Goals: Success = Small Steps
July 2, 2008 Posted by ThomasGoals are so important when it comes to being successful in whatever you are doing. Otherwise it is like trying to drive to a new destination without a map – you are sure to get lost.
Your Goals Are Your Map To Success
Let have a think about maps for a second. You start at once spot and you are trying to find the best route to your destination, so you start plotting your course, finding out which streets you have to take and the land marks you will pass along your way. Each of theses streets and landmarks are important in reaching your final destination because without them you would not know if you were still heading in the right direction.
It Is The Same With Your Goals.
With whatever you are doing, whether it be affiliate marketing, blogging, product creation or any goals that you may have in life, you have one goal that is your final destination. For example, in blogging my final destination is to become a blogger that has maximum exposure and authority in my blogging niche while making a full-time income.
Now I cannot expect to reach my final destination if I have not mapped out a course to get there. My final destination is a great example because it is made up of three different sections:
- Blogger With Maximum Authority that has a
- Blog With Maximum Exposure while making
- A Full-Time Income
You may be thinking, “don’t they all roll in together?” and at a first glance it does look like it. If a blog had maximum authority, you would think it has maximum exposure. And if you had an authoritative blog with maximum exposure, you would have to believe that it would be making a full-time income. But that is not the case.
I have seen many blogs that have just one of these qualities, which has made me realize that I have to start mapping 3 routes that I will have to travel simultaneously, to arrive at my final destination.
Back To Street And Landmarks
Let’s back track for a second. Now that we have realized we need to start plotting the routes to our goals, remembering that we may have to take more than one route – depending on our final goal, we need to make special stops along the way that we can use as markers to make sure that we are still on track.
Just as when you are driving to somewhere new and your passenger is telling you, “Now turn left into (street name), then follow that along a couple of miles and you will pass (large local shopping center).” You need to create smaller goals that will make sure you are heading in the right direction.
You have to be diligent with your small goals because one wrong turn – one missed goal, may have you heading in the opposite direction of your destination.
How To Break Your Goals Down
The best way I have found to create my small, guiding goals is to estimate how long I expect to take to reach my final destination and then break that time period down into smaller time frames with smaller goals – it’s quite simple really.
Let’s look at a simple example:
Let’s say that my goal is to have 500 rss feed subscribers for my blog within 6 months, and we currently have 50.
This means that in 6 months we need to get 450 new subscribers! This may look like a daunting number but lets start to break down the numbers a little bit.
- 450 New Subscribers (Divided By) 6 Months = 70 New Subscribers A Month
70 new subscribers a month! This is more that we currently have in total, so the goal still looks a little bit daunting. Let’s break it down more. - 70 New Subscribers (Divided By) 30 Days = 2 New Subscribers A Day
I don’t know about you, but two new subscribers a day just seems so much easier to believe than 70 subscribers in a month, or 450 in 6 months!
2 Subscribers A Day
Now we know what we have to achieve each day to hit our 450 new subscribers in 6 months, we can keep track of our progress and re evaluate if necessary. If after one month we realize that we have only gained 35 new subscribers we can now stop and look at what we have been doing and consider different routes – maybe even short cuts, to help us get our goals back on track. An example of a shortcut could be a contest or a free present for subscribers.
Make Sure You Are Setting Your Small Goals!
So I encourage you to take a look at your goals and ask yourself the following questions:
- Am I heading In The Right Direction?
- Am I On Target To Reach Them In The Desired Time?
If you answer yes to this question, hopefully you already have your small goals in place. If not I highly recommend that you create some.
However, if after answering those questions you realize that you are not looking at hitting your goals when you planned – or maybe not even at all, then you need to stop what you are doing and map out your route. Having a detailed route to your destination will save you a lot of wasted time, wasted money and frustration!
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This is a guest post written by Tom Sinfield over at StandOutBlogger.com who runs a blog that focuses on training, inspiring and encouraging bloggers to stand out from the crowd and start making money.
I havent really set site goals in specific for my site. I set goals on the work end like, post once a day, make a list of keywords to go for and just go down the list ranking for them.
I just do what i think will improve my website. Seems to be working too : ) gained 200 RSS subscribers in the last 2 days.
I agree, setting goals is important. When I first started out blogging, I used to just go with the flow. Some days I didn’t post and sometimes for weeks. When I set a goal number of posts per day, I noticed an increase in traffic, subscribers, and returning visitors. Same goes for my goals towards visitors and revenue.
Great post, Tom. There’s no point saying ‘I’m going to be a millionaire’ if you’ve got no idea how to get there – even buying a lottery ticket takes a bit of planning!
Thanks nicola, you are exactly right. I think it is funny when people make all these wild claims but have nothing to back up how they are going to get there.
Interesting tips!! Well Tyler i find you very goal oriented. Now, that’s what i like about you, you never give up!! Hope your map takes you to the desired destination….
This was a guest post by Tom Sinfield – I didn’t write it 🙂
I’m still not completely sure how to utilize RSS on non-IM blogs. My main site is a non-IM blog and I am struggling to get subscribers. I don’t even use an RSS reader myself so I wonder how important it is for non-IM blogs.
Focus on promoting the E-mail Feedburner subscriptions, labelling as “Get Site.com Updates by E-mail!”.
I do this exact same thing. I set daily goals for myself for almost every aspect of my life. It is much easier to hit a daily goal, then a goal of “make $100 a day in 6 months”.
i’m just happy to make 10 bucks a day….that’s a website you can sell for 5000$.
I love how you took all of your goals and broke them down into smaller goals.
A big goal like getting 50 RSS subscribers in one month can seem like a very big number, but breaking that down not only makes it seem more realistic but chances are, will help you actually get it done.
If you break it down then your confidence with your self may rise and there is a greater chance that you will believe in yourself and get things done.
I too have made some goals for July and they seem very big at first, but if I break them down into little bits and pieces it makes things a lot easier.
http://ironblogger.com/a-goal-checklist/
Thanks for the post Tom. It was a good one.
I never have sat down and set myself a list of goals for my blog, although I have done it with other sites. But this is a great post and I will definitely set myself some blog goals right away.
I just think it’s funny how people completely miss that this was a guest post by Tom lol… I remember when I guest posted, a couple of people didn’t even know it was written by me! lol!
But I’ll probably have a guest post coming to you soon, Tyler.
Jay
yes, nice sentimental article.
slow and steady wins the race. 😉
This is a small thing to point out, but it’s also important to pay attention to your math because 2 subscribers a day gives you only 366 subscribers in 6 months. Sometimes we always do “friendly rounding” 🙂
Thanks for the great post. This concept is very important for success
I’m a huge fan of the “continued incremental steps” approach to success. A little bit a day for a long time adds up.
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