4 Secret Ingredient for Reaching Goals and Make $5000 + / mo.

How many of you had what you thought were realistic goals for your blog and failed to reach them? Were you able to understand why your blog didn’t hit the targets?

If you don’t know, let me tell you why: the number one reason people fail to reach goals is that they do not have clear objectives.
Defining goals and objectives

First, let’s get this out on the table. Goals and objectives are not the same things. Goals are broad, generic actions, while objectives are narrow, specific actions.

In other words, goals are high-level. That means you need objectives to go along with those goals. These objectives must be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely) so you can act upon them.

So if someone’s goal is to lose 20 pounds, then his objectives could do 60 minutes of cardio 6 days a week, consume no more than 1800 calories per day, and not eat less than 3 hours before bedtime.
Setting goals

Let’s face it: setting goals for blogging is pretty straightforward. 

How many of these did you have?

1. Reach 100,000 Alexa ranking in 3 months
2. Obtain Google PageRank 3 in 6 months
3. Get 1000 total comments in 3 months
4. Get 500 email subscribers in a year
5. Earn $100/mo. Income in 6 months

Some of those goals seem pretty lofty, but they are all very achievable. Realistically, though, most bloggers won’t come near those numbers. A handful will get close, but only a few superstars will.

So, what separates those superstars from everyone else? Uneducated or bitter people will blame dumb luck, but the reality is that the former likely had specific actions that they performed regularly. Those objectives helped them reach their goals.

OK, now be honest with yourself. The truth is, most people don’t even have time frames for their goals. How many of you had a goal like this?
Make $5000/mo.

That’s perfectly fine, too. Some purists don’t even want to measure goals or have real numbers next to them. They’re OK with:
Be the best blogger in the x niche

Believe it or not, the level of detail in the goal isn’t all that important. Regardless of how specific you want to create your goals, you can’t get there without actions you can perform. The objective is the missing ingredient!

Creating objectives

Goals are strategic in nature. No one can create success from strategy alone. Therefore, you will need tactics for the purposes, called objectives, which are actions that can be accomplished.

Look at these examples of well-written objectives:

1. Write 5 new articles per week, each having at least 200 words.
2. Read every comment on your own blog and respond whenever appropriate.
3. Visit 50 related blogs per week.
4. Leave 25 quality comments on associated blogs per week.
5. Visit 5 related forums per week.
6. Write a guest post for another blog per month.
7. Create an ebook by the six-month mark.

See the difference? Those are all specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. You are very much in control of whether or not those are completed. Like it or not, you are making yourself accountable by creating objectives.

Monitor goals and objectives closely.

Once you have defined your actions, you must pay attention to them. That means you need to monitor your performance and make necessary adjustments.

For instance, I aimed to write a new article every weekday for the first three months. After I hit the 90-day mark, I changed my goal of creating a presence and building a greater sense of community.

As a result, one thing I had to do was tweak one of my objectives. I decided to reduce the number of posts from five to three per week. I felt I had enough of a foundation of content that I’d instead give my regular visitors more time to read each article.

Time will tell if I actually reach that goal. My objective of writing three weekly posts can easily be met.

Having no objectives means you’re not serious.

The bottom line is that there’s no magic behind reaching goals. It requires a methodical means to get to your destination. The secret to success is merely creating objectives, so you have tasks to accomplish.

In my mind, there are two reasons why people don’t have objectives:

1. They don’t know what objectives are or how to create reasonable goals
2. They want to give themselves an excuse for failure

After reading this article, the first reason no longer applies. If you don’t create objectives, you give yourself a way out.

Just know that only some people become successful by accident. If you’d rather bet the farm on that, then Godspeed. However, if you prefer to take destiny tointo your own hands, setting goals and creating objectives is the way to go.

What are some of your goals and objectives for your blog?