I hope everyone can agree the end of the year is full of great things. Presents, PTO and popping champaign! What could be better? The good times of the holiday season come at a price. The holiday tax is talking politics with Uncle Joe and setting New Years Resolutions. Warning this blog is going to be about a framework for New Years Resolutions. If you prefer to talk politics with your family this is your cue to log into Facebook and tag your family on this Facebook post.
This past year I experimented with a goal setting framework called Objectives and Key Results. The concept is to set quarterly goals which are clear and measurable.
American Psychological Association. (2015, October 29)
“Frequently monitoring progress toward goals increases chance of success: Publicly reporting or recording progress has an even greater effect”
Objectives and Key Results or OKRs are a tool to break goals into measurable outcomes, track progress towards those outcomes and reflect on them.
–whatmatters.com
“An Objective is simply what is to be achieved, no more and no less. By definition, objectives are significant, concrete, action-oriented, and (ideally) inspirational. When properly designed and deployed, they’re a vaccine against fuzzy thinking—and fuzzy execution. Key Results benchmark and monitor how we get to the objective. Effective KRs are specific and time-bound, aggressive yet realistic. Most of all, they are measurable and verifiable. You either meet a key result’s requirements or you don’t; there is no gray area, no room for doubt. At the end of the designated period, typically a quarter, we do a regular check and grade the key results as fulfilled or not.”
The following OKR is particularly relevant to this blog post:
Objective: Minimize the influence of money on the choices in my life.
Key results: Create online content of value as measured by 100 email subscribers to an online newsletter
As of December 27th I have 21 subscribers. It is rewarding to know I’ve made progress towards this goal. If you are one of the lucky 21 who subscribed I want to sincerely thank you! I appreciate the opportunity to share my passions with you and hope this newsletter has been valuable.
OKRs are measurable and because of this I know I’ve fallen 79 subscribers short of my goal. An important part of the process is asking why? The purpose is not to feel ashamed. The purpose is to learn and improve. I believe the reason I haven’t reached my original goal is because I was afraid to ask more people to sign up. I was afraid of rejection. My inner monologue was saying “What if I ask someone to signup and they don’t! What does that say about me?!?!” This fear is what stopped me from asking. After 3 months of posting content I have found there are people who are truly interested in what I have to say.
I also acknowledge there are many people with interests different than mine and that fact is not a reflection on myself. With a couple days left in the year I am going to face my fear of rejection and make one last push to 100 subscribers.
If you are interested in more stories from my exploration of Augmented Reality click the link below to stay updated
You inspire me Martin.