a quick swig of your icy-cool Dr. Pepper and give yourself some internal atta-boys before approaching the line. You start the little dance that gets you situated.
You know you can do this, you have your goals in mind, you’re acutely aware of just what this win will mean for your success in the league, and countless Saturday nights’ worth of lessons learned come flowing back to lift you up just a bit higher.
You cock your arm back in a graceful arcing path, make the motions toward the launch, and release. You’ve done all you can and the rest is up to the lay of the land between you and those little white sticks taunting you at the end.
One thing’s for sure, you know exactly what you did do. Such focus, determination, and motivation kept your mind off what you SHOULDN’T do. After all, you weren’t aiming for the other lanes, were you?
No! You handled your goal following the SMART and RED-E criteria and are sure to win… right?
SMART Goals are for Smart People
You’ve probably heard of S.M.A.R.T. goals by now. You know, Specific / Measurable / Attainable / Relevant / Time-Bound… or the 500 variations thereof floating around the web. Good stuff for sure and certainly something we should all seek to commit to memory.
I’ll not detail the jibby-jabbies of it other than to provide a nice little image summary here:
SMART Goals are a great start to getting things done.
Whether you ascribe to just the plain old SMART Criteria, the SMARTER criteria, or are supercharging by the Getting Things Done (GTD) method… or any other form – I’m here to tell you that you could upgrade your method with only a few simple steps. Get RED-E!
SMART and RED-E Goals are for Smarter People!
By now, it’s plainly obvious that a goal needs to meet a majority of the SMART Goal criteria to set yourself up for a clean shot at your goal. I mean it makes sense, doesn’t it? You can cut bricks in half with a tiny, focused stream of water, but you’ll be there for years with a garden hose. Focus is a strength you must improve to succeed.
It’s time to not only make your goals SMART… it’s time to make sure they are RED-E! That’s right! RED-E to work, and RED-E to get things done! Here’s what RED-E can do for you…
You must have Rewards, must consider Ecology, should have Degrees of freedom, and should ALWAYS Evaluate your inputs and outputs.
(R) Reward: Something You Can Do to Reward Completion
Dr. Neil Fiore, in his book “The Now Habit“, mentions a little gem of a reward system called “Guilt-Free Play” (GFP). Basically, these are small instances of rewards that you set up for yourself after doing a set chunk of work. The reward should match the effort (or maybe exceed if you’re feeling awesome) put into the task.
Think of it this way: if you knew you were going on vacation tomorrow, chances are you would do all it takes to get stuff done as awesomely as possible today. You’d almost feel compelled and motivated as if there were no choice, right? Okay, now scale it back a bit. This is the small chunk GFP that you need to assign to your SMART goals to boost motivation.
You reward doesn’t have to be anything super-big or fancy, you’ll need to find what works for you. I know I like to snag a small handful of Peanut M&M’s after a good block of chores or writing is done. Or maybe a nice stretch and walk around the house. You’re in control here – do what works for you, but don’t make it extra work to come up with elaborate rewards.
You’re looking for carrots to keep you moving forward… knowing full well you’re the jockey on the donkey holding the stick.
(E) Ecology: How Will This Goal Affect Others?
No, I’m not really talking about the environment, animals, or fungi here… though they could be a factor depending on your goal. This is the part of the process where you need to make sure you are acutely aware of how accomplishing your goal will answer the following questions:
- How will this affect me?
- How will this affect friends and family?
- How will this affect the world?
In a nutshell, those 3 questions will cover a majority of your goals. You’re looking to greatly increase your efficiency without negatively impacting the rest of the world or your family. Consider other potential effects, determine their impact, and then either work around them or change your goal up to minimize them. This is also the part where you make your goals fall in line with achieving your vision.
Do the right things – the ends never justify the means. Do your homework.
(D) Degrees: Specify Achievement Options in a Set Scope
Ever feel like a goal is just too much to go after and is causing you some great grief? Sure, you could break it further and further into smaller goals, which I highly recommend, but how far can you take this? Will this piece-wise function work for every instance? Nope. I suggest another way of approaching the “bite-size-ability” of your goals.
The 3 Degrees of Freedom:
- Base: the minimum you must get done to complete the goal
- Normal: a medium level of achievement or what you expected to achieve
- Ultimate: the extraordinary level goal you could only dream of accomplishing
Set up a ‘Base’, ‘Normal’, and ‘Ultimate’ achievement degree level for each of your larger goals. You’ll find, more often than not, that you can get quickly motivated enough to aim for the ‘Base’ goal. However, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at which goal you actually start working toward once you get going… and no I won’t tell you!
For instance, I need to clean out the wood bin in my garage. I can setup the 3 Degrees of Goal Freedom as follows:
- Base: Throw away all contents of the wood bin by 10/01/2011.
- Normal: Organize wood bin contents by wood type and usability for future projects by 05:00pm, 09/30/2011.
- Ultimate: Cull useless wood to prep and preen all remaining wood for current projects by 09:00pm, 09/28/2011.
Try not to violate too many of the SMART and RED-E criteria when doing this – though it could be a wee bit difficult sometimes. This is really neat stuff and you just have to experience it for yourself. Prove me wrong or prove yourself right – whatever works for you!
(E) Evaluate: Reviewing Progress and Lessons Learned
Now here’s something that I know I am working on and will continue to work on. I’ve upped my evaluation and review skills here lately and let me tell you, it sure is nice to have a firmer grasp on my projects and goals. It makes running up the “Measurable” part of the SMART criteria a bit easier, too.
Set up concrete review times for evaluating your current big goals and plans. For instance, a monthly progress report and “should I change directions in any way?” assessment is a good idea. Combine this with a weekly (say Sunday evening?) checkup and planning sessions and you’re golden. Taking it up another notch? Go for an “end of day” review period to go through your “what is the next step?” goals. Consider a yearly check-up and review period, too – New Year’s or just after tax-time is a good choice.
In all of these review cycles, I highly recommend capturing any lessons learned in your idea and thought journal. You do have one of these by now, don’t you? You’ll thank me later after you’ve stuck with it for a few months. Don’t leave home without it!
Not every goal is going to need this level of detail. Sometimes you’ll just hammer right on through and there won’t be any lessons to record, either. So be it. Just say “NEXT!” and get moving on to the next one.
The SMART and RED-E Goals Will Motivate and Propel!
As with any tool or advice, you need to make it work for you. These methods won’t work for every goal you have and would be plain overkill for the smaller things. You’ll experiment and find what works for you overall. These methods will set you up with the CAPABILITY to tackle any goal. Which bits of the tool you end up using can be as fluid as you need them to be.
This is where I’d usually run through a quick overview of the entire SMART and RED-E goals process, but I decided to go up a notch this time. Here is a Job Aid / Cheat Sheet for the SMART and RED-E Goals criteria and goal setting plan. Hope it helps and please pass it along to your close ones.
CRASH!!!
The pins all come tumbling down and you’ve bested all of your opponents. You’re now the local bowling champion and you’re entirely confident it’s due to your practice and use of all of the tools available to you. Congratulations ! Cheers and here’s to your mastery over attaining the goal you set out to do. You’re ready to move on to the regionals, ball in tow, confidence high, and target in sight.
Are you RED-E to win?
Photo by: besighyawn