SMART Goals vs. Dream Big

This is the time of year when many people are asked to set New Year’s Resolutions for the coming year. Many more do a more specific job by setting Goals for the year. I’m no different, but I use a system that I first learned about when I was a member of Toastmasters International several years ago. This system has actually been around for over 20 years, in the context of project management and more recently, personal development.

The system I’m referring to is “S.M.A.R.T. Goals.” The letters in “SMART” help you remember the attributes of goals that have a higher likelihood of being met. And that’s important, because everyone knows someone who has failed to meet their goals, or New Year’s Resolutions, because those goals were unrealistic or not planned well.

The letters (usually) stand for the following: S=Specific, M=Measurable, A=Attainable, R=Realistic, and T=Tangible.

A Specific goal has a much greater chance of being accomplished than a general goal. A general goal would be, “Get in shape.” But a specific goal would say, “Join a health club and work out 3 days a week.”

A Measurable goal is one where you ask such questions as “How much? How many? How will I know when it is accomplished?” And when you measure your progress, you stay on track, reach your target dates, and experience the exhilaration of achievement.

An Attainable goal is one where you can put yourself in the right place at the right time to develop the attitudes, abilities, skills, and financial capacity to reach them. You see opportunities to bring yourself closer to achievement, where once you might have overlooked those opportunities.

A Realistic goal is one that is set at a level at which you are both willing and able to work toward. The surprise is that a high goal is frequently easier to reach than a low one because a low goal exerts low motivational force. If you truly believe your goal is realistic, it probably is.

A Tangible goal is one you can experience with one of the five senses: that is, taste, touch, smell, sight or hearing. (Intangible goals are your goals for the internal changes required to reach more tangible goals.) When your goal is tangible, or when you tie a tangible goal to an intangible goal, you have a better chance of making it specific and measurable and thus attainable.

There are articles about this system that go into more detail, but I’m sure you get the idea. There is one more concept I want to bring up, though, and that is the now-popular advice to “Dream Big”. How can you do this if you’re trying to pay attention to “Realistic” and “Attainable”—Don’t they contradict one another? Well, I’m not saying you can’t do both, but at this point I should mention another bit of advice regarding goal-setting: Breaking down larger goals into smaller goals. You can indeed Dream Big if you’re willing to do the thinking and the work toward breaking down that goal into its component steps. Then make each step a SMART goal!

So, what are your goals for 2011? I’ll divulge one of mine: I’m planning on doing a massive update to my web site this year. More on that in another post...

The Ethics of Using Pictures Off the Web

When I was growing up, I did a lot of research using the family set of encyclopedias on the bookshelf. These days we are just as likely to do our research online. It’s not hard at all to find written information about your topic, but what if you also want to see a picture?

For that, many folks go to Google Images and conduct another search. That often yields good results. But have you ever noticed more than one instance of the same picture from different web sites? Why is that?

It could be because more than one person purchased or licensed the same image from a stock photography service’s web site for their own use. That’s fine. It’s just as likely, however, that the picture was copied off the web—that is, pirated.

Are You Guilty?
When Google indexes web content, it doesn’t check whether that content is copyrighted. There is a disclaimer when you click an image on the search results page that “This image may be subject to copyright,” but that’s as far as it goes. If you save an image from another web site to your own computer and then use it for your own purposes without permission, you may very well be violating copyright restrictions. Unless you’re invited for a “free download,” the images are likely protected by some sort of intellectual property rights. Just because an image turns up on a search results page doesn’t mean it’s available for anyone else to copy and use freely as they please. The images are not necessarily in the “public domain”—so copying and using them for your own purposes is unethical and probably illegal.

Unless you want to encourage people to use and distribute your own work for free, it’s wise to be careful about posting original images on your web sites or blogs, as you never know where they’ll end up. Many folks embed a watermark or a copyright tagline right on their images, so that if they do show up in search results, potential pirates can see that the work is protected.

Licensing Terms
So you really have only a few choices. You could create your own original images and protect them, or gain permission from the owners, or purchase usage rights for images from a stock image provider. Licensed images are usually reasonably priced, and they are available in various sizes and resolutions for print or web—something you can’t count on with pirated images, which may lead to substandard visuals (for example, in the case of using a pirated image off the web for a print piece, where the resolution is too low to look professional in a print publication).

What do I mean by “usage rights”? Stock image providers provide their images under various licensing options, all of which start with a basic purchase price. You’re purchasing a license to use, not a license to own; the image is still not “yours.” Additionally, some images are “rights managed,” where you’re allowed a one-time use or “royalty per use,” and an additional use requires an additional license. Other images are “royalty free”, with either standard licenses, where you have the right for limited usage with few restrictions (for example, up to 500,000 impressions), or higher-priced “extended” licenses for unlimited usage with virtually no restrictions.

The point I’m making is that images on the web are not free for the taking, just because you know how to “save image as.” Viewing them online may help your research, but unless you’ve purchased them or have the owner’s permission, best to view them and then leave them alone. Remember, the person who produced those images may depend on the income their work produces—please support them by appropriate purchases, and avoid pirating.

The Value of Mastermind Groups

I belong to a “Mastermind Group.” What is that, you ask? A Mastermind Group is basically an informal association of several persons who commit to helping or supporting each other in reaching their goals. Some groups are quite large and quite formal; mine consists of two other freelance graphic designers besides myself who otherwise tend to work alone. But size doesn’t matter – purpose does.

So what is our purpose? Each of us creates lists of monthly goals and we are kept accountable by sharing and reporting our progress to the other two. We give advice and information when solicited, from feedback regarding each other’s work, to sharing knowledge of techniques and software, to handling clients, vendors, and contracts, to congratulations when a project goes well.

And how do we do this? Well, we do send e-mails sharing pertinent articles we’ve read or asking for feedback on something we’ve just designed. But we also have regularly-scheduled 3-way sessions with an agenda. Since the three of us live in 3 widely separated states (we met at a conference several years ago), we come together by telephone conference call for about 90 minutes every other week. And if we need to, we can log on via the web to a computer-sharing program and see what is on each other’s computer desktops, too.

I think you can guess some of the benefits of a Mastermind Group. We’re more than just a support group for each other; we’re all helping each other succeed. We get the benefit of other points of view, we have a chance to share our background and learning in the context of a project or goal, we get inspired by other approaches, and we do this freely and unconditionally – there are no jealousies or hidden agendas. We value and respect each other’s strengths and differences. And the contributions we give are as fulfilling to the giver as they are helpful to the receiver.

And the grand result of all this is that we are able to move ahead with our goals and stay focused on them. I’d say we all consider this activity to be an essential part of our “success plan,” and I say that because we’ve often commented to each other that we’re getting real value out of our sessions. Far from wasting time every other week, we all feel we’ve invested our time wisely.

If you’re a freelancer or know someone who is, I think you’ll find value in a Mastermind Group. They come in all types and sizes, so shop around to find the best fit, or start your own. And start reaping the benefits!