From the mobile desk of E. R. Harris: Inspiration through immersion

I love compiling lists. Tasks to complete. Best hiking trails in Lake Tahoe. Literary agencies that accept unsolicited queries from unpublished authors. Ten desert island albums (click here if you’d like to participate) . . . I think you get the gist. They’re a great way to start any endeavor. Whether based on something practical—like a home reparations list for incumbent weather—or on something non-practical—like a bucket list of European ski resorts you want to visit—a list can provide a very tangible measure of reality. You’re probably not going to get to all of those ski resorts, but, chances are, you can make it to one or two, if you save up and plan for it. You’re probably not going to be able to afford to build a weather-catastrophe-nuclear-winter-safe-room in your basement, but chances are, you’ll be able to put in the time and effort into shoring up a drooping retaining wall, and getting a quote on the leaky roof that needs replacing.

Lists are tangible measurement of progress, and, when properly fine-tuned, can be the difference between a successful entrepreneur—and one with great ideas that never come to fruition. All “career gurus” or “self-help coaches” or “potential-discovery guides” who work with professionals to help them meet their goals INSIST on very, very detailed lists.

As an educator, acronyms are tossed around like a salad with every known vegetable on earth in it (including 3,800 different variety of potatoes from Peru alone), but some of them are pretty cool. SMARTE goals are something that resonated with me when I started to delve into the specifics of the language and how the words guide action. When you make a SMARTE goal (I used them in dictating physical fitness for my students) it can be about literally anything. House to-do. Researching bucket list alpine powder glory. Finding the right gatekeeper to open up to your literary project. Anything.

Almost there . . .

For purposes of this mental exercise—I’ll use an example from my personal life. Dunking a basketball. When I was a senior in high school I was a great basketball player, I was 6’4 and 200 pounds and in incredible cardio shape. Our coach was all about aggressive full court defense and run and gun offense. He was so adamant about pace that we had something called the quick-in break, where the ‘5’ (which was my numerical position) always grabbed the ball after an opponent’s basket and immediately inbounded to a teammate to try to start a fast break the other direction. It was very effective. Our team made it to the semi-finals of the State Championship tournament mostly on athleticism, cardiovascular fitness and a run and press strategy that teams just weren’t able to combat.

All that being said . . . I couldn’t dunk a basketball. Guys shorter than me could do it, and I had very long arms, I could even palm the ball in my large hands. But I just could not get off the ground and get that ball up and over the rim in one big leap. So, after the season, I made the goal: I will dunk a basketball.

Step one is determining what YOU want to achieve, then applying the SMART-E framework.

SPECIFIC. Start with this simple question: is it specific enough? Does your goal tell you EXACTLY what it is you want to achieve? For me, it was to be able to dunk a basketball. OK, good, simple enough. Next.

MEASURABLE. Is my goal measurable. There must be numerical data built into any specific goal. This is mandatory. For most, this is going to be a complex process to figure out the correct matrix. In my simple example I now ask myself is my goal measurable. Uh, yes, I suppose. I want to simply dribble up, leap in the air and slam the ball through the rim—on a regulation ten foot basket that is used in gameplay. How do I know if I am successful? The ball is slammed through the rim successfully on one leap.

(By the way, if any of these questions you answer with a ‘No’, then go back, re-visit, and modify accordingly. It’s fine. It’s part of the process of refining one’s goals.

ATTAINABLE. This is so important. You have to honestly ask yourself if your specific and measurable goal is actually ATTAINABLE. In the real world. Not in a fantasy realm where superpowers and hyper space travel or viable good-to options to attain a goal. Example: If I was 5’7 inches tall and not athletic in the slightest bit, nor had I ever dribbled a basketball before—then my goal of dunking a basketball would be unattainable. Sorry, back to the drawing board all you short people who’s goal it is to dunk on a ten foot basket. Whoa! Hold on there, watch this . . . in all seriousness though, Spud Webb is literally a freak of nature. And he was a professional basketball player in the peak of physical condition, being paid millions to get better at the skill in question (dunking a basketball). But, I think you get the idea: your goal can’t be to do something that isn’t within the range of your physical and mental skill sets. A person in a wheelchair doesn’t say they are going to run a marathon, whereas they could train to compete in short wheelchair races, and then extend that goal toward completing a wheelchair marathon.

RELEVANT. Why is the goal important TO YOU. No one on earth is just going to work like crazy, face intense challenges, and be thrust out of one’s comfort zone, when there is absolutely no intrinsic motivation to do so. You’ve got to really WANT to achieve this specific, measurable, attainable goal. It has to have relevancy to your own life, your own story, your own desire. Back to my example: I lived, breathed and eat basketball, at that time in my life. There really wasn’t anything more important than performing well on the court. And at my size and my ability, the skill of dunking was like the cherry on top. It would identify me as a top player in competitive adult basketball leagues, where I felt great satisfaction and built enormous self-worth through achieving that status.

TIME. This is the hardest part. It’s so incredibly crucial that your specific, measurable, attainable and relevant goal is based on a REALISTIC time frame. No goal happens overnight. Period. End of story. The commitment to meet efficient time parameters is absolutely essential to meeting your goal. For example, when I made my goal, if I said: ‘next week I’ll be dunking a basketball,’ I would be setting myself up for failure. Failure is ALWAYS a part of learning how to do something, but it can be frustrating, and worse—it can prevent you from achieving an attainable goal. This portion of the SMART-E goal takes research and necessitates leaning on the expertise of others who have knowledge in the your goal’s area. For my goal, back when I was eighteen, I utilized a fitness training books and articles, and asked other basketball players and coaches about the skill of dunking. What I quickly gleaned was the truth behind my pursuit: unless I trained my body with regularity, using sound kinesthetic principles, I would not ever be able to achieve the goal. I had to strengthen my gastrocnemius muscles, I had to increase the flexibility in my hamstrings and quadriceps, and I needed to practice the footwork to perfection.

EXTENDING. For your goal to meet the SMART-E criteria it HAS to make you extend effort. If you could already achieve it—it wouldn’t be a goal! But the key is that you MUST be willing to keep this extension going forward in the future—this is where the truly great gains are made. Once a goal is met, there is something related to it (but more challenging) right there on the horizon for you to focus on. Then you are able to reset your specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-based, extending goal.

So there I am. A tall, lanky, 18-year-old, basketball junkie, who wanted to dunk. I purchased ankle weights to jog and train with. I did several hundred stair-risers per day. I spent ten minutes stretching my thigh-muscles every single day after shooting around. During shoot arounds, again and again and again, I dribbled toward the hoop, grabbed the ball, leapt in the air, and got as close as I could to stuffing the ball in the rim. Time and time again I was unsuccessful—BUT—I was getting closer. I could feel it. My calves were MUCH stronger since I had begun doing the strengthening regimen; my thighs much were WAY more flexible; and the footwork seemed totally natural now, after so many repetitions. I’m sure you can guess what happened a few months later . . . and from that personally-significant day on (of course I maintained my fitness levels) I was able to dunk a basketball. Now, I didn’t know what a SMART-E goal was at the time, but . . . I knew that I wanted something. Badly. So I made a plan. A concrete, real plan. And I committed to the plan. It was specific, it was measurable, it was attainable, it was relevant, and it was time-based. What about the E, you ask? Well, once I could finally dunk, I thought to myself: ‘I want to dunk a basketball during live game action!’ The extension goal was there, naturally built-in, as any goal-setter will discover for themselves when they apply this format. Once I first dunked in a live game . . . I found that there was yet another extension of my goal. Now I wanted to be able to do a “drop-step, two-hand, two-feet” dunk. Each of these goals took more planning, more work, more practice, and more repetition. I found that the inspiration necessary to achieve goals is found through immersion in the process of the achievement. Through the development of goals. Through making that list, and checking it . . . more than twice.

Thanks for reading, email me your top ten desert island albums, next post I’ll reveal some of the results.