Hello everyone, I cannot express enough how delighted I am to be a part of the Newbies Initiative. After joining hive some months ago, I have grown and a learnt quite a few things. But for a platform like this, it is always good to have someone to guide you and make you fully comprehend the power and benefits of the platform you have at hand.
'I am @yahuzah, a member of team 3 under the leadership of @moremoney28. I must say it has been a pleasure to have him guide me and my other teammates in this first week of the initiative. I am today, submitting my entry for the first task, "Strategizing my hive goals for the next two months".
After attending the discord lecture last week Sunday hosted by @starstrings01 and getting to pick his brain on the topic, I realized that a few of the goals I set after signing up are not up SMART. They are just goals without taking into consideration what a SMART goal should entail.
What Is Goal Setting?
Goals are targets individuals, groups of people or organizations set for themselves when they start something. Goals are very important and without them, one does not really know the extent to which he has over archived, underachieved or achieved nothing at all.
Goal setting per my understanding is the measures or steps these individuals, groups of people or organizations put in place to achieve the goals. Without a clear plan or pathway describing what you want to do, goals become just wishes because there is almost a zero percent success rate for those that make "goals" without laying a clear plan pf how they want it to succeed.
The Need To Set SMART GOALS.
From the beginning of my post, I made use of the acronym SMART. Let's get to know what it means.
| Acronym | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| S | this stands for Specific | the goal should be exact. It should hit the nail right on top of the head thus, should be very clear. An example of a specific goal is hoping to gain 20 followers in the next month. |
| M | this stands for measurable | it involves the steps needed to materialize your specific goal. An example is aiming to gain 20 followers in the next month by following people who live by the rule, "follow for follow". |
| A | this stands for attainable | The specific goal set should be attainable. We all have big dreams but we should be realistic and know that some goals are attainable while others aren't. An example is aiming to achieve 20 followers in the next month by following people who do follow for a follow back. Because plans change and nothing is a 100% guarantee, this plan should otherwise be a guarantee. It is attainable. |
| R | this stands for relevant | The specific set goal you put in place should be a goal you really desire, It should not be wishful thinking but something you actually want. If 20 followers is what you want maybe because that aids you to get your blog to a wider reach, then it is relevant. |
| T | this stands for time bound | A goal without the measure of time is a difficult one to achieve. You need to give yourself a limit to pursue that goal. If you want to use a month to achieve 20 followers, then you should work hard towards it. It can be weeks, days or years but in the long run, your goal should have a time bound. |
SMART goals need to be set because they provide detailed plans for the goals to get achieved. A smart goal tells you how relevant your goal is and how you should achieve it and in what time scale you should achieve it.
A smart goal is important because it does not beat about the bush but is direct, specific and has laid down ways of achieving it. It is different from a regular goal. Let's take this examples.
Example 1: I want to gain 20 followers.
This is a regular goal. Although, what I want is 20 followers, I have not said how I want to achieve it and in what time I would like to achieve it. With this, some people could take years to achieve while others days. All the same, a smart goal should look like the one in example 2.
Example 2; I want to gain 20 followers in the next month by following users who live on the principle of follow for a follow back. I currently have 5 followers and by following users who are a guarantee follow back at least one every week, my following should increase to 22 by the months' end.
This smart goal tells me how to achieve my relevant goal.
My Goals on Hive as a Newbie.
- Hive Power.
Hive power is one thing I have come to realize is very important When I started out on hive, I had small hive power of about 20 which slowed down by engagement. This gave me small resource credit which is needed for activities here.
So, my goal for hive power is to have at least 820 hive power by earning 50 hp every month from post payouts, powering up 10 at the beginning of each month for hive power up day and powering up a further 30 in two months. This is possible because I currently hold 578.35 hp and through regular publications I can make 50 hp every month. I also aim to power up 10 hive at the beginning of the two months in support of hive power up day. Lastly, I will achive this hp goal by powering up 0.5 hive everyday.
All these should take my hive power to a total of 828.35 hive power in the next two months. It is very attainable so long as I commit myself to these plans and post consistently.
hp from hivetasks
- Followers.
Followers on hive is something I have realized increases based on the work you put in. It is very difficult to just get a random follow. It is important to have a large following as it helps to make your blog visible to many people.
followers and following from peakd
So, my goal for followers is to have at least 94 followers in the next two months in which I will achieve this by adding 20 new followers to my 74 already existing followers. This is achievable by reading and leaving reasonable comments on the posts I can relate to. By doing this, I aim to get 10 new followers every month. My fellow newbies will be a target and people outside of the initiative program will be a target as well.
- Engagement.
This is one of the things that has greatly reduced. Engagement on hive is important to succeed. You cannot make friends without engaging and you can't learn new things without engaging.
So, my goal for engagement is to comment on almost all the posts I see from my followers, comment on posts in hive learners especially those of the hive learners prompts, comment on posts that talk about football and movies because I like them both so much. This is achievable by using my morning especially because that is when I am most effective and using the ecency site and other front ends like peakd.
The ecency app lags and closes a lot which makes engaging with it difficult and so I would use the site and peakd.
It is very easy for me to leave comments on football related posts because I enjoy the game and I enjoy reading what people have to say. I enjoy watching movies too and I will strive to comment on such posts.
- Consistency.
No matter what you do, you've got to be consistent to succeed.
So, my goal for consistency is to increase my post count to 1800 in the next 2 months. This post count includes articles I publish, comments I make and replies I make. This is achievable by making at least 5 posts a week, making at least 150 comments every month and replying to comments I receive.
post count from hivetasks
My post count is currently 1406 and adding about 400 in two months time is attainable through frequent post publications and engagement as I have stated above.
- Other Goals as a newbie.
There are a quite a number of other activities that have caught my attention since joining.
So, my other goals as a newbie is to be playing hive games like Splinterlands, drcops and continue investing in the secondary layer tokens like lgn, leo, neoxag, woo,IUC, among others in the next two months. This is achievable by allocating portions of my post payouts to purchasing the second layer tokens and leaving some money for the hive games. I would also bring income outside of hive to support this. My goal is to add at lease $50 to my hive engine wallet in 2 months time.
Analysis Of The Goals Above.
The goals I have set above are SMART. They all iclude time limits which is 2 months and have plans to make them real. They are what I really desire and so it will push me to make them real.
Engaging on football and movie related posts are things I enjoy and making posts about them as well. I like to invest when I can and that is why investing in the second layer hive tokens is part of my goals.
I know engaging properly will help increase my followers and that is why I have made it a point to have at least 150 comments every month.
I also know hive power helps me increase my influence on hive by allowing me give votes of more value and earning more curation rewards.
All my goals follow the SMART rule. They are specific, measurable, attainable in the sense that they are not too ambitious are realistic, and are time bound.
Strategies To Help Achieve These Goals.
To achieve these are not going to be an easy task in two months but thankfully, my school is going on vacation in 3 weeks time. This should give me more time to engage and be more consistent.
For the hp, I will make it a point to always have 10 hp to power up on hive power day and my daily power ups are going to be done together with a friend on hive. We are going to encourage each other to power up daily.
I have also set reminders for myself to post daily and have written down a number of topics to write on. I will be joining the hive learners featured contents regularly again and joining other contests like those organized by leofinance and ecency support.
At the end of each week, I will make it a point to revisit these goals and see where I am lacking and improve them.
This is where I end my entry for task 1 of the newbies initiative task. I am rooting for myself and my fellow newbies to be able to achieve the goals they have set for themselves.
Thank you.