Engineer Your Goals Course – Premium

The first lesson in this course is designed to get you to think BIG. This is critical to your success as an engineer and in life overall. Open up your EYG spreadsheet and answer these two questions. Take as much time as you need to think about them.

The answers will be entered into the orange boxes beneath each question in the tab labeled EYG – Day #1 on your EYG spreadsheet.

Question 1.1 – When your career is over, what are some of the major accomplishments that you would like to have achieved?

Question 1.2 – How do you want people to remember you when your career is over?

Resources: If you need help thinking BIG, I highly recommend The Magic of Thinking Big, by David J. Schwartz (affiliate link).

Remember, you can post questions and share your experiences in our private Facebook group.

Yesterday, you were asked some BIG-picture questions about your career and your legacy. Today’s lesson is to list the values that you hold as highly important and that you will stand by in pursuing your career and personal goals.

Examples might include being honest, having integrity, valuing family, investing hard work, interacting with people, et cetera.

You may also include general actions you would like to experience or participate in regularly, as well as locations in which you want to live and work.

Examples might include working outdoors, living in a warm climate, working on BIG projects…or small projects, learning a language, climbing Kilimanjaro, et cetera.

Don’t restrict yourself in what you select as your values or other elements you wish to experience in your career or life. The goal of goals is to bring into existence that which you wish to experience but do not experience currently. Today’s exercise will help you determine parameters that you can use later on in the course for assessing the goals you’ll create. But more on that later!

Your answers for today’s lesson can be entered into the orange-numbered boxes beneath each question in the tab labeled “EYG – Day #2” on your EYG spreadsheet.

Remember, you can post questions and share your experiences in our private Facebook group.

On Day #2, you identified your values and what’s most important to you in your career and life.

Now it’s time to learn about what excites you most about your professional development. For today’s lesson, please answer the following question:

If you had $5,000 to invest in professional development for yourself in the next 12 months, what would you spend it on?

This question will help you to identify where you feel your weaknesses are in your career and to keep these in mind as you create your goals and design steps to achieve them.

The answer should be entered into the orange box beneath Question 3 in the tab labeled “EYG – Days 3-5” on your EYG spreadsheet.

I hope you really considered your development in answering this question. On Day #4, I will ask you to answer another important question: “the lottery question.”

Remember, you can post questions and share your experiences in our private Facebook group.

On Day #3, you answered “the $5,000 question,” helping you identify what part of your professional development is most important to you and/or needs some further development.

Now it’s time to learn about what you are truly passionate about, not just in your career, but overall in your life. Please read the following question, and then answer. Don’t take this lightly, or as a joke; think as if this really is happening to you.

The question…

Imagine you won the lottery today but still HAD to go to work every day; what job would you select?

Think hard about this and list ONE job, not two or three. What is the one thing you would do? Be as specific as possible. Consider these questions to help:

Where would you be working?
How much gross income would you be making per year?
Who would you be surrounded by?
How many hours per week would you work?

Here’s a sample answer: I would be a tour guide in Hawaii. I would be making $50,000 per year; I would be with my wife and kids and be able to see my close family and friends whenever we needed to. I’d only be working about 30 hours per week, devoting the remainder of the time to my family and the outdoors.

The answer should be entered into the orange box beneath Question 4 in the tab labeled “EYG – Days 3-5” on your EYG spreadsheet.

Remember, you can post questions and share your experiences in our private Facebook group.

On Day #4, you identified the job you would select if money weren’t an issue in your life to help you start thinking about what you are truly passionate about.

Now it’s time to take that process to the next level. Today, answer the following question:

WHY did you select the ONE job you selected on Day #4?

Enter the answer into the orange box beneath Question 5 in the tab labeled “EYG – Days 3-5” on your EYG spreadsheet.

Passion plus performance provides opportunities! Knowing what excites you, what fires you up, and what you would love to do is a key step in developing the goals that can make your personal and professional dreams a reality.

Not someday. Now.

On Day #6, we will start to bring all of these thoughts together.

Remember, you can post questions and share your experiences in our private Facebook group.

Today’s an exciting day! Today you bring your answers from the past five days together.

Look over all of your answers from the past week. What you see are the things that define how you approach work and life and what you are passionate about. On Day 1, you were thinking “BIG picture”—what it will all look like at the end of your career. On Day 2, you identified the values that bring you meaning in life. On Day 3, you started playing with thoughts about actions in the coming year to improve your career, and on Days 4 and 5, you went BIG again: you identified the ONE thing you would do if money weren’t a concern and WHY you would do it.

Now, it’s time to get really clear about the three to five main items in your life—feelings, activities, values—that define your “why” behind all of your actions and are what lead to you experiencing meaning in life. These will be your Pillars; they will serve as the footing on which you will be building your goals.

An example of a Pillar might look like this: working with people, interaction, conversations, and public speaking might all be distilled into one Pillar you call “Human Interaction.”

Establishing Your Footing

Your three to five Pillars will be serving as the footing you’ll use for building your goals. They must be aligned with your values and deepest desires; otherwise the goals that you set will most likely become stagnant or boring and you will disengage from your daily pursuit of them.

Please go ahead and record your Pillars in the numbered-orange boxes beneath Lesson 6 in the tab labeled “EYG – Day #6” on your EYG spreadsheet.

I expect you might need help with this one. It can be complex and might require you to do a little rework. That’s okay! Seldom do challenging engineering projects go from design to fabrication without some adjustments.

Remember, you can post questions and share your experiences in our private Facebook group.

How did Day #6 go for you? Are you excited? You should be…on Day #6, you highlighted the three to five things that serve as the sources of energy behind what drives you! Today, we’re going to build on this energy by selecting two long-term career goals.

These are the BIG goals, the ones that might take ten, fifteen, twenty years to attain. These are going to be, in the words of leadership guru Jim Collins, your Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAG). The purpose of the BHAG is to provide you with visionary goals that are both strategic and emotionally compelling. You’ve done the strategy work already (Day 1), and you’ve also done the emotional work (Days 2 and 5).

Lesson:

Write out your goal statement for each of your long-term career goals in a sentence of eight to 15 words.

Sample: I will be the industry expert for concrete design for airfield pavements in North America.

Write your goals in the TWO orange boxes beneath Lesson 7 in the tab labeled “EYG – Days 7-9” on your EYG spreadsheet.

Every big adventure starts with a goal statement. Today, you begin your adventure.

Remember, you can post questions and share your experiences in our private Facebook group.

The long-term view is important because it provides us with a direction toward which we’ll be working and aligning our actions. Think of your two long-term goals as your North Star—your personal Polaris.

But it’s hard to convert those long-term goals, ones that might take five, 10, or 15 years to achieve, into actionable-sized components that you can work on this year. That’s where the near-term goals come in.

Today, you’re going to develop three near-term career goals, ones that will take no more than 12 months to achieve. There may be a near-term goal that isn’t directly related to one of your long-term goals, but in most cases, they will be and should be.

Lesson:

Write out your goal statement for each of your near-term goals in a sentence of eight to 15 words.

Sample: I will achieve my professional engineering license.

Write your goals in the THREE orange boxes beneath Lesson 8 in the tab labeled “EYG – Days 7-9” on your EYG spreadsheet.

You’ll notice there is a maximum of five career goals between the long- and near-term career goals. This is deliberate. Research has shown that seven to 10 goals is the best range to ensure that people remain focused and active in their goal pursuit.

And that’s right—we’ve only identified five goals so far. Don’t worry…you’ll be identifying life goals in the lessons to come.

Remember, you can post questions and share your experiences in our private Facebook group.

Whew! Take a knee and drink some water! It’s been a busy week, but you now have the outline of a personal strategy. Congratulations!

Today, take some time to look over your long-term and near-term career goals to ensure they align with your three to five Pillars. Just like a building can fail if the connections aren’t properly tied back to its foundation, so too can your goals if they aren’t properly tied back to the three to five things that drive you.

Make adjustments as necessary to your two long-term and three short-term career goal statements today to ensure they tie back to your three to five Pillars. Starting tomorrow, we’re going to make each goal intelligent. We’re going to make them SMART using the S.M.A.R.T. acronym!

Lesson:

Reflect on your career goals in the tab labeled “EYG – Days 7-9” on your EYG spreadsheet and ensure they tie back to your three to five Pillars.

Remember, you can post questions and share your experiences in our private Facebook group.

Each of your career goals should be S M A R T. This acronym can guide you through establishing a solid, actionable long- or near-term goal. The following questions will help you evaluate your goals to ensure they’re just that: solid and actionable!

For today’s lesson, answer these questions for your first long-term career goal, using the orange boxes for Lesson #10 in rows 18-26 in the tab labeled “EYG – Days 10-14” on your EYG spreadsheet.

• Specific – Describe your goal in enough detail that you know specifically what is to be done. How is it important? How will it impact your career? Is it challenging?
• Measurable – Describe how your goal is measurable. How will you know when the goal has been accomplished? Can the progress of the goal be tracked?
• Attainable – Describe how your goal is attainable. Can it be accomplished? Can it be brought to a successful conclusion? Do you have control over the goal? If not, whom do you have to recruit to help you achieve it?
• Relevant – Describe how your goal is relevant. How does it relate to your three to five Pillars? Does the goal really need to be done? Is this an opportunity that is available to you?
• Time-based – Describe how your goal is time-based. At what date will the goal be completed? Place a time limit on it. “A dream becomes a goal with a deadline on it.”

I have created a sample SMART goal outline in the tab labeled “EYG – SMART SAMPLE” on your EYG spreadsheet for your review as well.

You’ll be asked to do this again over the next four days for your career goals, or you can go through and tackle the other four goals now. They are all located in the tab “EYG – Days 10-14” on your EYG spreadsheet.

Remember, you can post questions and share your experiences in our private Facebook group.

Each of your career goals should be S M A R T. This acronym can guide you through establishing a good, workable long- or near-term goal. Hopefully, the following questions will help you evaluate your goals.

For today’s lesson, answer these questions for your second long-term career goal, using the orange boxes for Lesson #11 in rows 34-42 in the tab labeled “EYG – Days 10-14” on your EYG spreadsheet.

• Specific – Describe your goal in enough detail that you know specifically what is to be done. How is it important? How will it impact your career? Is it challenging?
• Measurable – Describe how your goal is measurable. How will you know when the goal has been accomplished? Can the progress of the goal be tracked?
• Attainable – Describe how your goal is attainable. Can it be accomplished? Can it be brought to a successful conclusion? Do you have control over the goal? If not, whom do you have to recruit to help you achieve it?
• Relevant – Describe how your goal is relevant. How does it relate to your three to five Pillars? Does the goal really need to be done? Is this an opportunity that is available to you?
• Time-based – Describe how your goal is time-based. At what date will the goal be completed? Place a time limit on it. “A dream becomes a goal with a deadline on it.”

I have created a sample SMART goal outline in the tab labeled “EYG – SMART SAMPLE” on your EYG spreadsheet for your review as well.

You’ll be asked to do this again over the next three days for your career goals, or you can go through and tackle the other three goals now. They are all located in the tab “EYG – Days 10-14” on your EYG spreadsheet.

Remember, you can post questions and share your experiences in our private Facebook group.

Each of your career goals should be S M A R T. This acronym can guide you through establishing a good, workable long- or near-term goal. Hopefully, the following questions will help you evaluate your goals.

For today’s lesson, answer these questions for your first near-term career goal, using the orange boxes for Lesson #12 in rows 50-58 in the tab labeled “EYG – Days 10-14” on your EYG spreadsheet.

• Specific – Describe your goal in enough detail that you know specifically what is to be done. How is it important? How will it impact your career? Is it challenging?
• Measurable – Describe how your goal is measurable. How will you know when the goal has been accomplished? Can the progress of the goal be tracked?
• Attainable – Describe how your goal is attainable. Can it be accomplished? Can it be brought to a successful conclusion? Do you have control over the goal? If not, whom do you have to recruit to help you achieve it?
• Relevant – Describe how your goal is relevant. How does it relate to your three to five Pillars? As a near-term goal, does it relate to one of your long-term goals? Does the goal really need to be done? Is this an opportunity that is available to you?
• Time-based – Describe how your goal is time-based. At what date will the goal be completed? Place a time limit on it. “A dream becomes a goal with a deadline on it.”

I have created a sample SMART goal outline in the tab labeled “EYG – SMART SAMPLE” on your EYG spreadsheet for your review as well.

You’ll be asked to do this again over the next two days for your career goals, or you can go through and tackle the other two goals now. They are all located in the tab “EYG – Days 10-14” on your EYG spreadsheet.

Remember, you can post questions and share your experiences in our private Facebook group.

Each of your career goals should be S M A R T. This acronym can guide you through establishing a good, workable long- or near-term goal. Hopefully, the following questions will help you evaluate your goals.

For today’s lesson, answer these questions for your second near-term career goal, using the orange boxes for Lesson #13 in rows 66-74 in the tab labeled “EYG – Days 10-14” in your EYG spreadsheet.

• Specific – Describe your goal in enough detail that you know specifically what is to be done. How is it important? How will it impact your career? Is it challenging?
• Measurable – Describe how your goal is measurable. How will you know when the goal has been accomplished? Can the progress of the goal be tracked?
• Attainable – Describe how your goal is attainable. Can it be accomplished? Can it be brought to a successful conclusion? Do you have control over the goal? If not, whom do you have to recruit to help you achieve it?
• Relevant – Describe how your goal is relevant. How does it relate to your three to five Pillars? As a near-term goal, does it relate to one of your long-term goals? Does the goal really need to be done? Is this an opportunity that is available to you?
• Time-based – Describe how your goal is time-based. At what date will the goal be completed? Place a time limit on it. “A dream becomes a goal with a deadline on it.” 

I have created a sample SMART goal outline in the tab labeled “EYG – SMART SAMPLE” on your EYG spreadsheet for your review as well.

You’ll be asked to do this again tomorrow for your last career goal, or you can go through and tackle it now. It is located in the tab “EYG – Days 10-14” on your EYG spreadsheet.

Remember, you can post questions and share your experiences in our private Facebook group.

Almost done! Today’s the last day we’ll be working on making your career goals SMART, this time hitting your third near-term career goal. Each of your career goals should be S M A R T. This acronym can guide you through establishing a good, workable long- or near-term goal. Hopefully, the following questions will help you evaluate your goals.

For today’s lesson, answer these questions for your third near-term career goal, using the orange boxes for Lesson #14 in rows 82-90 in the tab labeled “EYG – Days 10-14” on your EYG spreadsheet.

• Specific – Describe your goal in enough detail that you know specifically what is to be done. How is it important? How will it impact your career? Is it challenging?
• Measurable – Describe how your goal is measurable. How will you know when the goal has been accomplished? Can the progress of the goal be tracked?
• Attainable – Describe how your goal is attainable. Can it be accomplished? Can it be brought to a successful conclusion? Do you have control over the goal? If not, whom do you have to recruit to help you achieve it?
• Relevant – Describe how your goal is relevant. How does it relate to your three to five Pillars? As a near-term goal, does it relate to one of your long-term goals? Does the goal really need to be done? Is this an opportunity that is available to you?
• Time-based – Describe how your goal is time-based. At what date will the goal be completed? Place a time limit on it. “A dream becomes a goal with a deadline on it.”

I have created a sample SMART goal outline in the tab labeled “EYG – SMART SAMPLE” on your EYG spreadsheet for your review as well.

Nice job. Now all of your five career goals are SMART!

Remember, you can post questions and share your experiences in our private Facebook group.

What do you think? You’re two weeks into mapping out the next five, 10, maybe even 15 years of your life. That’s awesome! The past week, you’ve had the opportunity to focus on each of your five professional goals and make them SMART—specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based.

Today, take time to review each of your five goals, make adjustments as needed, and prioritize them!

You will be working on these goals in parallel. However, putting them in priority order serves to further focus your mind. When all else fails, you know what your primary objective is—the ONE thing you’ll focus on if time becomes scarce or you have to attend to the realities of life.

You likely have a to-do list. But do you have a success list? Prioritizing your goals allows you to build a daily success list, detailing the task(s) you will undertake each day to work toward your goals.

“You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage—pleasantly, smilingly, non-apologetically—to say ‘no’ to other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger ‘yes’ burning inside. The enemy of the ‘best’ is often the ‘good.’” ~ Stephen Covey

Lesson:

Reflect on and prioritize your career goals in the tab labeled “EYG – Goal Summary” on your EYG spreadsheet and ensure they tie back to your three to five Pillars. You can prioritize them by placing a number in the purple column to the right of the goals labeled “Priority.” Depending on your goals, you can prioritize all of them together or split them up into long-term and near-term and prioritize each list separately.

Remember, you can post questions and share your experiences in our private Facebook group.

Our careers are one aspect of who we are, but they’re only one aspect of who we are. You’ve built your career goals, and starting today, you’re going to get personal and begin building your personal goals.

The good thing is that you’ll be using the exact same methodology you used to build your career goals!

Today, you will set two long-term personal goals that tie directly back to your three to five Pillars. As with our career goals, our personal goals must have a foundation on which to be built. And it turns out that the foundation for your personal goals is the same as the foundation for your career goals.

These are the BIG goals, the ones that might take 10, 15, 20 years to attain. These are going to be, in the words of leadership guru Jim Collins, your Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAG). The purpose of the BHAG is to provide you with visionary goals that are both strategic and emotionally compelling. You’ve done the strategy work already (Day 1), and you’ve also done the emotional work (Days 2 and 5).

Lesson:

Write out your goal statement for each of your long-term goals in a sentence of eight to 15 words.

Sample: I would like to become an amateur poker player and compete in tournaments.

Write your long-term goals in the TWO orange boxes beneath Lesson 16 in the tab labeled “EYG – Days 16-18” on your EYG spreadsheet.

Remember, you can post questions and share your experiences in our private Facebook group.

Today is similar to what we did back on Day 8—we’re going to develop three near-term goals, but this time, we’re focusing on our personal aspirations.

As with our near-term career goals, make these personal goals ones that will take no more than 12 months to achieve. Ensure you can see the link between your three near-term personal goals and your two long-term personal goals from yesterday.

Lesson:

Write out your goal statement for each of your near-term personal goals in a sentence of eight to 15 words.

Sample: I will learn how to dance the salsa.

Write your near-term personal goals in the THREE orange boxes beneath Lesson 17 in the tab labeled “EYG – Days 16-18” on your EYG spreadsheet.

You’ll notice there is a maximum of five personal goals between the long- and near-term goals. This is deliberate. Research has shown that seven to 10 goals is the best range to ensure that people remain focused and active in their goal pursuit. You built five career goals, and now you have five life goals. There are your 10!

Remember, you can post questions and share your experiences in our private Facebook group.

How’s it going? Are you hanging in there? Today, we get to take time to reflect on what we’ve done the past two days to identify our long- and near-term personal goals, ensuring they align with our three to five Pillars. Remember, we want to have our goals connected to the things that drive us. When we do this, when we know why we are doing something, it makes the probability of success all the more likely.

Review your personal goals and make adjustments as necessary to your two long-term and three near-term personal goal statements to ensure they tie back to your three to five Pillars.

Starting tomorrow, we’re going to make each of these personal goals SMART.

Lesson:

Reflect on your personal goals in the tab labeled “EYG – Days 16-18” on your EYG spreadsheet and ensure they tie back to your three to five Pillars in worksheet “EYG – Day #6.”

Remember, you can post questions and share your experiences in our private Facebook group.

As with your career goals, each of your personal goals needs to be S M A R T. This acronym can guide you through establishing a good, workable long- or near-term goal. The following questions will help you evaluate your goals.

For today’s lesson, answer these questions for your first long-term personal goal, using the orange boxes for Lesson #19 in rows 18-26 in the tab labeled “EYG – Days 19-23” on your EYG spreadsheet.

• Specific – Describe your goal in enough detail that you know specifically what is to be done. How is it important? How will it impact your career? Is it challenging?
• Measurable – Describe how your goal is measurable. How will you know when the goal has been accomplished? Can the progress of the goal be tracked?
• Attainable – Describe how your goal is attainable. Can it be accomplished? Can it be brought to a successful conclusion? Do you have control over the goal? If not, whom do you have to recruit to help you achieve it?
• Relevant – Describe how your goal is relevant. How does it relate to your three to five Pillars? Does the goal really need to be done? Is this an opportunity that is available to you?
• Time-based – Describe how your goal is time-based. At what date will the goal be completed? Place a time limit on it. “A dream becomes a goal with a deadline on it.”

I have created a sample SMART goal outline in the tab labeled “EYG – SMART SAMPLE” on your EYG spreadsheet for your review as well.

You’ll be asked to do this again over the next four days for your personal goals, or you can go through and tackle the other four goals now. They are all located in the tab “EYG – Days 19-23” on your EYG spreadsheet.

Remember, you can post questions and share your experiences in our private Facebook group.

Each of your personal goals needs to be S M A R T. This acronym can guide you through establishing a good, workable long- or near-term goal. Hopefully, the following questions will help you evaluate your goals.

For today’s lesson, answer these questions for your second long-term personal goal, using the orange boxes for Lesson #20 in rows 34-42 in the tab labeled “EYG – Days 19-23” on your EYG spreadsheet.

• Specific – Describe your goal in enough detail that you know specifically what is to be done. How will it impact your career? Is it challenging?
• Measurable – Describe how your goal is measurable. How will you know when the goal has been accomplished? Can the progress of the goal be tracked?
• Attainable – Describe how your goal is attainable. Can it be accomplished? Can it be brought to a successful conclusion? Do you have control over the goal? If not, whom do you have to recruit to help you achieve it?
• Relevant – Describe how your goal is relevant. How does it relate to your three to five Pillars? Does the goal really need to be done? Is this an opportunity that is available to you?
• Time-based – Describe how your goal is time-based. At what date will the goal be completed? Place a time limit on it. “A dream becomes a goal with a deadline on it.”

I have created a sample SMART goal outline in the tab labeled “EYG – SMART SAMPLE” on your EYG spreadsheet for your review as well.

You’ll be asked to do this again over the next three days for your career goals, or you can go through and tackle the other three goals now. They are all located in the tab “EYG – Days 19-23” on your EYG spreadsheet.

Remember, you can post questions and share your experiences in our private Facebook group.

As you know, each of your personal goals needs to be S M A R T. This acronym can guide you through establishing a good, workable long- or near-term goal. Hopefully, the following questions will help you evaluate your goals.

For today’s lesson, answer these questions for your first near-term personal goal, using the orange boxes for Lesson #21 in rows 50-58 in the tab labeled “EYG – Days 19-23” on your EYG spreadsheet.

• Specific – Describe your goal in enough detail that you know specifically what is to be done. How is it important? How will it impact your career? Is it challenging?
• Measurable – Describe how your goal is measurable. How will you know when the goal has been accomplished? Can the progress of the goal be tracked?
• Attainable – Describe how your goal is attainable. Can it be accomplished? Can it be brought to a successful conclusion? Do you have control over the goal? If not, whom do you have to recruit to help you achieve it?
• Relevant – Describe how your goal is relevant. How does it relate to your three to five Pillars? As a near-term goal, does it relate to one of your long-term goals? Does the goal really need to be done? Is this an opportunity that is available to you?
• Time-based – Describe how your goal is time-based. At what date will the goal be completed? Place a time limit on it. “A dream becomes a goal with a deadline on it.”

I have created a sample SMART goal outline in the tab labeled “EYG – SMART SAMPLE” on your EYG spreadsheet for your review as well.

You’ll be asked to do this again over the next two days for your remaining personal goals, or you can go through and tackle the other two goals now. They are all located in the tab “EYG – Days 19-23” on your EYG spreadsheet.

Remember, you can post questions and share your experiences in our private Facebook group.

This is day four for making each of your personal goals S M A R T. This acronym can guide you through establishing a good, workable long- or near-term goal. Hopefully, the following questions will help you evaluate your goals.

For today’s lesson, answer these questions for your second near-term personal goal, using the orange boxes for Lesson #22 in rows 66-74 in the tab labeled “EYG – Days 19-23” on your EYG spreadsheet.

• Specific – Describe your goal in enough detail that you know specifically what is to be done. How is it important? How will it impact your career? Is it challenging?
• Measurable – Describe how your goal is measurable. How will you know when the goal has been accomplished? Can the progress of the goal be tracked?
• Attainable – Describe how your goal is attainable. Can it be accomplished? Can it be brought to a successful conclusion? Do you have control over the goal? If not, whom do you have to recruit to help you achieve it?
• Relevant – Describe how your goal is relevant. How does it relate to your three to five Pillars? As a near-term goal, does it relate to one of your long-term goals? Does the goal really need to be done? Is this an opportunity that is available to you?
• Time-based – Describe how your goal is time-based. At what date will the goal be completed? Place a time limit on it. “A dream becomes a goal with a deadline on it.”

I have created a sample SMART goal outline in the tab labeled “EYG – SMART SAMPLE” on your EYG spreadsheet for your review as well.

You’ll be asked to do this again tomorrow for your last career goal, or you can go through and tackle it now. It is located in the tab “EYG – Days 19-23” on your EYG spreadsheet.

Remember, you can post questions and share your experiences in our private Facebook group.

Whew! Today’s your last day focusing on making each of your personal goals S M A R T. This acronym can guide you through establishing a good, workable long- or near-term goal. Hopefully, the following questions will help you evaluate your goals.

For today’s lesson, answer these questions for your third near-term personal goal, using the orange boxes for Lesson #23 in rows 82-90 in the tab labeled “EYG – Days 19-23” on your EYG spreadsheet.

• Specific – Describe your goal in enough detail that you know specifically what is to be done. How is it important? How will it have an impact on your career? Is it challenging?
• Measurable – Describe how your goal is measurable. How will you know when the goal has been accomplished? Can the progress of the goal be tracked?
• Attainable – Describe how your goal is attainable. Can it be accomplished? Can it be brought to a successful conclusion? Do you have control over the goal? If not, whom do you have to recruit to help you achieve it?
• Relevant – Describe how your goal is relevant. How does it relate to your three to five Pillars? As a near-term goal, does it relate to one of your long-term goals? Does the goal really need to be done? Is this an opportunity that is available to you?
• Time-based – Describe how your goal is time-based. At what date will the goal be completed? Place a time limit on it. “A dream becomes a goal with a deadline on it.”

I have created a sample SMART goal outline in the tab labeled “EYG – SMART SAMPLE” on your EYG spreadsheet for your review as well.

Nice job. Now all of your five personal goals are SMART!

Remember, you can post questions and share your experiences in our private Facebook group.

You’re over two thirds of the way through your month of strategic planning for your career and life. Feeling awesome? You should be! With over 80% of people feeling emotionally disengaged in their work, you are taking action to identify the “why” that makes you emotionally engaged. And already, you’ve gone several steps beyond that to identify five SMART goals for both your career and personal aspirations.

That is awesome!

Today is another reflection day. Today, you’ll take time to review each of your five personal goals, make adjustments as needed, and then put a number in front of each one. Just like you did with your career goals, prioritize your personal goals. The priority will help you focus on ONE thing in your personal life that you can be working on each day. It allows you to build your success list, not just a to-do list. This becomes really important when the realities of life put competing demands on your time, mental focus, and energy.

“You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage—pleasantly, smilingly, non-apologetically—to say ‘no’ to other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger ‘yes’ burning inside. The enemy of the ‘best’ is often the ‘good.’” ~ Stephen Covey

Lesson:

Reflect on and prioritize your personal goals in the tab labeled “EYG – Goal Summary” on your EYG spreadsheet, and ensure they tie back to your three to five Pillars. You can prioritize them by placing a number in the purple column to the right of the goals labeled “Priority.” Depending on your goals, you can prioritize all of them together or split them up into long-term and near-term and prioritize each list separately.

Remember, you can post questions and share your experiences in our private Facebook group.

At any point in time, we can only focus on one thing. We can only work on one thing in any given moment, but we can have several things in play. We know from our professional and personal lives that we can have a lot of things going on simultaneously—in project speak, we have tasks working in parallel.

Over the past three weeks, you’ve invested a lot of time and mental energy in defining the right places to put your time, energy, and mental focus. It only seems right that we spend some time getting comfortable about the concept of Your ONE Thing.

The concept of Your ONE Thing comes from a book by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan titled The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth behind Extraordinary Results.

The simple truth? In each moment there is ONE thing we can be doing that will contribute to achieving our goals.

There is ONE thing for our career goals. There is ONE thing for our personal goals. You’ve identified up to 10 goals, but in any given moment you can only be working on ONE thing associated with these goals. This is okay! Don’t get discouraged thinking that there’s so much to do and not enough time to do it!

By focusing on the ONE thing you can be doing for your career aspirations and the ONE thing you can be doing for your personal aspirations each week, each day, you can build the habit of continuously focusing on those things that will bring you extraordinary results.

For today’s assignment, I want you to do the following:

Look at your personal goals and identify which of them is the ONE that, if accomplished, will contribute the most to the rest of them.

Look at your professional goals and identify which of them is the ONE that, if accomplished, will contribute the most to the rest of them.

Now revisit your priority rankings in the tab labeled “EYG – Goal Summary” on your EYG spreadsheet (from lessons 15 and 24) and re-rank them as needed based on your ONE goal in each area of your life that will have the BIGGEST impact.

Here’s an example:

Let’s say some of your goals include obtaining the PE license, getting promoted to project manager, increasing your salary by 10%, and managing a project with a budget of over $10 million.

Which one of these goals might most contribute to the achievement of the rest of them? Getting your PE license might very well help you get promoted, get a raise, and manage larger projects.

Therefore, on the professional side, getting your PE license should be the ONE thing you put a tremendous amount of focus and energy into.

In 2014, for me, my one thing was rewriting my book Engineer Your Own Success, which was published in mid-December.

Remember, you can post questions and share your experiences in our private Facebook group.

Commitment to focusing on your ONE thing takes time. It takes building a habit—your habit of generating extraordinary results. This is ONE habit you’ll want to build, as it’s the way you’ll ensure that what you dream about can come into your reality. One way to build commitment, to establish a habit of generating extraordinary results in any aspect of life, is to have an accountability partner. Someone who can keep you moving forward, keep you focused on the outcome you desire.

Through this course, you have two direct ways you can bring accountability into your career.

You can visit our private Facebook group and post your thoughts, goals, and progress here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/tecccommunity/

Secondly, you can purchase a one-on-one coaching session with me. Why? Simple. I will review your goals with you, help you identify the key steps you should be working on, and get you moving toward your success. I have helped some engineers totally rejuvenate their careers in 30 minutes. You can book your session here:

INSERT URL – BETTY I WILL SEND YOU

Here’s what one engineer I worked with said:

“Anthony’s coaching has had many positive impacts both on my professional career and personal life. Career transition, goal setting, networking, leadership, communication, time management, and work-life balance are a few examples of the numerous endeavors for which I resorted to Anthony’s assistance. One of the greatest values to Anthony’s coaching is his knack for breaking complex situations into small, measurable, and achievable solutions. His extensive engineering experience combined with his far-reaching vision allow him to readily build a success-proven roadmap for his clients.” – Ilias, structural engineer 

Book your session now and put all of your goal-setting work into action:

INSERT URL – BETTY I WILL SEND YOU

Even if you don’t book a coaching session with me, that doesn’t mean you can’t achieve accountability through other means. Enlist a work colleague, your mentor, or perhaps your spouse—someone who can keep you accountable for the results you generate and keep you on vector. However, whomever you select as your accountability partner must be someone who is invested in your goals and will provide you the support you need to achieve them.

Tomorrow, you will do something to keep your goals at the forefront of your mind.

Remember, you can post questions and share your experiences in our private Facebook group.

You’ve likely heard the depressing statistics:

• 25% of people abandon New Year’s resolutions after one week.
• 60% of people abandon them within six months. (The average person makes the same New Year’s resolution 10 separate times without success.)
• Only 5% of those who lose weight on a diet keep it off; 95% regain it. A significant percentage gains back more than they originally lost.
• Even after a heart attack, only 14% of patients make any lasting changes around eating or exercise.

The key to sustained success in achieving your goals is simple: write them down and then post them where you can see them every day.

Your assignment for today (and going forward) is to visit the tab labeled “EYG – Goal Summary” on your EYG spreadsheet and print it out. Then put it somewhere you can look at it every day.

I have my goals pinned to a corkboard right above my computer monitor. You don’t want yourself to forget or lose focus on your destination. Just like the pilot of an aircraft keeps the flight map in plain view, you want to keep your success map in view so you don’t fall off course in the reality of life. Go to it!

Remember, you can post questions and share your experiences in our private Facebook group.

What you have done over the past three weeks most people don’t do over an entire career. You’ve set goals that are truly aligned with you and then prioritized them to achieve your maximum potential over the next year.

Use today as a catch-up day, to review any of your goals that you are unsure about and fine-tune them. Post questions for me and fellow course attendees in the Facebook group.

Over the next two days, we’ll close out the course by creating a plan of attack for your first week and month as you journey toward goal accomplishment over the next year!

Remember, you can post questions and share your experiences in our private Facebook group.

Now that you have set clear goals, I want to help you put yourself in a position to achieve them by creating a plan of attack.

Let’s focus on your first month.

Assignment: Select one of your goals. Thinking about achieving that goal, define what you will need to accomplish in the next 30 days to keep you on vector. Write down the steps you identify in the row labeled “Month #1” beneath the goal you selected in the tab labeled “EYG – Planning” on your EYG spreadsheet.

For example, if you want to achieve your PE license one year from now, maybe over the next 30 days you have to download and complete the application.

The easiest way to do this is to brainstorm and write down whatever comes to mind.

Repeat this for each of your goals. The tab labeled “EYG – Planning” on your EYG spreadsheet is meant to help you; however, you can use your own resources, like a notebook or a blank piece of paper, if that works better for you.

Tomorrow, we’ll repeat this process for your first week, and then you’ll be set free to bring your extraordinary success into reality!

Remember, you can post questions and share your experiences in our private Facebook group.

Now that you have set clear goals and have broken them down into the steps you need to pursue over the next month, let’s dig deeper and identify what you will be working on this week.

Assignment: Select one of your goals. Review the Month #1 tasks that you have identified. Thinking about completing those tasks, define what you will need to accomplish in the next week to keep you on vector. Write down the steps you identify in the row labeled “Week #1” beneath the goal you selected in the tab labeled “EYG – Planning” on your EYG spreadsheet.

For example, if you want to achieve your PE license in one year from now, maybe over the next 30 days you have to download and complete the application, but maybe in the next week, you actually download and review the application.

Do you see what we are doing here? We are taking your very lofty goals and breaking them down into real, actionable steps that you can take today. Just like we would do on a major engineering project, we are breaking down the work on our goals into actionable tasks. You are, in a sense, building your own work breakdown structure for accomplishing your goals.

Repeat this for each of your goals. The tab labeled “EYG – Planning” on your EYG spreadsheet is meant to help you; however, you can use your own resources, like a notebook or a blank piece of paper, if that works better for you.

You have now completed the Engineer Your Goals course – congratulations!

Remember, you can post questions and share your experiences in our private Facebook group.