Mastermind Goal Setting

Guest Contributor: Anne-Marie-Faiola
Anne-Marie's Posts - Anne-Marie's Blog


One tangible benefit I have received from my Mastermind Business Group is an increased awareness about Goal Setting.

Most people know how to set goals - after all, New Year's Resolutions come about every year. One of the reasons that goals often aren't met is because they are wishy washy amorphous goals. Something like: "I want to be more healthy this year" is useless in terms of measurability. There is an oft-used acronym about Goals: they need to be SMART. Goals have to be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time oriented.

Using the SMART acronym, the wishy-washy goal around health could be transformed into:

I will lose 10 pounds of December 15
I will work out for 30 minutes per day for the remainder of the year
I will eat 3 apples every week for the next three months

Having a Mastermind Group around me helps me to make and keep goals. Not only do they review them and help to craft them so they are specific and measurable, but they all make their own goals for themselves. Once a year, my Mastermind Group meets in a weekend setting. We hire a coach to facilitate part of the meeting and as a group, we sit down and make individual goals for the upcoming year. It's a financial and time commitment to do this (taking a weekend off and hiring a coach isn't free) but it is such a valuable tool to our individual and collective success that we gladly invest the time and money.

Having a group of other high achievers working towards their goals is inspiring. Listening to the other women in my Mastermind group meet their goals, month by month, energizes me. And, like many people, I have a competitive streak so work harder to meet my goals when I know I'll be giving a report about the goal once a month to my accountability team.

If you've made goals in the past that haven't worked out, consider reviewing them with a trusted friend to ensure that they are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time oriented. If you have a Mastermind Group, consider adding Goals and Goal Review to your monthly meetings. Moving forward on a clearly defined path with the support of others is a tangible benefit to having a Mastermind Group.