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What Everyone Should Know About SMART Goal Setting

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SMART Goal Setting

How are you doing with keeping all those New Year’s resolutions you set at the beginning of the year?  If you want to accomplish those resolutions you’ve got to understand SMART Goal Setting.

If you are like many of us, you may have forgotten all about them!  It’s only natural, and we’re only human.

“If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else. ”

~ Lawrence J. Peter

In this article, I’m going to share some personal success strategies to help make sure that you stay on track with your personal growth plan.

I’m also sharing this key success factor because it’s a vital happiness enhancing strategy that you can take part in.  People who are happy engage in the practice of striving toward meaningful goals in their lives.

What is this strategy?  Reviewing and Refining Your Goals!  

I want to share the specifics of SMART goal setting, along with a two-step process for keeping you on track with your progress toward those goals.

If you’ll engage in these exercises, you’ll keep your ship on course.

“Give me a stock clerk with a goal and I’ll give you a man who will make history. Give me a man with no goals and I’ll give you a stock clerk.”

~ J.C. Penney

Review

Ships at sea can easily wander off course.  Winds, currents, and even the every day distractions of taking care of business on the ship can cause the ship captain to lose sight of the main destination.  In the same way, unless we are regularly reviewing our goals, we can easily lose sight of our goals and end up working on insignificant tasks, or seemingly urgent tasks that come up, but that don’t lead to our specific goals.

Take time daily, monthly, and each quarter, to review your mission, values, and purpose.

If you need some help figuring out your mission and purpose, I’ve written a couple of articles just for you, titled Have a Personal Mission You Can Be Proud Of!, and A Simple Formula: Find Your Mission Through Your Passion.

If you need some help clarifying your values, read my article What Everyone Ought To Know About True North, for some practical ways that you can set goals in keeping with your most important personal values.

As part of your review, think about the different areas of your life.  Are you in the midst of achieving a balance in your success, or are you drifting off course in any areas of your life.  You may want to consider using this life wheel worksheet from Mind Tools to help check what areas of your life you want to set extra goals in so that you will be happy with your balance at the end of this year.

Refine

Now that you have engaged in some journaling and reflection about where you now stand in terms of your progress toward your goals, you may need to further refine your goals.  This is where SMART goal setting comes in.  Here are the five criteria that make goals truly effective.

Specific

Is your goal specific enough?  Think about WHAT you are going to do, and WHY you are going to do it.  Both questions are vital to successfully meet your goals.  Be careful to look for hidden goals run counter to achieving your important goal.

For example, one of my goals is: Take quiet time daily, practicing deep breathing and prayer/meditation 3x per day.  

On the other hand, one of my unwritten rules has been: I will watch my favorite TV show once a day to relax and de-stress.  I realized, upon reflection, that a) it’s unrealistic to think that I am going to practice this quiet time 3x per day.  On the other hand, I realized that my main focus this year is Steve’s coach, which means that if I don’t take care of myself through prayer and meditation, I will not have as much spiritual/mental/emotional vitality to carry out what I need to.  So, when I realize that the WHAT is a bit too much, and that my WHY was not clear enough, I have now refined my goal as follows:

Take quiet time daily, practicing deep breathing and prayer/meditation 1x per day, before watching any Television. 

Now that I am now more clear on the WHAT and the WHY, I believe I will be more successful in achieving this outcome.

Measurable

“Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.”
~ Vincent Van Gogh

If you have a hard time measuring the specific milestones or next actions needed to achieve your goal, it’s unlikely you’re going to accomplish that goal.  I’m very grateful to Sterling and Jay from Internet Business Mastery for a couple of concepts in this regard.

First, you can use their success strategy of backward planning to make your goal more measurable.

For example, another one of my goals is as follows: I will run one full marathon, raising money for a worthy cause.

Utilizing the backward planning method, I picture myself finishing the race.  Then I ask myself, what happened just before that?  Well, I had all the planning down for parking and for the racing equipment I would need in order to successfully run the race.  I had successfully raised the $500 dollars I needed to raise for my charity.  I had run more than 26.2 miles prior to starting the race.  I had trained on hills to strengthen my legs and my mental mindset.  These steps all become sub-activities I can then schedule into my calendar.

Attainable and Realistic

These two words actually seem to go together in my mind.  If it’s not realistic, is it going to be attainable?  I think not!  Some of us are guilty of thinking too small.  On the other hand, we can think so big that we actually don’t believe we will carry it out it on a sub-conscious level.  For example, “I will earn $5 million dollars” is a big goal, but it lacks the specific WHAT, WHY, and action steps for attaining it.  And most likely, unless you are going to play the lottery (I don’t encourage it :), and win, you won’t carry out that goal in one year.

On the other hand, if you are careful to follow the steps listed above, you will have a much more attainable and realistic goals.  You want goals that will stretch you, but that are realistic and attainable.

Timely

This criteria goes hand in hand with setting specific and measurable goals.  If you engage in the backward planning activity that I described above, you will have a set of actions for your goals.  I urge you to set a date for accomplishing each one of those goals.  The date may change, but it will motivate you to take action regularly to carry out your goal.

By writing down this date next to your goal, you can then set timelines for the activities that need to lead up to meeting your goal.  Make sure that you are working on one activity every day to help you get closer to your end goal.

Once again, I am going to share a great idea from Sterling and Jay from Internet Business Mastery.  Utilize Google Calendar or some other type of online calendar to schedule the different activities that you need to carry out for each of your goals.  Set that calendar as your browser default.  This is an invaluable strategy!  You can also color code your different tasks to correlate with your different goals.

In order to keep this from getting too complicated, you may want to focus on one or two goals at a time.  The encouraging part about this method is that you will daily have a reminder of the most important activities to focus on for the day.  And you’ll know that your ship is staying on course despite all the cross currents and winds of distraction and hassles of every day living.

Here are Some Helpful Motivational Books for Your Goal Setting Journey:

Inspiration

The Alchemist: A Graphic Novel.  Stories are inspirational.  This story will inspire you as you embark or continue on your goal setting journey.

Life Mission and Purpose

How to Find Your Mission in Life, written by Richard N. Bolles, one of my favorite authors, is a small and inspiring book to help you find your true life mission.  He is also the author What Color Is Your Parachute? 2011: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers, another personal favorite of mine.

The Path: Creating Your Mission Statement for Work and for Life, written by Laurie Beth Jones, is one of my all-time favorites on this subject as well.

Goal Setting Workbooks:

Make Success Measurable!: A Mindbook-Workbook for Setting Goals and Taking Action, by Douglas Kay Smith.

Goal Setting Forms : Tools to Help You Get Ready, Get Set, and Go for Your Goals!, by Gary Ryan Blair

How are you doing with accomplishing your New Year’s Resolutions?
Are you on track, or have you drifted off course?
Please share your  thoughts below!

photo credit: elbphoto

SMART Goal Setting

Brandeis University M.S. in Project and Program Management Online

Build Your Life Like Martin Luther King Jr

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Martin Luther King JrJohn 12:24-25 I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Jesus Christ, fortelling his coming death

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” Jim Elliot, Christian martyr, 1945

As a Caucasian, I have a lot of shame for the infamous history of slavery and segregation in our country. One man changed all that, and his name was Martin Luther King, Jr.

What can you and I learn about personal leadership development from this one man?

Study!!

Readers are Leaders

Education is not everything, but it does develop our character and our knowledge, exposes us to different viewpoints, and gives us a platform to speak from. Marting Luther King, Jr. developed his personal effective through vigorous study, earning his PhD in theology. It takes vision and character to commit yourself to the effort, discipline, and self-sacrifice that such study requires. But, like all things in life, a key success factor to significance and fulfillment is to live life from a long-term perspective. This allows you to sacrifice the gratification of the short-term to reap the rewards of a long-term commitment.

Learn from Live Leaders

Martin Luther King, Jr., learned and absorbed lessons from many key leaders. His most important personal leadership development came from his visit to India, to visit with Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. It was from this great soul that Martin Luther formulated his own values and vision of changing a society through peaceful, organized, and non-violent opposition.Who are you choosing as your role models? What are you reading? I urge you to start setting aside up to one hour per day purely for reading and study. And I urge you to be on the lookout for leaders who you can look up to and learn from.

Be Faithful with Little Things, and You Will Be Promoted to Bigger Things

Martin Luther King, Jr. started out as a minister at a small congregation. He honed his speaking skills, and became a gifted preacher. What is your personal career development plan? Do you have one? There are two extremes to avoid here. One is to become impatient with your place and to go negative. In this instance, you have a pair of complaining glasses on, and you can only see what is wrong with your boss, with your co-workers, and with the duties of your job. The other extreme is to avoid all planning for the future, to be afraid of taking on bigger challenges.

By paying rigorous attention to your personal career strengths, by setting your goals, by pro-actively taking on greater responsibility, being early for work, and staying late when needed, you will be sharpening your personal skills, which are your greatest assets. Don’t ever neglect to plow your own plot of ground, for in it you will find the diamonds of greatness that may lead to your next opportunity.

Clarify and Commit to a Bigger Vision

You will find that a pure pursuit of material success will, in the long run, lose its luster. True personal leadership development comes, paradoxically, with a certain denial of self, for without it you will not find true significance.

Before I lose you with this statement, you must realize that true legacies come from service to a greater good. In order to do this, you must clarify your values, know your abilities and talents, and figure out how you can align your abilities and talents with a way or ways to serve humankind and your Creator.

Figure out what legacy you will leave behind!

Check out this powerful quote from Martin Luther King, Jr:

“ I’d like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to give his life serving others. I’d like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to love somebody.

I want you to say that day that I tried to be right on the war question. I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed the hungry. I want you to be able to say that day that I did try in my life to clothe those who were naked. I want you to say on that day that I did try in my life to visit those who were in prison. And I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity.”

Wow! And again, I will say, Wow! What are you going to give your life to?

Be Willing to Be Controversial

Anyone who is doing anything of impact in life is going to get criticism. Be prepared. Make it your companion. Listen carefully and non-defensively to what is being said in the criticism. But then be willing to do what it takes to stay true to your values and to your vision. Martin Luther King, Jr. drew all sorts of criticism from whites and from his own race.

He was criticized for being non-violent, he was criticized as being a Communist, he was criticized for putting children in harm’s way during protests. He was under incredible pressure. Yet he prayed, he thought, he wrote, he reflected, and he made his stand.

Listen to this great quote in the midst of one of his waves of criticism:

“And then I got to Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers? Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

Decide to Be Courageous!

As you can see from the quote above, Martin Luther King, Jr. was a courageous man.  Without courage, he never would have accepted the position of leading the civil rights movement.  Without courage, he never would have organized the first peace marches.  Without courage, he never would have stood up for his place in the midst of severe criticism from inside and outside his ranks.  Without courage he would not have stayed true to his larger vision and mission.  Without Martin Luther King Jr’s courage, President Obama might never have become president.   Without courage, people of all races in the United States would not have the same civil liberties they have today.

How do you get courage so that you can increase your personal effectiveness and promote your personal development?

  • Think of something that you have put off because of fear.  Put it on the calendar for sometime this week and Do It!!
  • Practice exercising your courage muscles on a regular basis.  When needed, assert your place.  Don’t be afraid to speak your mind.  (This is written for those who don’t regularly do so, not for those who often speak too much :).

I hope that you will take time to reflect on Martin Luther King, Jr. this week: his example, his life, and his legacy!

photo credit: caboindex

Amplify Your Life By Developing Your Goals

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Are you ready for a larger, greater, and stronger life?  Developing your goals is one of the best ways to amplify your life.

According to Dictionary.com, to amplify is: 1. to make larger, greater, or stronger; enlarge; extend.2. to expand in stating or describing, as by details or illustrations; clarify by expanding.

Did you know that you can expand your life in stating and describing your goals?

When we reach down inside ourselves to tap into our deepest desires, we can articulate and amplify those desires into a vision of what we want for our lives.

developing your goalsI can’t think of a better reason for you and me to develop our goals!

But in the hustle and bustle of life, we can find ourselves mindlessly running on a hamster wheel.  Round and round we go, but we never get anywhere?

Last week I talked about visualizing your ideal day as one way to gain clarity on your goals.

This week I’d like to share some questions that will help you gain a vision for the outcomes you want in your life.

Anne Clarke, life coach, and author of the website, Setting and Achieving Goals, designed a goal setting worksheet to help you figure out your deepest desires.

I urge you to do the following:

a) Sit down, open up your calendar/planner, and schedule 2 solid hours for yourself.  No interruptions!

b) Write down the answers to the questions on the worksheet.

Don’t judge yourself.  Write freely.  Speak into a recorder if you’ve got an auditory learning style.  Or draw and sketch out the answers to the questions, if you are more of a visual person.

Here Are Some Key Questions For Developing Your Goals:

1.  If you could wave a wand and have 3 wishes, what would you wish for the buckets in your life?

  • God and spirituality
  • Family and friends
  • Work and career
  • Community and Service
  • Financial
  • Personal growth and development

2.  What would be your top priorities if you learned you had only 6 months to live?

You can include the buckets for this question as well.

3.  What would you do if you won $10 million dollars, tax-free, tomorrow?

After the excitement subsided, how would you spend your time.  Again, you can include the buckets when answering this question.

Go Through Your List

“Nothing can add more power to your life than concentrating all your energy on a limited set of targets”  Nido Qubein

Pick One Goal.

Yes, one goal.  Why do I say just one goal?  Because if you’re like me, your life is complex.  There is so much going on, that it’s hard to take time just to do the exercise of going through the above questions!

Also, if you just pick one goal, you can concentrate all your energies on that one goal.  Success breeds success.  After you carry out this goal, you’ll gather the momentum needed to go after the next one.

Give Yourself a GOST of a Chance

Rich Horwath taught me about the GOST achievement method  in his fabulous book, Strategy For You: Building a Bridge to the Life You Want.

The GOST framework, per Mr. Horwath, is “a simple framework to help people understand the differences between goals, objectives, strategies, and tactics.

Below is an example from his book.

Goal: what you are trying to achieve Objective: Fleshes out the details: It is SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time Bound) Strategy (general resource allocation plan) Tactic (specifically how you will carry out your strategy)
What What How How
General Specific General Specific
Become closer to my spouse or partner Have a date night with my spouse every week at a new restaurant Dedicate thoughtful time to my spouse to rekindle our relationship -Download Urbanspoonapp to mobile phone to find potential restaurants-Build a database of restaurants, including their locations and phone numbers-Create a list of live entertainment establishments and other recreational venues-Develop a calendar just for date night, and populate it with choices

A Gost Goal Setting Template

Here is a GOST_Goal_Setting_Template to help you meet your most important life outcome from this goal setting exercise.

Fill it out and start amplifying your life!

Let Me Know How It Goes!

I’d love to hear your success stories!  Share your comments below or contact me and let me know about the one life change you’ve made.
 
photo credit: Loco Steve

The Lazy Man’s Way to the Best Year Yet

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Smart Goal Setting For Personal Learning

What if you could go back to the beginning of last year?  What if you could go back to the future?

Have you ever met a person who seems to make the same mistakes over and over?

Like the person who is chronically late to work, only puts forward a little effort, complains about everything, and wonders why s/he is never promoted?

Or the husband who fails, year after year, to hear the complaints his wife has about certain of his habits or about things he is not doing for the relationship?  He then wonders, years later, why she is asking for a divorce.

Paradoxically, a little work up front can prevent years of failure, mediocrity, and running in circles chasing your tail.

This is the third article of a ten part series designed to help you have your Best Year Yet .

In the first article, we wrote down all our victories, big and small, for the past year.

Last week, we talked about taking a clear-eyed look at our disappointments, big and small, for the past year.

Since I am completing this series along with you, I’ll share some of my own disappointments from this past year.

In doing this, I reflected on the past year, listened to my intuition, and reviewed my top 10 goals from the previous year.

Some disappointments:

  • I did not take a truly exclusive father son vacation.  This has been something I had done the prior two years.  I did take a trip with my son to visit my parents and my son’s cousins, but it was not quite as special, and there was not as much as father son time during this trip.
  • I did not pay off as much personal debt as I would have liked to.
  • I did not get organized at home to the degree that I wanted to.
  • I did not complete the number of home projects that I wanted to.
  • I did not take formal trainings in my specific areas of specialty in my counseling practice.  (I am working on a specific certification for drug and alcohol counseling, so most of my training focused on that area)
  • I did not spend enough time in prayer and meditation.

I’ve not shared all my disappointments (there are more), but that will give you an idea of some of the expectations I did not fulfill this year.

Here is the Lazy Man’s Way to Make This One of Your Best Years Yet: Ask, “What Did I Learn?”

smart goal setting

In this article, I’m going to show you that you need to take what you learned both from your victories and your disappointments, and unearth the gold and diamonds from that soil.  You do this by asking yourself what you have learned, from both your successes and your failures.

Tune into WIIFM

We won’t make any changes in our lives if we don’t figure out: What’s In It For Me?!

First, by learning the lessons we need to learn, we will be making a difference in the lives of others.

By becoming a better version of me, I can positively impact my family, my friends, and my customers.

Second, by learning the lessons from our victories and disappointments,

we empower ourselves to leave ineffective habits and thought patterns behind.

For example, I used to be very tentative with stepping outside of my comfort zone.  One year after completing this exercise, I realized I needed to value calculated risks.  Due to taking some of those risks, I was able to move ahead in significant ways.  Had I not learned this lesson, I might have stayed  stagnant in those areas.

By leaving ineffective habits and thought patters behind, we can literally re-write the future!

We can work to move ahead much more quickly in different areas of our life:

our family, our work, our finances, our health, the quality of our friendships, our spirituality, our service to your community.

Our own experience of the past year is full of hints about success, increasing income, growing in our faith, building positive relationships, moving ahead at work, and making the kind of difference we want to make.


Examples of Questions You Can Use:

a)  When reviewing your list of accomplishments for the past year:

  • What was the secret of my success?
  • What worked?
  • Why was I able to do what I did?
  • What patterns of thinking were most constructive to me?
  • What beliefs helped me the most?

b)  When reviewing your list of disappointments for the past year:

  • What didn’t work, and why?
  • What would have worked better?
  • What’s the lesson?
  • What patterns of thinking got in the way?
  • What beliefs got in my way?

As you answer the above questions, here are some more questions from Ms. Ditzler to help you drill down even further:

  • What changes do I need to make in the way I operate?
  • How can I do things differently?
  • What advice do I have for myself (show yourself compassion, do not judge)?
  • Do I need more discipline?
  • Have I been as honest with myself and others as I need to be?
  • Am I living in line with my values?
  • Am I taking care of myself as well as I need to?
  • Do I face difficult problems as quickly as I should?
  • Have I let others support me?
  • Do I listen to friends’ advice and seriously consider taking it?
  • Am I as supportive of others as I want to be?
  • What lessons are there for me in my work?
  • Do I say “thank you” enough?

Turn Your Lessons Into Personal Guidelines

If you have not done so already, take a look at both your victories and disappointments.  Start writing down all the lessons that come to mind.

Once you have written down as many lessons you can think of, it will be time to look them over and pick the three most important ones.  These will be called your personal guidelines.

Why not more than three?  It’s because of Pareto’s Principle, which states that 80% your effectiveness will come from 20% of the things you do.  By narrowing your guidelines down to three, you will be choosing the three life lessons from the last year which will make the biggest impact in your life over the next year.

Now, once you have selected the top three lessons, turn them into your personal guideline statements.

Use clear and powerful language.  State the guidelines actively, and with positive language.  Don’t use negative language, such as “Stop”  or “Don’t.”

Here are my three guidelines for the year:

a) Put the Big Rocks In First (this refers to Steven Covey’s example of Filling a Pail With Sand and Rocks: if you put the Rocks in First, you will be able to pour the sand around it.  In the same way, when we put the Most Important Things into our schedule, the rest of life will work itself out).

b) Small Sacrifices Daily Add Up to Long Term Prosperity (this refers to paying down debt)

c) Embrace Your Inner Adult

Here are some other examples from Best Year Yet readers:

  • Be healthy
  • Put family first
  • Face the music
  • Do what I know to do
  • Ask for help when I need it
  • Have fun!
  • Live in the moment.

I hope you will put this exercise into practice!  Let me know what lessons you learned this year.  What personal guidelines are you going to use this year?  Please comment below!

photo credit: wallyg via photopin cc

Are You Ashamed Of Your Retirement Plan?

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your retirement planWhat is your retirement plan?

I hope this question doesn’t come as an insult.

In my early 20’s I had no idea about what retirement is.  I was invincible, after all. My whole life stretched before me.

Then I got married.  That was 1997.  Before the Y2K.  Before all the markets crashed.  I read about investing in the stock market, and became fascinated with the idea of building a nest egg.

After marriage, I (and my wife), bought a home, and (I, not my wife) made some foolish mistakes along the way.

Suffice it to say, once the markets crashed and I had gotten myself into some business debt, my dreams of a retirement nest egg started to evaporate.

I took a requirement quiz last week to assess my retirement needs.  Oy vey!  According to that quiz, I have some serious thinking and re-thinking to do about retirement.

I was ashamed of myself. I began to think, “What if I don’t have enough to cover my living expenses?  What if the markets crash some more?  What if I can’t get rid of all my debt?  What if, What if, What if?!”

Words of Wisdom About A Retirement Plan

Some readers made me reconsider my shame after I read some of their comments about the quiz.

Here’s a great point from Marquita Herald of Inspired Gift Giving said this:

I confess I have such mixed feelings about focusing on retirement. Having spent most of my life in the travel industry, I have seen way too many people wait until retirement to take their trip of a lifetime – only to be too old to enjoy the trip. Then there was my Dad who died 6 months after he retired. I have to believe there is a middle ground where we can manage to enjoy life today and still avoid having to resort to eating cat food to survive in our old age.

In 2007, Tim Ferris wrote The 4 Hour Workweek.  According to Wikipedia,  this book has spent more than four years on the The New York Times Best Seller list, has been translated into 35 languages, and has sold more than 1,350,000 copies worldwide.

While you may disagree with some of Ferris’ ideas, he challenged delayed retirement.  Instead, he talked about ‘lifestyle design,’ and repudiated the traditional ‘deferred’ life plan in which people work long hours and take few vacations for decades and save money to relax after retirement.

My Retirement Plan

As I think about my retirement plan, I ask myself, “What should my thinking, attitude, and emotional response be, based on a Christian worldview?”

Here are some thoughts.

Don’t Worry

Jesus Christ told his followers not to worry about food, clothing, and material needs, but rather to focus on honoring God and helping others (Matthew 6.25-33).  I don’t think His words refute all the other Scriptural wisdom of giving generously to others, saving diligently, and avoiding debt, but He did not want worry, fear, and anxiety to dominate His followers minds.  Rather, He knew that when they lived in the present, committing themselves to their Provider, they would receive what they needed.

And so, as we seek to have a right relationship with Him  and with others, we can give, save, and avoid debt, knowing that He will provide for us all of our lives.

But Be Wise

I took Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University class with my wife.  It’s one of the best things I’ve ever done.

Here are the 7 Baby Steps to get you on the right track for your retirement plan:

  1. Save $1000 to put into an emergency fund
  2. Pay off all consumer debt (that would be everything except for your mortgage) using the debt snowball.
  3. Save 3-6 months of living expenses.
  4. Invest 15% of all household income into Roth IRA’s and pre-tax retirement vehicles.
  5. Start saving for college funding for your children.
  6. Pay off the home early.
  7. Build wealth and give.

Invest In Key Areas of Your Life

The key areas I’m talking about would be health, career, family, relationships, and spirituality.

Poor health will cost a lot of money in retirement.  If we aren’t learning new skills and taking on new projects, our careers will stagnate.  If we don’t pay attention to our family and other key relationships, our emotional health suffers.  And spirituality makes a huge difference, especially to a Christian.

Take Time To Build Your Platform

Michael Hyatt is the author of Platform: Get Noticed In a Busy World.

I’ve not read the book, but intend to.

Here are other books and blogs that have convinced me to build my internet marketing presence online to create another stream of income for retirement.

your retirement plan successThe 4 Hour Work Week.  As mentioned above, Tim Ferris provides paradigm shifting thoughts and strategies about lifestyle design.

Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income Blog.    Pat will educate you on passive income, particularly online.

Leslie Samuel’s Become a Blogger Blog.  Leslie shows you how to build your blog into a vehicle to change people’s lives.

The Personal MBA Blog, to help you master the key concepts of building a business.

Internet Business Mastery Blog.  If you decide to sign up for their premium class (I’m not a member, but I’m a long time listener to their podcast), you won’t be disappointed.  I plan to sign up down the line, once I’ve saved the required money within my Baby Step retirement plan.  These guys are all about internet business and how to master it.

Late Night Internet Marketing with Mark Mason Blog.  Mark will give you a lot of specific strategies.  Furthermore, he works a full-time job and internet markets part-time, so I can relate to him.

Are You Excited About Your Retirement Plan?

Enjoy the present!  Plan for the future!  Take care of all areas of your life.  Do the 7 Baby Steps.  And learn about internet marketing!   That’s my retirement plan.  What’s yours?

photo credits: thelearnr, andbenedictfrancis

Here’s A Quick Way to Gauge Your Retirement Needs

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retirement needsA man who does not think and plan long ahead will find trouble right at his door.   Confucius

Are you Chicken Little, the Grasshopper, or the Ant?

As thousands of people near their retirement years, they either run around announcing to everyone that the sky is falling; or spend all the money they have on “fun”, with little thought for the future.

Some people, however, are as wise as the Ant.  They plan for the future, and are prepared when retirement comes.

We’ve all got a bit of Chicken, Grasshopper, and Ant within us.

What Are Your Retirement Needs?

You need to find out!  Here’s how:

Take this quiz from  Money Magazine to find out where you’re doing well, where you’re falling short, and then read the full article to catch up on strategies to prepare for retirement.

HEALTH

Staying health pays off in retirement.  And your mindset and social connections can help you stay healthier.

  1. How’s your weight?

    1. It hasn’t changed since I swam in high school.  (+2)

    2. Fine, though I could stand to lose five pounds.  (+1)

    3. Okay, though I could stand to lose 25 pounds. (-1)

    4. Don’t ask.  I think my scale needs to be re-calibrated.  (-2)

  2. What’s your exercise routine?

    1. I run two marathons per year. (+2)

    2. I break a sweat at least three times a week. (+1)

    3. I belong to a gym, but I wouldn’t call myself a regular. (-1)

    4. Does a Law and Order marathon count? (-2)

  3. When was the last time you had your blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar tested?

    1. At my annual checkup. (+1)

    2. Five years ago — I think. (-1)

    3. My shaman doesn’t do that. (-1)

  4. Do you smoke?

    1. Never. (+2)

    2. I used to, but I’ve kicked the habit. (0)

    3. Yes. (-3)

  5. Do you eat a well-balanced diet?

    1. I live by the food pyramid. (+1)

    2. The food pyramid is passe.  The new fruit/veggies/protein/gains split is what I live by. (+2)

    3. I enjoy a good burger and fries, but I try to eat fruit and veggies most days too.  (0)

    4. I balance out Burger King, Taco Bell, and KFC (-2)

  6. How many pills do you take daily?

    1.  Nothing but my multivitamin.  My doctor says that’s fine.  (+2)

    2.  Nothing but my multivitamin.  I don’t need to see a doctor.  (-1)

    3. I take medication for my _____ condition.  (-1)

    4.  My pillbox is a duplex.  (-2)

  7. When you see a glass of water at the midpoint, you consider it…

    1. Half full.  (+1)

    2. Half empty. (-1)

 YOUR SCORE =

 CAREER

You need valued skills, a rich network, and visibility outside of your office.

  1. When was the last time you took on new job responsibilities?

    1. When I was promoted last year.  (+2)

    2. I’m the first to volunteer for any new project.  (+1)

    3. I’m in a rut, but I’ve been taking classes and volunteering outside of the office.  (+1)

    4. Hmm.  Five years ago? (-1)

  2. If a friend tipped you off about a job, you’d…

    1. Check it out.  I like my job, but you never know.  (+2)

    2. Tell three friends who’d be right for it.  Networking points! (+1)

    3. Finally get around to updating my 1999 resume.  (0)

    4. Say “Thanks” and pass.  (-1)

  3. How involved are you in social media?

    1. I know my Klout score (and it’s high.)  (+2)

    2. I filled out my LinkedIn profile and signed up for Twitter.  (+1)

    3. Does posting photos on Facebook count?  (-1)

  4. If you were in the market for a job, your first line of attack would be:

    1. Schedule lunches with my three most trusted mentors.  (+2)

    2. Alert my network.  (+1)

    3. Start perusing job boards  (0)

    4. Uhhh…I don’t know (-2)

  5. What did you do at the last industry conference you attended?

    1. I was a speaker.  (+2)

    2. I helped plan an event for an association I belong to.  (+1)

    3. I sat in on every session.  (0)

    4. Two words: hotel minibar!  (-1)

  6. When did a recruiter last call you?

    1. In the past few months. (+2)

    2. A year ago.  (+1)

    3. Recruiters call you out of the blue? (-1)

 YOUR SCORE =

 FAMILY

You’ll need to find a balance between helping out and helping yourself.

  1. Have you talked to your parents about their retirement funding?

    1. Yes, and they will be fine.  (+2)

    2. Yes, and fingers crossed that the market doesn’t crash.  (+1)

    3. That would be awkward.  (-1)

    4. Yes, and the answer was, “Kids, it’s payback time.”  (-2)

    5. My parents are deceased, but I helped out for many years.  (-1)

    6. My parents are deceased, and I got an inheritance.  (+2)

  2. Will you support your kids past college?

    1. I don’t have children.  (+2)

    2. My kids have graduated already.  (Jump to Nos 2aa and 2bb)

    3. My kids know that senior year tuition is the last check.  (+2)

    4. No, but I’ll help with the wedding and first home and… (0)

   2aa.  When did you last eat breakfast with your adult child?

a.When his consulting job brought him into town.  (+1)

b.Two weeks ago when I treated her to a weekend brunch.  (0)

c.  In my kitchen this morning…like every morning. (-1)

   2bb.  What do you buy for your grownup kids?

            a. Birthday and holiday gifts. (+1)

            b. I chip in on the wireless bill and make sure they don’t starve.  (0)

            c.  I write checks for rent and student loans.  (0)

            d.  An English lit grad degree.  (-2)

  3.  Describe your home in retirement.

         a.  A condo with a guest room–emphasis on ‘guest.’ (+2)

         b.  My current home, with just the two of us.  (+1)

         c.  A home with a suite for my mother-in-law. (0)

         d.  Like the house in The Waltons.  (-2)

 YOUR SCORE =

 RELATIONSHIPS

You can buck the averages of course, but retirement readiness varies widely depending on your gender and marital status.

  1. What’s your gender?

    1. Male.  (+1)

    2. Female. (0)

  2. Have you ever married?

    1. Yes, and I’m in a longtime first marriage.  (+6)

    2. Never.  (+4)

    3. Yes, but… (keep going to question 3)  (+6)

  3. Are you divorced or widowed and…

    1. A woman? (-4)

    2. A man? (-3)

  4. Did you remarry?

    1. Yes, and I’m a woman. (+1)

    2. Yes, and I’m a man. (+2)

    3. Nope. (0)

YOUR SCORE =

SAVINGS

During a long era of low investment returns, your retirement hinges on your savings habits more than ever.

  1. What would you do with a hefty bonus?

    1. Treat my family to a nice dinner, then add the rest to my retirement savings. (+2)

    2. Take a flier on a frontier markets ETF. (+1)

    3. Spend it all on a lavish trip to a frontier region. (-1)

  2. How much are you saving for retirement?

    1. I max out my 401(k) and set aside even more. (+3)

    2. I save 10%, including my match. (+2)

    3. Not sure.  Whatever my employer signed me up for. (+1)

    4. Whatever I can stuff into a dedicated change jar. (-2)

  3. What kind of stock returns are you counting on to build your nest egg?

    1. 6% a year.  I want to be conservative. (+2)

    2. 8% a year.  I have true faith in stocks. (+1)

    3. 10% a year.  That’s average, right? (0)

    4. 12% a year.  I’m a big fan of the 1990’s. (-1)

  4. Have you paid off your student loans (or the debt you took on for your kids)?

    1. Yes, or had none. (+3)

    2. No, but graduation was less than a decade ago.  Cut me some slack! (+2)

    3. No, but graduation was less than a decade ago.  Then again, retirement is 10 years away. (-1)

    4. No, and school is a distant memory. (-1)

YOUR SCORE =

PROGRESS

Calculate your retirement savings and housing debts as a multiple of your income

Age Savings(X Income) Score Age Mortgage debt(X Income) Score
40 <1.5  0  40  >1.8  0
 1.5 to 2  +4  <1.8  +5
2 to 2.5  +7
50  <3.5  0  50  >1.5  0
 3.5 to 4.5  +4  <1.5  +5
 4.5 to 5  +7  
60  <6.5  0  60  >.07  0
 6.5 to 8  +4  <.07  +5
 8 to 9.5  +7

Bonus: You’ve saved even more?  Wow! +5

YOUR SCORE=

YOUR TOTAL SCORE =

 41-60 Keep up the excellent work.

20-40 You have some weak spots to make up for.

up to 20 Reread all the advice in the story.

What do you think of this quiz?  Is it realistic?  Did it help you gauge your retirement needs?

Image credit: kentoh / 123RF Stock Photo