Posted on 2011-01-05 13:34:42
For the first week of 2011, we've been going over goal strategies to help with your practice and dental website. Today we're going into the topic of making your goals measurable.
If you set a goal for "I will blog a lot more on my dental website," you're setting yourself up for failure. Goals like these are easy to make because the line between success and failure is so blurry that no one will point out you're not hitting your mark. Blogging "a lot" could mean every week or doing a twenty post splurge every few months.
Another reason why vague goals don't work is that you lose motivation very quickly. There's no light at the end of the tunnel because you don't know when you're finished. If your goal is worded so you have to blog every week for the rest of your life to meet the terms, then failure is inevitable. You need to have a time when you're "done" and can pat yourself on the back for good work.
Word your goal similar to "I will blog on my dental website once a week for four months." At the end of the four months, you can set a new goal to repeat it, or adjust for a higher or lower amount. It's, of course, fine to set your blogging goal for once a day or once a month. Just make the numbers firm.