There are two things I hate more than peas…creating a resume and writing down my goals. People are saying things like, “How can you achieve your goals if you don’t know what they are, so write them down,” or “Goals are a road map to your success and happiness,” or “Goaaaaaaaallllll”. The first two aren’t at all helpful. The third one tells me that I’m listening to futbol and the score has changed. The problem with vague goals is they don’t really give one a working plan for how to achieve them. My overall goal, and I think this is similar for many people, is to, “Achieve so much wealth and fame that world domination becomes a foregone conclusion, women at parties adore me, and the masses willingly give up their parking spots when I approach...in my Bugatti Veyron.” I mean, duh, that is everyone’s goal, isn’t it? I digress. The point is one must have something that is measurable and attainable. That doesn’t mean easy, just possible. World domination has been tried before with little success. How do I write goals? In my opinion, a goal should not be confused with a step towards achieving that goal. In the 12th century there was a beautiful princess who lived in a tower at the top of a mountain. She was not held against her will, but simply liked the view of the world from her lofty home. Her father wanted her married to a rival King’s daughter, but she would have none of it. They fought for many months until finally she declared that she would be wed to the first suitor who climbed the steps to her home. They were not ordinary steps. Some had lose rocks that made them treacherous, other’s contained traps that shot spikes and arrows at those who approached, and one stretch passed a cave with a ferocious fire breathing guinea pig. Many the brave knight bound up the stairs with his eye on the prize, but fell to the impediments along the way. It was the less than brave, but very cautious son of a sheep herder who won the day. He did not think about the princess, though she was his goal, he considered each step of the journey. He carefully brushed away that which might make him stumble, and he found each trap before moving forward. When he reached the fierce fire breathing guinea pig, he pulled a bag full of basil from his satchel and made a friend. He was allowed to pass. When he and the princess were married, it went viral, and even Psy showed up to play a song or two. The point is one must take goal creating seriously, but not confuse the object of one’s desire with the path to get there. My goal. To open the NY Times and see one of my books listed on their best seller list. • What are the outcomes which are necessary conditions to achieve my goal? (The Steps and Guinea Pigs along the way, if you will.) 1) I have 10,000 email subscribers to my newsletter 2) I have a FB campaign that is revenue neutral. I’ve written the steps as finished actions intentionally. In order to achieve my goal, I need to HAVE 10,000 email subscribers and I need to HAVE built a (or several) FB advertising campaigns that are revenue neutral. When I say revenue neutral, I simply mean that the cost per conversion is equal to or less than the profit from the sale. When I find the campaign that can achieve this point, I’ll be able to combine it with other advertising and a newsletter to generate the required sales to land on the NY Times list. (probably 3,500 – 5,000 sales from Sunday through Saturday of a given week) This past week was my most successful. I had 342 sales of Henry Wood Detective Agency and 370 sales of Henry Wood: Time and Again. This is a far cry from 3500, but it is a good place from which to begin. Currently, I have 33 people on my email mailing list, so that is an area that needs some attention. I’ve shared my method and how I created my goals for three reasons. 1) I hope it might help others who hate creating them as much as I do. 2) I find writing anything (even goals) goes easier if I think about it in terms of a blog post. 3) It was my homework for Mari Smith’s FB marketing class. (Check) So, thanks for giving my goals a read. What are your goals?
Posted on: Tue, 12 Nov 2013 02:01:13 +0000
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