Episode 14 - Setting Smart Goals!

Updated: May 5, 2021

By Katherine Ramirez

Unknown Speaker 0:00

New Year, and you should be thinking about the new things that you want to achieve or overcome. Did you know that goals are just milestones and a roadmap for you to achieve the success that you want? goals help you stay focus. Without them, you will never achieve the success that you want or strive for. Tune into this week's episode of stand out and grow. So you can learn how to create SMART goals to help you or your business stand out and grow. I'm Kat Ramirez, your host of stand out and grow. I want to help your business stand out, survive, succeed and grow. building your business is really really hard. And knowing what marketing and advertising tools you need to help you be Successful is extremely confusing. After 30 years of working with thousands of businesses, I am here to help you make good business decisions. I want to help you understand the programs that are available to you so that you can stand out, survive, succeed and grow. So let's get started. This is Episode 14 of stand out and grow. Hello. What are your plans for success in 2020? Are you going to set goals for yourself or your team? Have you ever set goals for yourself or your business? Did you know that you can't achieve success without having a roadmap in place? This is what setting goals does. It creates a roadmap for you to stay focused and to follow so you can achieve success for your business or Your personal brand, or just your personal self development, tune into this episode so you can learn about how to set SMART goals to help you and your business stand out and grow. Hey, it's Kat and I am live. I'm in a new location because I took this week we had the middle of the week, Christmas Eve and Christmas. So the team took those two days off, and then they had the option of working from home the rest of this week. So I'm sure they're very appreciative of it and I am as well. So I'm in a new location.

Unknown Speaker 2:46

Anyways, what I put in my notes, today was goal setting, because this is a great time of year that we're going to start to think about setting goals. New Year's resolutions. Whatever you want to call it, but this is the time of year that you start thinking about them for 2020. And, you know, I've had a lot of conversation with people and some people say, Oh, I don't set any goals because, you know, I never follow through or, you know, after one month, you know, they fall, they fall apart, they, they just don't happen. And so, we're going to talk about why that happens, because I'm going to help you prevent that from happening. I am a proponent of setting goals. And especially if you want to achieve success, if you want to move forward, you gotta set some goals. It's the only way for you to create a roadmap, and for you to set yourself up for success is by setting goals and you got to do it. So. So let's talk about goal setting. And what are some of the things that I can give you offer Use of that that will help you in 2020, so that you have lots of success. And it actually comes to fruition and you have a roadmap and you have some focus and you are actually get committed and excited about your goals that you set for 2020. So I wrote some notes, and I'll just glance him as we talk about it. So one thing that I wrote down that I, I, I have to say is, you can't just say like things like, you know, oh, that's what I plan on doing. Oh, that's what I want to do. And that's my goal for 2020 because those things are never going to happen. When you set vague goals like that, and you just throw them out there randomly to people and you just say, yeah, you know, I want to get fit and 2020 they're so vague, that there's no way for you to measure it. There's no way for you to commit to it. You know, so you just making them so loosey goosey that Yeah, you're setting yourself up for failure on that situation. So I want to give you some structure so that when you do set the goals, excuse me, you actually are committed to it. And you have some milestones and timelines and you track it, you track the progress, because the people that set goals are typically the people that have more success. And I want everybody to have success, because we all should have huge success in 2020, there's there should not be any excuse not to. So as long as you create a roadmap, and you define your goals, and then you go after them, that's what's going to create the success for you, and 2020. And here's the other thing, your goals don't have to be, you know, related to work or your business. It could be personal, it could be held. I mean, there's so many different goals that you could be setting and so on. When you when I talk about this and we walk through this process, please keep in mind that, you know, big picture, these goals or whatever you want them to be, not what I want them to be not what someone else is telling you to be. And if you're a manager, oh my god, this is the best type of x. What is it? Kind of a workshop or something to engage with with all your sales people? Because how cool is it to learn and understand what your team's goals are? And when I say that, I mean not even work related, like personal and family or health, like how cool is it to understand what their goals are, and help them achieve it. I used to do this with my sales team every year. I loved it. And as we walk through the process, everything that we walk through is what I used to walk them through but it's also what I put myself through in order to plan for my goals for 2020. So let's walk through this process. And let's learn how we can accomplish this. So that you set yourself up for success. Again, the end of the day. We're just trying to set you up for success, so that it is a win win. And it's not just some random vague thing that you say, Hey, I'm going to lose, you know, weight this year. I'm going to be healthier this year. I'm going to work out this year. Those are so vague, don't do that. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 7:26

Okay, so the first thing you want to do is you want to set goals that motivate you. So what is what is one of your goals or you know, and again, you define how many goals you want. So that's not something set by me. It's not something set by any book or anything. You define how many goals let's say it's hypothetically, I'm going to set five goals for myself, okay? So you're going to set the goal and when you set the goal, so you're going to define what that goal is, and then what is the benefit of achieving that goal to you, or your family or whoever it is, because you have to be motivated by this goal, this can't be just some hypothetical goal, you got to really drill down, why you want to achieve this goal, and what is going to be the benefit to you or your family. So you've really got to be motivated by this gold. If anything, this is probably the most important step is when you define your goal. What is the motivation behind it? What's the reward for you, or your family or whoever it else it is that it affects because this has to be the motivating element to keep you on track, week after week, month after month, as you keep going through the year. So this is the most important step. So define your goal and then what is the benefit to you? So I let's just be hypothetical. I say, you know, my goal is to lose 20 pounds, and 2020. Okay? So, the motivational factor that benefits to me is I'm going to be lighter, you know, I'm going to be healthier, I'm going to feel better about myself, I'm going to be able to fit into some clothes that I have, like, buried. You know, I probably will, you know, feel a lot more energetic, you know, so I can write a laundry list of all the benefits of what would happen if I lost 20 pounds. So I'm just trying to give you an idea and I'm trying to help you understand, you gotta define when you set the goal, what is the benefit to you, your family or anybody else that affects because these are going to be the motivating elements that you remind yourself in case you fall off. Track. So please make sure you do not miss this step for each one of your goals. You want to make sure that you put each one of them in a high priority and that you are committed. And that it's you're going to be motivated by it. Right? Doesn't that work? That sounds good. So this is the first step. And remember to understand and know what about this goal? And what is it that is going to motivate you? So what are the benefits of if you achieve this goal? So that's very, very cool. That way, you don't just set random goals, this is going to help you eliminate a lot of like stupid goals, okay? And I'm not saying that there are some stupid goals, but I'm trying to help you accomplish the very strong ones, the ones that are gonna be important to you, okay? Because you can have a lot of goals. And I'm just trying to minimize them so that you know, we're back to reality and you have some legitimate goals. You're going to go after in 2020. Okay?

Unknown Speaker 11:04

Okay, so then.

Unknown Speaker 11:06

So when you define these goals, you're going to write all this down. So if I were you, I would commit to buying a journal of some sort, and writing these down because I have a journal for my goals. And it's good to keep track of it. And if you're in cells and your goals are going to be input into a CRM, that way, they're trackable. If you know these are health goals, you're going to put them into some type of journal or calendar or someone like that, but write them down, because writing them down means you're committing to it. So write them down. And I always say share them with people, share them with someone to hold you accountable. If you keep them to yourself and harbor them and never share them with anyone. You can fail your own goals. You don't have to fulfill them, you know, and I don't want you to do that and You don't want to do that. You want someone to hold you accountable, whether that is a spouse, friend, family, partner, whoever, but hold yourself accountable, even if it's through social media, if you're that brave, you know, but write them down and know what your goals are, because this is the most important part of it. Okay, so I also got a little grid. So let me pop up this grid because this is going to help you because the second thing you want to do is, let me take off this branding here. You want to set up SMART goals, because this is also going to help you stay focused and understand the goals that you're setting so that they're right on target and they keep you focused. So what is smart goals mean? It means and every word, every letter has an acronym so they're Specific, Measurable, Attainable, relevant And time bound, so relevant or realistic and time bound. So what does that mean specific is what we just talked about is what is the goal that you want, okay, you're going to write it down, and you're going to detail what that goal is, and is you're going to write down also, the benefits to you like what's going to motivate you about the goals. So that's this specific, okay? And then you're going to put a measurable criteria toward it so that you can track the progress. So when I said I am going to lose 20 pounds in 2020, my measure, my measurement is going to be 20 pounds. So that's how I'm going to measure it. So whatever your goal is, you need to make sure that it's measurable so that you can track it, and you can keep it on target. Okay, so whatever that measurement is going to be, you're going to define it and you're going to set the criteria so that you can monitor the progress and the success of it. Okay, and then is it attainable, you do not want to set up, you don't want to set yourself up for failure. You don't want to come up with goals that I it's going to be impossible for you to do or develop, because it

Unknown Speaker 14:17

involves, like money you don't have or anything like that. So it has to be attainable. So know and understand what your goals are and and know that they're going to be obtainable by you. Okay, with no extra effort. It's totally purely attainable. Okay. And then are they realistic? Is this a realistic? Is it realistic for me to lose 20 pounds? Yeah, of course it is. I just have to do it. So make sure that your goals are very realistic. So I'll give you an example of unrealistic and when I was in the sales world, and I had leaders above me and they would set these goals and some of them were really like Just horribly unrealistic because we never attain them. And they put these random stupid numbers against us, and we had to achieve them and we knew we would never achieve them. So when they're unrealistic, you're going to give up, you're not going to fulfill and stay focused. So make sure that your goals are realistic is 20 pounds realistic for me? Yeah, absolutely. It is realistic. I can do that. Absolutely. Yes. So that's realistic, and then time bound? Is there a time in do are you making a sense of urgency is or is it time sensitive? So for me, I did 2020. But as I plan my goal, and I write it out, and I do it in more detail, I might set that I'm going to lose like five pounds in the first you know, two months or a month, maybe, you know, maybe I do that. But however it is I'm going to set up the timeliness and my criteria. And so that's Going to help me in regards to measurement as well. Okay. So what is your time sensitivity for your goals, and they should be specific for each goal that you set. Okay? So keep that in mind. And again, this is the SMART goals that when you're setting SMART goals, this is the framework that you want in place for your SMART goals. Okay. So I hope this makes sense. I'm trying to go down my notes. Okay. So set the goals in writing. So let me I did another slide. So let me show you this other slide. I did, because this is setting the goals. Okay. I did another example of a slide. Let me pull it up so I can get to it,

Unknown Speaker 16:48

too. Oh, there we go. Sorry about that. So here is an example of like a goal pyramid. And so what I did was I I said, Well, here are my and these are not my real goals, just so you know, I will have to work on these. But this is the health goals I have. This is my family goals, these are my career goals, these are my leisure goals. This is my personal growth goals. And these are my financial goals. So you can have a myriad of different goals. It's how involved in how intensive you want your goals for 2020. And so this is a nice like, so that it's a nice balance of life, you know, personal life and work as well as financial. So, you know, here's another example. And so these are the specific goals. And then as I write these down and journal these I can elaborate on them and then again, define what is it about the goal, what is the motivating factors around each one because you have to have motivating factors on each one of them. And I'll give you an example. One of them says pay off one of your debt. So let's say I had a credit card. And I had, I don't know, let's just say hypothetically $5,000 on it, and that it was pain. And so what if my goal was to pay off that credit card? And so the benefit to me would be, I would have one less debt, right? So now, I hope you're understanding where I'm trying to go with this. And so there's a myriad of different goals that you can set for yourself, for your family, for your health, you know, this one family one, I put in here schedule a weekly date night. So you know, if you're a couple, or if your spouse or if you have a partner and you're finding that you're working too much, or you're not spending enough time together, then you know, this is a really good goal to set and then define what the benefits would be, well, you're going to have more quality time, you're going to enjoy each other more, you're going to learn about each other a little more. You know, because we we get into our rut where we work, we work too much too much. And so this would be a really good like Family goal. Okay? So put them in writing. I'm going to get rid of the screen right now. So how do I do this? Oh, there we go. Okay, so put them in writing, understand, you know what your goals are and what you want to set for yourself as your goals, whether their personal, their business, financial, family what or health or whatever those goals are, and you're going to write them down. So when you write them, so here's the thing on setting the goals and writing them. Keep in mind trying not to use the words, I would like to lose 20 pounds, that's very passive. You need to say, I will lose 20 pounds and 2020 because you have to be assertive and firm that you're going to do this. So make sure when you're writing Your goals down, you're using a command of I will do this. Don't use the weak words of, I might, I would like, don't use those words don't. Those aren't goals. Those are wishes or passive statements. You want to use firm, good solid statements that you're going to achieve, I will lose 20 pounds in 2020. Right? Or I will be, let's say the sales manager in 2020. Or I will, you know, I don't know get a raise in 20 whatever it is that your goal is or I will pay off this debt in 2020 and be very specific whatever debt it is on whatever credit card or loan or whatever that case may be. But please make sure that when you are writing Your goals, you're very specific, and you do not I say it again, do not use the word would like or might, please don't do that. So for your goals to be actionable, you have to make sure that you hold yourself accountable. And you are going to use power statements. And you make sure they're positive don't write down negative goals, make sure they're very, very positive. And then then if they seem like they're a negative golden spin it to be positive, because you want your goals to be positive. And I wrote us an example. So let me read the example of one and this is me as a business owner, coach, manager, whatever. If I said something like, if I wanted to improve on retention rate, then I could say I will help Old on to all existing employees for the next year or quarter or whatever the timeline runner put being rather than and I could I the negative way would say I will reduce employee turnover. Hmm, that's negative. So you want to stay positive you want it to be positive when you write these down and put them out there. Stay positive.

Unknown Speaker 22:27

Okay, so the other thing that you want to do in writing your goals and, and defining them as we just went through, okay, and the screen I just shared you, when you write these down and everything, okay, and you've defined your goals. Then the other thing you want to do is you want to create a to do list or action plan for each one. You want to have actionable items. Okay? So for each one of them, you want to make sure that you create an action plan. How am I going to get to this goal, you know, You're right, all the things that you need to do in order to get to that goal. That way, you have a plan of attack, and you have an actionable item. So let's say hypothetically, we're going to stay back on the 20 pounds. Okay? Let's say that my action plan will be to work out three days a week, and to make sure I eat healthy, right. And maybe it's a calorie count thing, or less fat or less sugar, or I'm going to cut out the sugar. I'm going to do you know, these actionable items to get to my goal. So, you're going to create an action plan for each goal. That way you achieve success and you set yourself up for success. But you have a roadmap and that's what you want. You want a roadmap. You want to make sure this you are making this easy for yourself. You don't want to make it hard. You want to make it easy, and you're putting a thought process to it and that way you can Get to the end with success. So you can celebrate, right? Okay, the fifth and final thing is you got to stick to it, you gotta stick to it, you're going to want to fall off, you're going to maybe fail a couple times and trying to achieve your goal. You want to stick to it regardless, you just want to get back on the horse and stick to it, you got to follow through, and you will run into some road bumps, you will, I mean, that's the whole point of setting up the goals. And that's the whole point of having an action plan. And that's the whole point of journaling them is because you want a sense of commitment to these goals, because you have to think about it number five, when you stick with it, you have to think about what are going to be the outcomes if I achieve this, because again, they have to be motivating and you have to remind yourself with the those outcomes that benefit either you, your family, somebody else, but you have to stick with it. And that's the whole point of number one is to bring it all back around full circle. And that's what you want to do.

Unknown Speaker 25:19

So,

Unknown Speaker 25:20

I, I'm going to share this screen. So you know, that I created like a goal tracker, you know, my specific goal and then what is what is the root benefit the reward, okay? And then what did I do to achieve it? Okay? So you can do something like this, or again, you don't, it doesn't have to be something like that. It can just be a journal, it could just be a, you know, a journal that you keep, and you're just tracking it every day. So, you know, it doesn't have to be anything formal or anything like that. Or maybe you do want something formal, but it should match your personality should match how you want Want to hold yourself accountable for the goals that you set in 2020. So, I hope this was beneficial. I know I will be working on my smart goals this week and next, and I'm going to put them into place and I'm going to hold myself accountable. And I'm going to have actionable items that I'm going to journal every day. So like I get to them. Oh, and the other thing I forgot. So when you write these goals down, I'm glad I just remembered this. Because this is really important when you write these goals down, like I said, sharing them and things like that, but print them off and put them in the common places that you're at all the time. So in front of your computer, your screen, share your your screen background, you know, put it on your mirror in your bathroom, put it in on the fridge. So put your goals out there so that you remind yourself to achieve that. These goals and go after them. So make sure that you have them visible. So that you know you're reminded every day that you're going to hit these goals. And then you're going to get it and you're going to achieve success. So basically setting yourself up for success, not setting yourself up for failure. Don't do that. When you say random thoughts of I'm going to do this, or this is my goal for 2020. And then you don't have any actionable items. You don't write it down. You don't do all the structured things to hold yourself accountable. They're more than likely not going to happen. Yep, not going to happen. So I would rather see you have success and have good quality goals in place that you achieve.

Unknown Speaker 27:45

And you get success and then you can celebrate

Unknown Speaker 27:48

Yay.

Unknown Speaker 27:50

And so on. The other thing I put it on the notes is don't think that your goals have to be for the whole year because a lot of times people fail because they make the goal for the 20 20 you know, maybe your goal is one month, maybe it's three months, maybe it's six months, don't feel like the goal has to be for the whole year. Maybe you create new goals every quarter, you know, so make sure that they're manageable and realistic, and attainable. So keep that in mind too. Okay, I hope that you set some awesome goals for 2020 and you have huge success. And

Unknown Speaker 28:33

you know, you knock it out of the park.

Unknown Speaker 28:37

Because, again, everything that I am giving you in these training sessions are to help you stand out and grow so that you will be successful, whether you're an individual or a business owner or whomever, you know, this is what that's for. If you're not connected with me already, please do. I am on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. So definitely connect with me I would love it. And if there's something you gotta this, please leave drop me a line,

Unknown Speaker 29:09

let me know.

Unknown Speaker 29:10

Tell me what your thoughts are, tell me your goals, throw it out there. I don't know, maybe you're brave enough. If you are just thrown thrown down, I would love to see them and hear your thoughts on them. That would be awesome. And as I always close with this, you got this and 2020 is going to be amazing. And you're gonna knock it out of the park. So you got this and I'll talk to you next time. Thanks a lot.

Unknown Speaker 29:44

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Unknown Speaker 29:49

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Unknown Speaker 30:04

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of stand out and grow. Check out all the notes and links at WWW dot stand out in grow.com. I am so thankful to you for helping this show continue to grow. I want to keep producing content that you want to hear. So please leave me some feedback. I look forward to bringing you more resources and information to help your business standout and grow. Please follow us on social media. And make sure you follow this podcast so you can learn more about helping your business stand out, survive, succeed and grow. Until next time, you got this