Once our vision or dream is in our mind vividly, it is time to act or nothing will happen. It is time to make dreams real. When we write down what we want, we have goals instead of visions, dreams, wishes and wants. We turn our dreams into something tangible by writing them down. The rubber is meeting the road. We have made a declaration as to what we are pursuing and are making a huge leap of faith in putting our goals to paper, but it is a worthwhile leap. Studies have shown that people who put their goals on paper have a much greater chance of achievement. In 1979 the Harvard MBA Business School did a study on goal setting with its graduating class. 84% of the class had no written goals, 13% of the class had written goals with no plan for achievement, and 3% of the class had written their goals and made a plan for achievement. After ten years, the 13% that had only written goals down was making twice as much money as the 84% with no goals. Furthermore, the 3% of students that had written down their goals and developed a plan were making ten times as much as the rest of the class (www.wanderlustworker.com). Writing down goals and developing a plan is powerful and a tremendous step to success.
Writing down goals may seem daunting at first because we are exposing ourselves and what we want. We are creating a mission statement that we now own and cannot rationalize away when things aren’t going the way we want them to in our quest. Aside from that, most of us don’t know how to write goals and what to include in our written goals. There is a right and wrong way to write the goals that will guide our plan. In this part of the goal setting process, we follow a system of writing DART goals. DART is an acronym that stands for Distinct, Assessable, Realistic, and with a Time table. We use the acronym DART because goals are like a dart. We fly in a specific direction in a direct manner. There is a target that a dart is boldly thrown at. This is how our goals should be attacked.
Writing goals is a deliberate action with a specific routine that allows them to start taking shape in the journey to reality. Being systematic in our writing keeps our goals from being ambiguous and ensures that we know exactly what we are striving to achieve. We are preparing ourselves for what lies ahead in our life. Louis Pasteur stated the “Chance favors the prepared mind.”
Writing DART goals sets the stage for creating a focused plan and guides the direction of our actions which gives us a better opportunity for success. This technique for writing goals gives us a foolproof template to make our dreams and visions concrete.
The first step in writing our goals is to make them distinct and direct. We need to cut to the chase in our goal writing with a specific initiative that is simply stated. The best missions have to the point, direct instructions. There is no time to be wishy washy in going after what you want, so our written directives need to be distinct. A major key to success is to know exactly what you want. LeBron James didn’t say he wanted to be a good basketball player; he wanted to be a star in the NBA. There was a target to his mission. When we write our goals, there must be a bullseye to aim for at the end of our flight.
The bullseye we are aiming at must be distinct and clear for us to fly toward. After we state distinctly what we want, we need to make sure our goals are Assessable. This is natural if we have distinct goals. Our goals need to have a tangible measurement for success. When we reflect, we should know definitively whether we achieved them or not. We must have some measured success to strive for and use as a standard. This benchmark needs to be noted in our goal setting. Fighting to achieve our goals is a competitive process in a competitive world where we either succeed or fail. Our written goals must reflect this and give us that standard to shoot for.
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and the 20th Maine had a goal that was easy to assess at the Battle of Gettysburg. Their mission was to hold the flank of the Union line. The 20th Maine understood that at the end of the battle their goal would easily be assessed. Therefore, they knew what they had to do and found a way to accomplish their goal and turn the tide for the North in the Civil War. Our goals should be as clear as this. At the end of the day, we should know without much contemplation whether or not we have achieved a particular goal.
As we compete to achieve our goals, we must make sure that we set Realistic goals. This is where the PMA goal setting process gets tricky. We want our goals to exceed what is achievable now, but fall within the realm of possibility. For this, an astute self -awareness is needed in putting our goals to paper. We must understand our comfort zone and realize success is outside of it. However, we also must know what is out of our possible reach without shortchanging ourselves. This is where our society is failing right now. We, as people, are terrible at understanding ourselves and our talents. We struggle on both ends of this spectrum. Many of us have a grandiose belief in our abilities with nothing to back our beliefs. A humorous realization of this is in the show “American Idol.” At the beginning of each season when the show goes around the country and searches for talent, it is evident that many people overestimate their talents. I find it troubling to see people that aren’t musically inclined and have done nothing in preparation believe that they are going to woo the judges and win the golden ticket to Hollywood. While it provides for some interesting viewing, it shows how many people do not understand their skills and abilities. As a coach, I see this all the time. Players (and parents) see themselves as better than their talents allow. It is a difficult situation, when a 5’7” backup with average hands that runs a 5.2 in the forty and doesn’t like to train sets his goal to become a Division 1 wide receiver. This makes for some tough and honest conversations when we review the goals together.
However, the opposite of this dilemma is also true. We have a large percentage of our society that sells themselves short. Too many people lack confidence and grit for a multitude of reasons. We must be better at teaching people to believe in their abilities and grow in toughness. Goal setting is a vital way for this group to achieve. It makes them challenge themselves to get out of the comfort zone and do great things. Self awareness is the key ingredient to making our goals just out of our reach but attainable.
Finally, we must set up a Timetable for accomplishing our goals. As a coach, this is usually an easy thing for me as we know when the season is taking place. In fact, many goals in our lives have a definitive timetable put in place. However, a large amount of goals need to have a timetable put in place. This makes us accountable to what we are going after. It creates a sense of urgency that keeps us sharp and on track with our plan. We tend to work better and be more productive when we are working to a deadline. For example, when I set a goal to save money for a vacation, I need to set a date for that vacation. If I don’t, my kids will be unhappy with me when the summer goes by and we don’t go anywhere.
The written goal makes what we want tangible and puts it out there to accomplish. We now have a definite point of attack, a bullseye, to shoot for. Now we must plan our course of action to go with this sense of purpose that we have.
Win with PMA 