Today for Day 8 of the Challenge, we’re taking a look at blogging goals for 2015. John suggested we do the SMART method to create goals that will be:
- Specific – target a specific area for improvement.
- Measurable – quantify or at least suggest an indicator of progress.
- Assignable – specify who will do it.
- Realistic – state what results can realistically be achieved, given available resources.
- Time-related – specify when the result(s) can be achieved.
I jumped the gun a little on this yesterday, so I’ll take this time to reflect a little more on my goal of 400 posts for this year. I think the biggest hurdle I have to leap over is the justification for a goal of 400 posts when i haven’t even reached 30 total posts since starting the blog. Here’s what I have so far:
1. I’m a big believer in the BHAG maybe you weren’t reading random business books in the early 90s and 2000s like I was, but I’m kind of addicted to discovering new work/life methodologies. Death by Meeting is probably my favorite because it both reinvents what a meeting can actually be and does so using a narrative, telling a story instead of giving a bunch of lists (you know, like the list you’re reading right now…). Another book that I enjoyed circa 2004 was Built to Last (yes that last sentence WAS a complete rabbit trail, good on you for spotting it!) where I first learned the concept of the Big Hairy Audacious Goal, or BHAG.
This is why I chose 400 posts. I want to challenge myself to do something I love (writing) consistently and with an eye towards really getting a lot better at it. Maybe I’m shooting too high, but I think I’m setting myself up for success because…
2. I’ve given up trying to sound like I know what I’m talking about. A lot of my focus this year will be on exploring new job opportunities and stepping into a world that is fairly new to me. The burden of having to sound like an “expert” on any of this has fallen to the wayside for me. I’m just going to write and I really hope you enjoy it.
And I really hope it’s helpful and informative, too, I’ve just given up the idea that I’m leading anyone down this path. Hopefully you’ll walk with me and learn from the thousands of mistakes I’ll make along the way, but this is the year I’m truly freeing myself from worrying if anyone thinks I’m smart or wise or successful, so I’m just going keep writing this blog filled with awesome run-on sentences like this one! haha
3. I can make 15 minutes per day to write. On my first day at the Iron Yard, Saddington talked to us about a few things and one was the importance of blogging. I loved the idea, but I think I missed the point. I definitely missed the point of blogging daily during that time, partially because it was a pretty intense experience and partially because of my point above. I thought of it mainly as a marketing tool for myself so I really struggled with both being a beginner and wanting to sound knowledgeable.
I got in my head and made what should have been a good way to reflect on what I was learning (and really should have been a time for me to tell stories about the completely awesome people I was living life with) and instead envisioned every potential employer out there soon reading this blog and finding it lacking. I would sit down to write and convince myself that I didn’t have time to write the magnum opus my future employer required of me. So I would let the internet take me down its happy trail of distractions instead of producing actual work.
But even on that first day, John was adamant that it would just take 15 minutes a day to jot some thoughts down while refusing to edit yourself. And Bam!, there would be another post for your blog. Real content instead of the multitude of vaporposts that live only in your head. So, that’s how I’ll make 400 posts: 15 minutes at a time. I don’t have to worry about 400, I’ll just worry about one and see where we go from there.
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