Jason Ishibashi

Goals: gettin’em done

A friend recently posted her 2011 Summer Goals and even managed to accomplish one the very first weekend. Impressive right?

While she is without question ahead of the game, (have YOU updated your goals recently?) the question now is: “How do I avoid ending summer with a list of unaccomplished goals?”

Tip 1: Make S.M.A.R.T. Goals

Your goals should be specific so that you can create a plan to accomplish them. Let’s look at the the goal take more photos. What does this entail? A better goal would be, replace five photos in my portfolio. This goal is also measurable and attainable. Having a stretch goal (difficult to attain) is great, but to prevent yourself from burning out or feeling like Sisyphus you need goals that you can finish, and you need to be able to figure out exactly what you need to do to finish them.

You goals should be relevant. Taking an amazing landscape photo does not help you very much if your portfolio focuses on, say, wedding photography. The five great photos you’re looking to take this summer should help your portfolio tell the story of who you are as a photographer. Finally, your goals need a time-frame. When are you going to accomplish your goal?

S.M.A.R.T. goal setting works for any field, not just photography. How would you improve upon the goal blog more or learn Spanish? Have you set your summer goals yet?

Tip 2: Go Social

Tell your friends. I guarantee this will make far more interesting conversation rather than what you did at work/school today. You can help each other stay motivated and keep each other on task. You will find it much more difficult to put tasks off when others expect to hear about your difficulties and accomplishments along the way.

Looking to blog more? Talk about how you set your goals, how things are going along the way, how you feel, how you distract yourself, how to handle the difficult aspects, or anything else that comes up along the way. You’ll find that you want to write about these things making the task of blogging much easier. You’ll probably also find that people will actually read about these stories.

Fill your Twitter with little tidbits. You can reference longer blog posts, or just keep your friends up to date on how things are going. People who don’t talk about SOMETHING do not last very long in my feed. They are not interesting to read.

Tip 3: Just Start

Habits are hard to break. Once you are used to doing something, you keep doing it because it feels natural. Don’t worry about the best way to get involved, just get involved. Do it today. Do it now.

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