What does a Mantis Rototiller/Cultivator have to do with Self Development?
My long-time readers know how much I emphasize the importance of setting goals and objectives. Or, if you prefer, you can call it setting targets – some people just don’t like the word “goal.” 🙂
Well, this particular post is a bit off the beaten path in that the goals and objectives I’m going to share with you are not related to self development. BUT… What this post will clearly illustrate is how:
1) I practice what I preach in my Personal Goal Setting Strategies Guide (revised edition coming 2023!), and
2) anyone can write clear and concise goals and objectives for nearly any endeavor.
Also, if you are a long-time reader, you know that I feel that most people get stuck right at the get-go – primarily, I believe, because they don’t know the difference between a goal and an objective. I’ve written extensively about this in my Goal Planning Strategies Guide, as well as in numerous articles online.
Rather than go into the whole long explanation of the difference between goals and objectives here, let’s just do a quick recap since you can read about that in depth in the Personal Goal Planning Strategies Guide. In a nutshell:
=> Goals = the broad view or “big picture.”
=> Objectives = the measurable steps you take to achieve your goals.
Because of some positive results I have seen from this activity, I decided to share my own latest activity and results of setting goals and objectives from the last week.
So, there I was, thinking about gardening, and THAT thought got me thinking about our garden (which is currently under snow at this time). Then, my mind wandered to how soft the earth would be when we got home in May, and how that will be the perfect time to get it ready for the garden.
And THAT got me thinking about our small garden tiller – The Mantis Rototiller/Cultivator that we’ve had for at least 10 years. 🙂
And THAT got me thinking that this would be the time of year when people would be getting ready to BUY a Mantis Rototiller/Cultivator, and THAT got me thinking, “Hmmm… I wonder if I could sell a few of these on some of my websites.”
So, I went over to Amazon.com and sure enough, there were several Mantis Rototillers for sale. I decided to go for it. BUT, first I needed a strategy.
Here is what I came up with:
GOAL: To market the Mantis Rototiller/Cultivator
OBJECTIVES:
a. Make a dedicated blog so that I can place content and ads about Mantis Rototillers/Cultivators. Target Completion Date: Tuesday, February 15, 2011
b. Place Amazon links for Mantis Rototillers/Cultivators for sale on the blog. Target Completion Date: Tuesday, February 15, 2011
c. Write article about Mantis Rototillers/Cultivators for sale and publish at eZineArticles.com. Target Completion Date: Tuesday, February 15, 2011
d. Build a “small garden tiller” page on one of my websites (that I owned at the time), and add Mantis links to that page. Target Completion Date: Monday, February 21, 2011
e. Build a Squidoo Lens (which was a “page” in Squidoo-speak – but in 2014, Squidoo was sold to HubPages, and so that’s where the article is now) about small garden tillers and add Amazon links to it. Target Completion Date: Thursday, February 24, 2011
How do you think I did? 🙂
Actually, I did quite well – although I did not hit my target dates. Here’s how I measured up:
a. (Make dedicated blog) = I got the Mantis Rototillers for Sale blog up and running on Wednesday, February 16, 2011. (One day off, but at least I got it out there)
b. (Place Amazon links on blog) = Also completed Wednesday, February 16, 2011
c. (Write article for eZineArticles.com) = Completed Wednesday, February 16, 2011, but it didn’t go “live” until Friday, February 18, 2011.
d. (Build “small garden tiller” page on a website) = Completed new “small garden tillers” page on Wednesday, February 23, 2011 (a couple of days late)
e. (Build a Squidoo Lens) = Not yet complete – probably won’t get that done until Thursday 2/24 or Friday 2/25. (Remember, 2015: It’s now at HubPages.com)
As a result of this activity list, I was able to MEASURE my progress. Something else it did for me was make me realize that there were other aspects to the goal that I had NOT written a plan for – namely, researching the viability of whether or not I could actually COMPETE with others in selling Mantis Rototillers/Cultivators! 🙂
Fortunately, I did do research to make sure I wasn’t going to waste my time – but because I hadn’t PLANNED on that activity in my step-by-step plan, and determined it would be a good use of my time.
So, here you can see from my own “real life” example how I used the process of setting goals and objectives – and it really started with knowing the difference between goals and objectives to begin with. 🙂
Hopefully, seeing how I applied the knowledge to get a commercial campaign up and running fairly quickly will help you as well.
🙂 Kath
(PS: Because I market on line for a living, I did add a section here at Self Development And Growth that talks about Internet Marketing Education and Strategies that may be helpful as well. For example, you can read about my experiences with Chris Farrell, who has a #1 voted internet marketing education service. To read the article click on => Internet Marketing Education with Chris Farrell)