Setting Objectives

In a previous post  I talked about the need to have a clear vision if you're going to succeed in any business. So at this point we can assume you've created your vision and can see it clearly in your mind�s eye. Focus on it daily so when the going gets tough or progress is slow, you will remember why you are doing all of this. Focus also on what it will take to ensure you fulfill that vision, and this will bring you to the next leg of your trip, setting objectives.

This is where you start to plan, and this is where some of you will falter and others will shine, depending on your personalities. Did you ever read up on the various personality types? One sorting method is to put a color
on certain types. Yellow for caring and nurturing people like nurses. Red for A-Type aggressives like CEOs. Blue for creators like film makers and inventors. Green for planners and analyzers like engineers.

So if you�re an engineer like me, a green, planning is part of you. You live and breathe planning. For red CEOs it might not start out as natural but they learn how to plan as part of their training. For the yellows and blues it�s not such a natural thing to do. You will have to try harder than the rest of us.

The easiest method of setting objectives is to simply look at your vision and analyze what steps you will have to take to get there. Like following a road map. If your life�s ambition is to get from California to Nova Scotia, you fly to Chicago, change planes and go to Boston, then change
again and go across the border to Halifax. Now you might not have figured out all the required legs without some help from a travel agent, and a map. Neither will you necessarily figure out how to set your objectives without
some help. But if you really think about it, and maybe read an article or two, it will not be that hard to do.

Without knowing your specific vision it�s impossible for me to tell you exactly what your objectives should be. But let�s look at an example.

Say your dream is to become a veterinary within nine years, and you dropped out of High School two credits short of graduating. Your objectives might be:
1 - Finish High School within one year;
2 � Get into University in a BSc program in the next Fall;
3 � Graduate University at the end of year five;
4 � Get accepted into Veterinary College by the next Fall;
5 � Graduate Veterinary College after nine years.

Notice that these objectives are rather broad. Notice too that each of them gets you one step closer to achieving your vision, and there are timelines on them. Notice also that without your vision of becoming a veterinary you could not have set these objectives as precisely. Also realize that staying focused on that vision will help you through the next nine tough years.

So setting objectives is as simple as that. Examine your vision, determine the broad steps needed to get there, calculate the time involved and you are ready to go. A word of caution � make sure your objectives are
reasonable, measurable and achievable. There is nothing worse than setting yourself up for failure by choosing unrealistic objectives, or ones so
broad that you can�t tell when you�ve achieved them.