I love pithy quotes that people regularly share.
A frequently quoted proverb from Zig Ziglar on setting goals and time management:
“A goal without a deadline is just a dream.”
Now, if you subscribe to “SMART” goal methodology, which many of you do, then you already know that goals have an infinitely better chance of being successfully accomplished if they are Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, and Timely.
Yeah, yeah… we know that already…
Yet still, we concoct plans without specific measurements and realistic deadlines. The reason? Simple… accountability. Personal responsibility. Both of which are mitigated when dates aren’t present, deadlines aren’t set. If we don’t really commit, we never really fail. It’s an institutional or systemic obstacle that interferes with our success, not the fact that I demonstrated a clear lack of commitment by not establishing that deadline…
That level of accountability, frankly, is just scary to some.
But it’s necessary if we are to accomplish a damn thing in furtherance of our goals, our plans, our objectives. Even better, let’s quote Steve Case of AOL fame: “A vision without a plan for execution is probably just a hallucination.” Not necessarily an AOL fan, but I’ll be using that pithy little tidbit again.
But that’s just me…
