goals | danoshinsky.com

11/15/202011/15/2020

Setting Four Types of Goals: Audience, Financial, Learning, and Leadership.

As you’re setting goals for the new year, think about setting a few different types of goals. It’s not just about driving as much revenue as possible, or growing your audience as fast as possible. I want you to think about setting four types of goals for the new year:

1.) What is your audience goal? Set a goal for the audience you’re trying to build. Where will you build your audience? On what platforms? Then think about growth. How big do you need your audience to be for your business to be viable? How big do you think it can be?

2.) What is your financial goal? What is the minimum amount of revenue you need to hit? What do you hope to reach in the next year? And if you exceed all expectations, what numbers do you hope to hi?

3.) What is your learning goal? If you’re going to succeed in your role, you’re going to need to keep learning. So what do you hope to learn next year? Think about the skills you’d like to gain or subjects you want to master that might help take your work to the next level.

4.) What is your leadership goal? No matter what you’re doing — working within a larger company, or going solo — you’ve still got an obligation to be a leader in your community. Think about ways you can lead: Mentoring, joining an organization, sharing learnings with others. Finding spaces to lead gives you the opportunity to both give back and stay involved.

Think about the year ahead and try to set all four types of goals. Those that do — and that seek to actually achieve those goals — will do big things in the new year.

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That artwork comes via Katerina Limpitsouni and Undraw.

01/01/202001/01/2020

Setting A Simple Goal For 2020.

In 2019, I decided to set a simple goal: I’d do 10 push-ups, every single day. I didn’t keep exact tabs on this — I added a recurring to-do to my to-do list, and tried to cross it off more often than not. I missed a few days along the way due to travel or illness, but otherwise, I did it pretty much every day. Over the course of the year, I easily did more than 3,000 push-ups — which, to be perfectly honest, was probably about 2,900 more than I’d done in the previous two years combined.

And I discovered something: I actually enjoyed doing push-ups! I plan on keeping that habit going in the new year.

But I also want to add something new to the mix in 2020. As I wrote a few months ago about my push-up goal:

It’s a simple goal, and a small goal. But by committing to the task every single day, it’s going to build to something that, by year’s end, I can be proud of.

So here’s one for 2020: I’d like to start practicing my Spanish again. I was a Spanish minor in college, and I spent six months studying abroad in Spain. But more than a decade removed from that experience, my Spanish is poor — and I’m a little embarrassed at how bad it is.

A few weeks ago, I downloaded Duolingo, and started finding a few minutes for it every day. (I recently added the Lupa app, too.) My goal for 2020 is to keeping making some time to practice — and to see how far a little work every day can take me.

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That wildly generic LED sign at top comes via Jon Tyson and Unsplash.

03/04/201904/16/2019

How I Set a Simple Goal for 2019.

At the end of last year, I wrote about three types of goals to set in the new year: Learning goals, personal goals, and fitness goals. I wrote:

This is the time of year when people commit to New Year’s Resolutions — which inevitably end up discarded by the time February rolls around. So instead of setting a major resolution you’ll fall short on, start smaller. Start with something that’s going to help you grow, or feel more connected to your friends or community.

I’ve tried to put that idea into practice in 2019, starting with a simple fitness goal: Doing 10 push-ups, every day.

I don’t like doing push-ups. At the gym, I always felt self-conscious when I got down to do a push-up. I felt like the people around me would judge: Did he just get tired from a few push-ups? Is that all he can do?

So I set a truly simple goal: 10 push-ups, every day. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but it adds up. If I stick to this goal, I’ll do over 3,500 push-ups in 2019. I’d bet that’s more push-ups than I’ve done in the rest of my life — combined!

And I’ve discovered: I actually don’t mind doing push-ups! After a few weeks of my daily push-up routine, I feel more confident when I do them at the gym. In the morning, if I need a jolt of energy before I leave for work, I might drop and do 10. Often, I’ll add an extra set, since 10 push-ups isn’t that hard anymore.

It’s a simple goal, and a small goal. But by committing to the task every single day, it’s going to build to something that, by year’s end, I can be proud of.

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That photo of a perfect push-up, by Sgt. Justin A. Moeller of the U.S. Army, is re-used here thanks to a Creative Commons license.