This week’s topic in our Unstoppable course is goals - what are they, why are they important to have, and how to set proper goals. We look at setting SMART goals and then grouping them. As some people recommend, it’s ideal to keep 7-10 in the forefront, rather than more than that. Having a few with your focus make them easier to be accomplished. Michael Hyatt - one of the podcasters we have to listen to, who also appeared on Lewis Howes’ School of Greatness (another podcast we have to listen to) - talks about going on a family vacation and reading a book called Write It Down, Make It Happen. In that book, they suggest creating a list of 100 goals. So our assignment this week was to do just that.

However, Derek Sivers did a great TED talk on “Keep your goals to yourself”:

So rather than share all 100 goals, I’ll tell you about my challenge of setting these goals and will share some recently accomplished goals.

Setting Goals SMARTly

One of the things harped on in all of our assigned reading and videos this week is to set goals SMARTly, with someone taking it further and saying they should be SMARTER. So what does that mean?

  • Specific
  • Measurable
  • Actionable
  • Realistic
  • Timely
  • Exciting
  • Relevant

This really tripped me up while working on my list of goals. We are encouraged to create SMART goals - from our instructors, the podcasts, and everywhere we look. Unfortunately, SMART and SMARTER offer so many criteria to judge on that I found myself getting tripped up on evaluating each goal to be SMART that I lost sight of the assignment of creating 100 goals.

However, Monday night, I felt sick and ended up resting in bed, Surface in my lap, writing down more goals to my list. Being sick has its advantages sometimes - it forces me to really work hard on focusing, which exposes my flaws at times. I had that ah-ha moment when I wrote down goal #18 - to learn how to make macarons in 2016. While it isn’t super specific and has a wide timeline, it’s something that I really want to do and is timely and specific enough for me. Is it measurable? Yeah - by how many I eat, how many I share (though me & macarons… sharing is tough), etc.

Once I had that revelation of is it SMARTER enough for me, I was able to go from 17 goals to 56 goals. But then, life interrupted me - ah the joys of being home with my boys some days during the week. (That was a goal a few years ago - to become stable enough to take some days off during the week to enjoy time with my kids, whenever they would arrive.)

Recently Accomplished Goals

Some of my recently accomplished goals include:

  • Try growing dragon tongue beans. (Thanks, Chopped, for introducing me to this bean. I grew up growing green beans and wax beans in our garden, so I figured these should be similar. I had forgotten how abundant a plant could be.)

    Another dragon tongue bean harvest this year! I still can’t believe I’m growing these, after seeing them on Chopped.

    A photo posted by SD (@sadukie) on

Last year, I tackled my biggest baking goals at once:

  • Make a red velvet cake. I love, love, love red velvet cake. The thought of using vinegar in a cake scared me.
  • Make a layered cake. My love of cake is truly not a secret. Frosting is just as awesome. But me actually frosting anything is a recipe for disaster - it doesn’t look pretty.
  • Make a red velvet cake for Lo’s 3rd birthday. He told me he wanted a “red chocolate” cake.
    So I made a double layer red velvet cake - working with buttermilk, vinegar, and beets! What was I thinking?!?

Stacked with Ermine frosting

A photo posted by SD (@sadukie) on

And the final cake:

The finished red velvet birthday cake 🎂 for Logan 🎉 Happy 3rd birthday, lil man!

A photo posted by SD (@sadukie) on

It turned out deliciously!

Takeaways from this Week’s Lesson on Goals

My big takeaways from this week (so far) are:

  • Don’t overthink things.
  • Be able to respond if a goal is SMART or SMARTER, but don’t try to write the goal down to fit that.
  • It’s okay to break large goals into smaller goals.
  • Keep them SMART or SMARTER!

Once I finish getting the list to 100, I will be categorizing them - personal, business, and otherwise. Then I’ll be ranking them and figuring out my top 7-10 goals.