There is a Scripture in Psalms that says, “The steps of a good man [or woman] are ordered by the Lord.” I interpreted this Scripture in my life to mean that walking into my destiny is a step-by-step process. I truly believe that God provides all of us with the right steps to get to the right place at the right time. As we continue uncovering how to maximize your gift and finding the best opportunities for using your talents, we’re now going to look at how to turn these steps into practical goals for your future.
We all have dreams about the life that we truly want to live. Some people take the leap of faith to walk into their dreams, while others remain on the sidelines waiting for a magical moment to happen. What separates the dreamers from the doers? Goals. I don’t care how vivid your dreams are: Without goals, your dreams will remain a someday phenomenon instead of today’s reality. Goals are the key ingredient that helps us stay focused, consistent, and diligent on our path to achieving our dreams.
Another way to think about moving your dreams into goals is to imagine that you are climbing a mountain. Your dream is the summit. Every good mountain climber starts out on his journey with his mind focused on the summit. Every step forward, every pull of the rope, and even every pause to regain energy is executed by focusing on his goal. Once he reaches the top, he takes a moment to rest, regroup, refuel, and relish in his victory. But every true climber knows that this is just another leg of the bigger journey. Reaching one summit can never be it for the true climber—each time that he pushes his lungs harder, climbs higher, and scales an even more dangerous rock, he knows that it’s just preparation for the next journey.
Wherever you are on the mountain—the top, the bottom, midway up, at the rest stop, at the first-aid station, or even poised to stick the flag in the summit—trust and believe that I have been at all those places in my life. I have stuck the flag in the summit. I have been at the rescue station, the first-aid station. I have been halfway up and fallen all the way back down. I have been caught in a cave. I have fallen in between the cracks and crevices of the mountain. I have been trapped on the mountain. I have been covered by an avalanche on the mountain. You name it, on this mountain, I have done it all. I have been told to not even bother climbing because, they said, I didn’t have what it takes to make the climb.
I want you to start thinking of your goals as your personal climb to the top of your dream mountain. You can’t just expect to wake up tomorrow and become a millionaire, or have your product be a worldwide sensation overnight, or get the position you have been coveting. What goals are you willing to put in place to make your dreams come true?
I know that goals can often be overwhelming if you take in the full picture at one time, but think about how you can break down your climb into smaller sections. You know yourself better than anyone else, so be honest about what will keep you motivated and inspired. Do you need to take this journey with someone else to ensure that you will keep your word? Will it be better to go solo to stay focused? What kind of milestones do you need to keep yourself on track? Are there better times to execute certain parts of your journey than others? These are good questions to keep in mind as you work your way toward your dream.
Goals are essential because they give you realistic, measurable, and specific targets. They are necessary benchmarks that give you the energy, confidence, and assurance to keep moving in the right direction toward your dream. They can also serve as a handy map for attaining your dreams.
If step one in your journey to become a small-business owner is to do research with a shop owner whom you admire, then pick up the phone, input the number, and have that conversation. A goal is not saying, “Yeah, I’ve been meaning to talk with Mr. Smith about opening my own shop,” and then allowing that statement to fall flat by not following up with some action.
You also have to set up your goals in a way that ensures your success. I know you’re excited now that you have this book in your hands and you can really see yourself opening up that bookstore and café you’ve always dreamed of. But don’t sprint out of the gate to apply for that small-business loan or seek angel investors if you don’t have a solid business plan in place. I definitely want you to make big goals, but don’t make them so far outside your comfort zone that you set yourself up for failure. If you honestly don’t know where to begin, start by just setting up a regular time in your calendar to focus on your dream. If you have an hour to yourself after you drop the kids off at soccer practice, sit down in your favorite spot and make that your goal time. If there is someone in your church or your community group whom you can recruit for some conversations, allow them to help you chart out your goal process.
Your goals also need to be tailored to your gift, your skill set, and your lifestyle. I don’t expect a forty-year-old, married mom of three to work toward her goals at the same pace as a twenty-five-year-old single man. The woman has an entirely different set of responsibilities that may require more members on her team to help her achieve her goals. By the same token, the twenty-five-year-old man may need more mentors and visionaries to make up for his lack of experience. Create your goals for you. Don’t waste your energy dwelling on how someone else did what you want to do or how fast they made their goal a reality. Embrace your journey and the path God has for you.
One of the most popular methods for creating good goals is the SMART method. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Sensitive. Here are some key steps to keep in mind as you put the SMART method in place for your goals:
• MAKE YOUR GOALS SPECIFIC. Your goals are not just other random ideas floating around in your head. Your goals must be well defined and crystal clear. Create your goals with your ultimate summit—your dream—in mind.
• DEFINE YOUR MEASURES. Now that you’ve taken your goal out of your head and brought it closer to reality, how will you measure your success? Will it be getting new certifications over the next six months? Or will you increase your customer base for your side gig by 25 percent so that you can make this your full-time income within the next two years? Put your measures into real dates, times, and amounts so that you can quantify your goals. If you’re a person who needs some fire under you to keep going, ask a like-minded person to hold you accountable for your measures.
• AIM FOR THE ATTAINABLE . . . AND THEN STRETCH A LITTLE MORE. As you start out on your journey toward success, your goals should be attainable and should push you outside your comfort zone. For example, if you are in the process of courting investors to take your business to the next level, set up a conversation with that “big person” who you would never think would be interested in your business plan. He or she just may surprise you and get on board with an investment to knock your socks off, and you will surprise yourself by learning just how big you can be in the pursuit of your dream.
• GET REAL AND RELEVANT. There is nothing worse than having a goal that has you running in circles. Make your goals relevant to your finish line. If you are committed to launching your idea on social media, don’t waste your time posting and liking things on Facebook. Get your priorities straight and stay focused on goals that will keep you moving forward.
• TAILOR YOUR TIME. Your goals must have a deadline. When I started out as a comedian, there were certain goals I had each year for the kind of money that I wanted to make in the industry. Not that I was solely focused on the dollar amount, but having time-related benchmarks helped me to create better comedy sets, network with more people in the industry, and carve out a solid path for my future.
Once you start achieving your goals using the SMART method, what’s next? Next, I’m going to introduce you to the SETUP process. The SETUP process is simply asking yourself the following questions as you begin knocking out your goals:
1. What will be my next goal?
2. What will be my target and timetable for the next goal?
3. How will this goal prepare me for the next milestone?
4. If goal A doesn’t work, how can I put myself in a better position to achieve goal B or goal C?
5. Whom can I partner with to make the next step happen at a higher quality or a quicker pace?
As I mentioned at the start of this chapter, your goals should be a step-by-step process tailored just for you. You can’t expect to use my ladder to get to where you are going, and I can’t expect to use yours. The key is to have the right number of steps that will be attainable and have just the right amount of challenge to keep you motivated and moving forward.
1. WRITE DOWN YOUR DREAMS! If you do not have your dreams written down, they might as well not exist. Whether you are a no-tech, low-tech, or high-tech person, keep your goals with you in a way that works for you and your lifestyle.
2. CREATE A LIST OF GOALS UNDER EACH DREAM. Your dream will immediately come alive when you specify the goals that you need to make your dreams come true. One of my goals is for The Steve Harvey Show to earn a 3.5 rating. For those of you who are not familiar with the television industry, earning a 3.5 means that I have an average of 3.5 million viewers per show. I have the number “3.5” sown into the cuffs of hundreds of pairs of pants so that every time I step into them, I am stepping out on faith and believing that my show will become a 3.5. When I hit that goal, my earning potential will go to another level. Here is a working set of goals that I am developing for my team and me:
DREAM: Earn a 3.5 rating for the 2014–2015 season.
GOALS:
• Schedule two working retreats with production staff during summer 2014 to add three new segments to the show.
• Add weekly segment with Lisa Nichols for new “Motivational Monday” segment.
• Create a more robust social media plan to expand the show’s reach on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
3. CREATE A TIMETABLE WITH YOUR DREAM SUMMIT IN MIND. Imagine where you want to be in the next five years, and begin creating your goals from the perspective of achieving that dream. For example, let’s say you want to write your first book in the next three years. Map out the development of that book over a three-year period, so you can track your progress.
4. GET SMART AND SET UP YOUR GOALS WITH POWER. Using the SMART method and the SETUP process are powerful ways to make your goals practical and attainable. Walk through the steps that we covered in the previous section to ensure that you are creating goals that you can achieve and be proud of.
5. PRIORITIZE YOUR GOALS. I want you to be excited about your goals. But I don’t want you to neglect your family, your health, and your overall well-being in the process. Working toward your dream doesn’t mean that you get so laser focused that you lose sight of your priorities. Create your goals in such a way that you can still be a great parent, a great spouse, and, yes, even a dedicated employee while you are planning your exit strategy. And it’s okay if prioritization means making smaller steps so that you can have balance in your life. If all you can do is save five hundred dollars toward your dream this year, you’re now five hundred dollars closer to putting your gift into the right vehicle.
6. CELEBRATE YOUR PROGRESS. For every goal you achieve along the way, celebrate your journey. Often we get so caught up in reaching the summit that we forget to stop as we take in the journey and acknowledge our accomplishments. You have to be your first cheerleader on the road toward success. If you like to journal, create a Goals Journal to capture your progress. Create this journal as your personal space to articulate your thoughts, feelings, frustrations, and triumphs. If you need to process your journey with another person or other people, set up a regular celebration checkpoint with your team so that they can take pride in your accomplishments, too. Celebrating your goals is as much about honoring your work as it is a source of motivation to keep you moving forward.
The end of your success ladder may be hosting your own inspirational podcast or setting up fitness classes to help seniors in your building get healthy. Whatever your dream is, don’t let it swirl around in your head as just another lofty thought. Create goals for your dream that will make your gift come alive. As the saying goes, “Goals are dreams with their feet on the ground.” Take this chapter and use these steps to put some feet up under your wildest dreams.
What dream are you committed to fulfilling this year?
Create SMART goals for your dream using these definitions:
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Time-Sensitive