Hey, hope you've had a great week!

I also hope that you were able to take some time out to look at your music career dreams last week. In this blog, I want to help you to turn those dreams into a tangible goal.  So how do you do this?

By making them KISS  – in case you haven't heard of this mnemonic, KISS stands for Keep It S.M.A.R.T and Simple.  The SMART section is a mnemonic in its own right and stands for Specific, Measurable, Agreed/Achievable, Realistic and Time-frame.

Before we go into more detail of the ingredients of SMART, let's talk a bit more about goals for the moment – I'm sure you are aware that you can have short, medium and long term goals (long-term goals and your ultimate dream or goal could be the same thing).
 

At the same time it makes sense that each short-term goal you set leads on to you achieving your medium-term goal and that this in turn leads on to you achieving your long-term goal or ultimate dream. Phew!

So, now going back to SMART, let's take a better look at each component, so you can understand how to make your own goals SMART.

S = Specific - so this means being exact or precise in your wording for the goal you are setting.  It doesn't do for your goal to be hazy – for instance, if your goal is "to work in the music industry" - well what as? A performer? In a non-performing role - what exactly do you want to do in the Music Industry.

M = Measurable – which is about being able to record your progress in achieving your goal.  You need to know how far away you are from completing your goal and when you have achieved your goal, what effect it had.  ie:  Have you done it?  What happened?  Has it moved you forward towards your medium or long-term goal?

A=Acheivable - depending on what goal you set, you may need to get agreement from the people you are involving.  Just as an example, you may be in a band and you are wanting to set a goal for the band as a whole - you will need to get their agreement on what you set, because if you don't, you just may not achieve it.  It needs to be achievable too, as if not, then there is no hope - no hope means lack of motivation and a non-starter!

R=Realistic - you need to believe you can acheive your goal - make sure that you can do wha you set out to do. Check - can you really do this? Have you got the time? Have you got the resources? Have you got the authority?  If not, go back a stage and set a goal that is a step towards your overall objective, that you can take.  Once more, if your goal is not realistic, then there is no hope of achieving it.
 

But you need to be careful of this – because some people may tell you there is no hope and your goal is just a dream – and this may not be the case at all, but just their opinion!
 

T=Time frame - you need to set yourself a deadline for achieving your goal - if you don't you'll always put it off.  Unless a goal has a time frame it is always something that you are planning to do that never gets done!  Give yourself enough time to complete it though.

So putting SMART into action here, let's create two goals – one SMART, one not!

a) you want to write some songs for a gig.

b) By 30 April 2007, you want to have written music and lyrics for 2 new songs that will complete your set list for your gig at the Social in Nottingham on 30 June 2007.

Which goal do you think you have more chance of achieving?  Goal b, is both SMART and Simple!

So, now that you know how to make your goals KISS, take another look at the ultimate dreams you wrote down last week and alter them to make them more achievable.  Once you've done this you can then create some short and medium term goals that will help you reach your ultimate dream.

Any thoughts or problems, please comment me!

Next time, we'll take a look at where you are currently at, with your music career goals.

Hope to hear from you soon .

Have fun...Linz xx