1. involves other people
2. leads to a time-stamped event and
3. means something to you

The old way of date-based goal setting says set a final due date and work towards completing the task at hand before that date. The problem with this form of goal setting is that if you miss the deadline, there is no accountability. You can keep procrastinating and pushing the date backward to whenever you feel like doing what you need to do.

Event-based goal setting says create a good excuse to complete the goal on time by creating an event (celebration, presentation, etc) that involves other people. For some reason, we’re comfortable disappointing ourselves. That’s why so many new year’s resolution go undone. But we hate disappointing other people, so event-based goal setting uses our desire to impress others to motivate us.

Student Example:

It’s the first day of the semester and you already have a term paper due in 4 weeks. Date-based goal setting says mark your calendar with the dates you want your first, second, and final draft to be done and that’s it. Event-based goal setting says on the second day of the semester, schedule two meetings with your professor TA; one to review the first draft and one to review the second draft. By establishing the meetings, you now have another person holding you accountable to your goals and are less likely to procrastinate. By mid-semester, you’ll have 90% of the paper done already.

Artist Example:

Say for instance you’re a musician who wants to release an album by a certain date. Instead of just secretly writing the date on a calendar, good excuse goal setting says book a venue for a listening party or live performance a week or two before you want to actual CD to be done and send invitations to 30 friends and fans anticipating that 5-10 of them will come. Now you have to get ready and that forces (in a good way) you to create the music you want to make. By creating the event, you’ve set something in motion and create a good excuse to complete the CD.

It could be something you need to start, stop, or go harder on
It could be a relationship with an organization or person that you need to end (ie board seat, job, volunteer, etc)
Or one you need to begin (mentor, leadership role, ToastMasters, your own company, etc)
It may be something you need to invest in (an instrument software, a class, training, lessons, video cam)
Or something that you need to stop invest in

More ideas

Land Your Dream Job: Ditch School & Get A Library Card

Ravi Vora

Lies People Tell You About Pursuing Your Dreams

Google Groups

Dreams Are Risky

Aching To Pursue Dreams

The Illuminated Mind

The Biggest Obstacle Of Living Your Dreams

The Lie Of The Four Hour Work Week

10 Ways To Make Time For The Important

Other

Pursuing Your Dreams

An Essay By A High Schooler On Dreams

The Lion Chaser’s Manifesto

What if could align our passions and profession? I think it’s possible and here’s why.

One day I met a woman who worked in HR at Google. I asked her if this is what she was passionate about and she responded “I really love archaeology.” As our conversation progressed we realized that she was still pursuing archaelogy. Instead of digging for fossils and artifacts she was digging through talent pool of resumes to find hidden gems in people.

Passions are action-based where the interest are topic-based. Archaeology was her interest, but digging and finding were her passions. The same framework may apply for someone who has manifested their passion for strategizing through playing chess. Someone like that may want to explore a career in consulting.

Believing that our passions and professions can and should be aligned would revolutionize the career exploration process and hiring process. Instead of hiring based on Grade Point Averages, employers would hire based on Great Passion Advantage. And instead of searching for jobs by industry, company, or title, we would search for jobs by actions.

Here is a simple process to do this for yourself:

1. List five things that interest you now and as a child.
   Ex. baseball

2. For each entry write down all of the actions associated with that interest.
   Ex. playing baseball, coaching baseball, collecting baseball cards, watching baseball

3. Circle all of the action verbs that excite you.
   Ex. coaching, collecting

4. Identify career opportunities that would allow you to do those actions regularly.
   Ex. life coach, executive coach, sports coach, IRS (collect money), forensics (collect evidence)

In this example, baseball just served as the vehicle to exercise the person’s true passions for coaching and collecting. Just because everyone can’t make it to the major leagues, doesn’t mean that there aren’t career opportunities that will allow you DO what you love. In this economy, we have to think outside of the box…and the diamond.

Here are some solutions I’m experimenting with to heal my habit:

• Find a procrastination partner: Identify the person at work or in your life who will randomly email, call, text, or stop by your desk occasionally and ask you “What are you procrastinating on?” or “What’s the one thing that would make your day wildly successful if you accomplished it today?” After you respond, their role is to combat all excuses and encourage you to start working on whatever your “one thing” is right then and there. Note: This doesn’t work if they start procrastinating with you.
• Make a distraction detector list: Write your distractions on a post-it or the wall in front of you so that you know when you’re being distracted. Some of mine are sorting stray paper, unwashed clothes, the refrigerator, cutting my nails, and Facebook. When you catch yourself about to do either, just stop and refocus on what you’re procrastinating on.
• Set something in motion: Create an early deadline by setting something in motion that involves another person. For example, if you have a project due in a month, set up a feedback session with your colleague or boss around the 2 week mark.

• Find something worse to procrastinate on: I know this sounds counter-intuitive, but if we find a few things to procrastinate on, we end up procrastinating on the thing we don’t want to do with the lesser of the two evils. For example, if you need to do your taxes and go to the DMV but you don’t want to do either, you’re more likely to get the lesser of the two evils done b having two things to procrastinate on than if you only had one thing to procrastinate on.

• Shorten the work day: Just like Parkinson’s Law, if we have 8 hours to do 4 hours of work, for some silly reason we tend to expand the work to fill the 8 hours. If you know you only get in a good 4-5 hours of real work everyday, don’t beat yourself up about the other 3+. Who made up the 8 hours work day anyway? Consciously excel during your peak hours and consciously rest during your non-peak time.You know how to look busy. After all, you’ve been procrastinating for years now.

At the root of procrastination is a fear of failure…when we put our best foot forward. We’re not afraid to fail when we know we only gave a lackluster effort. When we procrastinate, we give ourselves an escape route in case we fail. If we fail we can say “I waited to the last minute.” which really means “I didn’t give it my all.” which means “I could have done better if I really tried.” If we succeed we can say “I’m smart.”, “That was nothing.”, or “I think better when I procrastinate.” Procrastination is about quality of effort, not quantity of time.

Ashoka »

Ashoka is the global association of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs—men and women with system changing solutions for the world’s most urgent social problems. Since 1981, we have elected over 2,000 leading social entrepreneurs as Ashoka Fellows, providing them with living stipends, professional support, and access to a global network of peers in more than 60 countries.

Dell Social Innovation Competition »

The RGK Center at The University of Texas and Dell are looking for college students worldwide with ingenious ideas to change the world. Dream up a plan that combines creativity and innovation to tackle a pressing social issue, and you can win $50,000 to put your plan into action!

Echoing Green »

To accelerate social change, Echoing Green invests in and supports outstanding emerging social entrepreneurs to launch new organizations that deliver bold, high-impact solutions. Through a two-year fellowship program, we help our network of visionaries develop new solutions to society’s most difficult problems.

Global Giving »

Unlike a traditional foundation, GlobalGiving does not directly offer grants or support. GlobalGiving uses its website to connect individual and institutional donors directly to social, environmental and economic development projects around the world via our “public” website, www.globalgiving.com. Potential donors can browse and select from a wide offering of projects, organized by geography or by themes such as health care, the environment, and education. GlobalGiving markets these projects through a number of channels, including corporations, employee giving campaigns, and direct consumer marketing partnerships. When donors come to GlobalGiving, they can find and fund projects that meet their diverse interests.

Global Social Venture Competition »

The purpose of GSVC is to actively support and promote the creation and growth of successful social ventures around the world. We define a social venture as an enterprise that has both financial and social goals integral to its purpose. Grand Prize: $25,000 2nd Place Prize: $10,000 3rd Place Prize: $5,000

Knight News Challenge »

We’re giving away around $5 million in 2009 for the development and distribution of neighborhood and community-focused projects, services, and programs.

Skoll Awards »

The Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship support social entrepreneurs whose work has the potential for large-scale influence on critical challenges of our time: environmental sustainability, health, tolerance and human rights, institutional responsibility, economic and social equity, and peace and security. These issues are at the heart of the foundation’s vision of empowering people to create a peaceful, prosperous, sustainable world.

Stanford BASES Social E-Challenge »

The Social E-Challenge is a business plan competition for entrepreneurial ventures whose primary goal is to effect social and/or environmental change. Participants range from for-profit businesses with a strong sense of social responsibility to nonprofits with sustainable revenue-generation models. The common denominator is that these companies seek to have a positive impact on our society and/or the environment. Social E-Challenge provides participants with $50,000 in final round prizes, as well as the resources and training to launch their startups, which include workshops, mixers, speakers, a mentorship program, and individual feedback from renowned judges.

Whitney M. Young, Jr. Memorial New Venture Competition »

Whitney M. Young, Jr. Memorial Conference is focused on early-stage new ventures. The primary purpose of the New Venture Competition is to provide entrepreneurs of African descent the opportunity to present their ideas for growth companies to an illustrious panel of investors and venture capitalists. The top team will receive $10,000, while the 2nd and 3rd place teams will receive $5,000 and $2,500, respectively.

For Technology Start Ups

BootUp Labs »

Bootup Labs is a startup accelerator in Vancouver, BC that helps founders and companies go “from zero to fundable.” Bootup Labs recruits and supports promising entrepreneurs and provides mentorship, ongoing support and office space to help define their business and secure venture financing. Our nine-month mentoring and support program is designed to help you get to the next level with your company, and prepare you to receive your first round of funding. Read more about Bootup Labs, or contact us if you’re ready to start talking to us about how we can help.

DreamIt Ventures »

The DreamIt Managing Partners have been investing in early stage companies since they sold the companies they started. In the last few years we have become enthusiastic about how quickly and inexpensively great companies can be launched. At the same time we have seen some very talented people with great ideas struggle to pull the pieces together and get over the startup hump. With the help and support of entrepreneurs, technologists, prominent law and accounting firms, angel investor groups and venture capital firms, DreamIt Ventures was born. Our goal at DreamIt is simple: Help great people with great ideas build great companies.

LaunchBox »

LaunchBox Digital is a place for cutting-edge ideas and cutting-edge talent. LaunchBox Digital helps entrepreneurs maximize their chance of success and get through the challenging early days of starting a new business.

Seedcamp »

At Seedcamp, we believe Europe has the talent, the role models, and the capital founders need to succeed. We want to provide a catalyst for the next generation of great entrepreneurs and help you take risks, think big, and succeed. Participating in Seedcamp will give you enormous validation and access to a world-class network of advisors to help you with every aspect of your business, plus a direct route to seed and venture capital.

TechStars »

TechStars only accepts about twenty companies each summer (about ten in Boulder, and about ten in Boston). In Boulder last year, 393 companies applied and ten were accepted. Getting in is hard, and it means something special. TechStars fills the startup funding gap by providing just enough capital to get your idea off the ground. Your new company receives up to $18,000 in seed funding.

Y Combinator »

Y Combinator is a new kind of venture firm specializing in funding early stage startups. We help startups through what is for many the hardest step, from idea to company. We invest mostly in software and web services. And because we are ourselves technology people, we prefer groups with a lot of technical depth. We care more about how smart you are than how old you are, and more about the quality of your ideas than whether you have a formal business plan.