Ok, bear with me a bit hear, this might be a bit rambling….

When you talk to marketing people about marketing and advertising, you’re generally told to not market features, but instead market benefits.  For example:

Wrong: This widget has 4 slots, two USB, one CF and one SD
Right: You can be confident that you can connect any of your electronics.

Wrong: Uses super-awesome wireless induction subcutaneous charging.
Right: Have the freedom to do your work wherever you want.

See the difference?  The features tell you about the thing, the benefits tell you how it affects you.  I actually wrote about this in 2002 after completing a course on marketing.  In there I put it as such:

They want to know what you can do for them. Start out your sales pitch, be it on paper or by voice with a benefit. “Save yourself time.” “Don’t worry about Christmas bills.” “Make your employees happy.” Lets say you do car detailing… saying “don’t worry about detailing your car” is OK, but not great. Where is the benefit? How about “have a beautiful car without doing any work”? Better. I am by no means an expert on any of this, just giving an example or two to chew on.

About Your Goals

So how can you relate this to your goals?

I hear friends of mine saying things like “my goal is to work at xyz company” or “I know I’m never going to retire but I’m going to always be working”.  I think this is the wrong way to talk about it.  Note that I said “talk” about it, not think about it, their sentiment of always wanting to be doing something or having a goal of working at a prestigious company such as apple or Google is great.  But I see this as talking about the features (ie: working at a specific company, or being employed when they are past retirement) instead of the benefits.

I think it’s fairly common knowledge that how you think about things changes how you go about your life.  Go around with a bad attitude and think that everyone is out to get you and you (in general) won’t be as likely to find new opportunities and success as someone who goes around thinking that the world is full of new and wonderful things, adventures to have and magic to find.  “Think and you create” and all that.  Ok, enough hippy-dippy for you.

• Instead of saying “I want to work for XYZ company” say “I want to work at a fantastic company that fits me perfectly”.
• Instead of “I want to make $60,000 a year” say “I want to make at least $60,000 a year”, or even better “I want to make enough money to be comfortable and do what I want to do.”
• Instead of “I want to continue working past retirement” say “I want to be productive and be doing what I want to do as long as I want to do it.”
• Instead of “I want the new Nikon D800 with the 24-70/2.8” say “I want to have the equipment and gear that I need to produce great work.”

OK, the last one might be a bit of a stretch, who wouldn’t want that new full frame beast!

Basically imagine if the goals that you state to yourself come true, exactly as you state them through some sort of magic goal granting fairy.  What if you find out that working at Google sucked?  Wouldn’t your magic goal granting fairy be better off granting you the wish of working at a company that fits you (which for all you know is Google, but it might not be).  Do you really want to work forever or do you want to be productive and do what you enjoy for as long as you want?  The magic goal fairy could send you to work as a bricklayer till you’re 90, so like all wishes, you have to make sure you phrase them just right.

Benefits, not features.

“I will be creative and productive as long as I choose to be.”
“I will work at a job that I enjoy and which satisfies my creative and monetary desires.”
“I will produce awesome work.”

Specific Goals

There is a fatal flaw here.  People who set and achieve their goals often rely on the SMART criteria.  SMART goals are:

• Specific – stated in non-ambiguous language
• Measurable – you’ll know when you hit it or not
• Attainable – if you’ve never gone on a hike a goal of summiting Mt. Everest isn’t a good idea
• Realistic – you won’t be a Ansel Adams in a month, but you can get a photo published in a magazine
• Timely – have a specific time-frame on your goals or there’s no end point to have them done by

You’ll see that my advice does contract both the Specific and Measurable lines.  Saying “I will work at a great company” isn’t a specific or measurable goal as compared to “I will work for Apple by month.”  So how does one reconcile this?

Honestly I don’t know.  I think it’s part of the way that you think about things, and partly how you implement it.  I don’t think that it’s not something that you can do both, or translate the goals so that the vague “I want to be happy” still applies without being open to the possibilities outside of “I want to work at XYZ company as a ABC worker.”

Thoughts?