Seth Godin’s post on goals “The thing about goals” made me think about my own personal business-related goals for the year 2009.
“Having goals is a pain in the neck”. It is true, it is much more fun to hang around, not having to measure any achievement whatsoever. Life in general would be much more easier without goals. 
It would be very boring too… ;-( especially for fellows like me who are always fueled by new challenges). Without goals, you are aimed to do your best and sometimes your best is not enough to make a difference. I want to make a difference. That is my problem you will say…
Strategic Marketing, by definition, is an activity or a sum of activities that are aimed for long term objectives. At least, that is like we like think that what marketing stands for. Sustainable stuff, ya? I wanna lead in that field. This is my personal BHAG or Big Hairy Audacious Goal. Therefore, here are the commitments I made to myself for this year:
- Be able to maintain a dialogue on Web Analytics more than 5 minutes without looking like this:
Me talking about web analytics with a WA geek
Avinash Kaushik’s book is bought and is asking me everyday:”come on, please read me now”. I have always resisted so far. I don’t know why.
- Be disciplined about this blog.Bring practical new ideas and insights for SMB marketing decision makers. Stimulate healthy discussions with my fellow marketing colleagues working in similar environments.
- Get back to running. Seriously. Run Montreal’s half marathon in less than 1hr50 minutes in Sept. 2009. Yes it is business related. Let me explain. With 3 kids and a demanding day job (and now a blog to maintain! ), there is a high risk of having a stressful life. if you do not exercise (for me running is the best exercise in my situation), you do not sleep well. Then you become less productive and then more stressed and even less productive. Then you become average in every aspect of your life. Running helps me to avoid that.
- Compose a song. Guitar and lyrics. The last song I composed was in 1996. Playing guitar frees up my mind a little bit like running but in a different way so it is beneficial professionally for me to play more. I need to discipline myself and just do it.
- The last one is inspired by those last 3 words that have made Nike successful: Just do it. Since I come from a marketing research background, I sometimes tend to “overthink ” things or “overquestion” myself about many things. This year I will try not to “overanalyze”, just analyze enough and then “Just Try it” instead of just do it. In today’s fast pace environment, the “launch & learn” philosophy brings greater returns in my opinion. I’ll try it for myself!
That’s it. Let’s revisit that in one year from now.
Now, Did you do yours? Feel free to share them with me.
