I have been thinking about goals quite a bit lately, maybe because of my recent 'PCT Lessons' entry, or maybe it's because of the new year and all of the resolutions that come with the changing of the calendar. Either way, I have been thinking about what makes a good goal--specifically, what I would refer to as actionable goals versus primary goals.
The Problem With Broad Goals(aka 'Wishful Thinking')
When creating a website, my main goal is to make money. I create a full listing of idealized goals, like, I'll make xx dollars per day or that I need xx visits to the website per month. The problem with these types of goals is that in reality I don't have too much control over them and they don't dictate how they will be achieved. I can't place these items on my daily to-do list because they don't tell me what to do. Goals such as this I would define as primary goals. They are the ultimate items to achieve, but by themselves are somewhat meaningless.
Making Goals You Can Act On
In order to be successful with my primary goals I need to define a list of goals that I do have complete control over, as well as how these relate to accomplishing the primary goals. This takes considerable more time to clearly define. The key to all of this is to take what is out of your control and move it into the realm of what you can actually do.
To continue with my example of developing a website (since it's kind of what I do, but the ideas here can be applied to anything), I have a goal to create a totally new website that will make $500.00 per month. How do I make that $500.00? Well the main thing is to get visitors to my site, and based on past experience and other resources online, I know that I need to have about 250,000 visits during the course of the month. Again, this number doesn't really do too much for me, since this doesn't tell me how to get those visitors.
To be able to move on these primary goals, I need to do a little more work to arrive at goals that I can control. There are numerous ways to draw visitors to a website, such as paid online advertisements, increasing the overall page count of the site (which casts a bigger net for those looking for information online), or building backlinks to my site to increase my website's page rank. The important element is to calculate how each of these actions relate to my broader goals.
To focus on one possible path, I know that if I add more pages to my website, that this will increase the amount of revenue that the site brings in. Like a good data geek, I do keep track of the number of visits my websites receive, and also the total amount of pages that I have built out at any given time. This gives me the opportunity to easily calculate what the average page on my websites generates in revenue. I now know that if I create a certain number of pages, that I will be able to increase the amount of money I will make. I now have a good, actionable goal: create a certain number of new pages. By following this approach, I can move beyond the wishful thinking of those broad, primary goals, and instead focus on goals that I can control.
