The notion of using the SMART principle as a general guide for setting financial goals has been around for years. Each letter represents a key word that distinguishes good financial goal setting from bad:
S - Specificity. Setting a good financial goal means being very specific about what you want, not general. If you want to move somewhere for your retirement: precisely where and under what circumstances? If you want to send your child to college: what type of college, for how long, and what expenses are you willing to cover? Setting specific financial goals is vital to realistically planning to meet these goals.
M - Measurability. Properly setting financial goals means setting a goal you can actively measure. This ties into specificity, but also means it is something that you can routinely go back check to ensure that your original targets are still suitable for achieving the goal in the desired time frame. Being able to accurately measure your goals is essential for creating a viable plan for accomplishing them.
A - Achievability. When setting financial goals, it is important to set ones that are realistic and achievable. Achievability is relative, what may be a realistic goal for a multimillionaire probably is not realistic for a shop clerk making minimum wage. Both of these people can - and should - set financial goals, but what each can achieve is radically different based on their circumstances.
R - Rewarding. Your financial goals should reflect things that you sincerely want, that is, a good financial goal should be its own reward. The time and resources expended to accomplish serious long-term goals demand that you really want them. If you do not, it will be next to impossible to maintain the discipline required to actually achieve them. Achieving your financial goal should be its own reward.
T - Traceability. You should be able to effectively trace the path to achieving a good financial goal. Beyond simply measuring what is required, your have to be able to trace a course of action that steadily moves you closer to success. Tracing your path to success, and reassessing this path regularly, will ensure that you are still on target. Or, if not, will at least highlight that it is time to take corrective measures.
The SMART principle, described above, is a nifty little associative device that can help with setting financial goals. Any financial goal model that does not meet these requirements is probably a bad idea and should be reconsidered.
所谓SMART原则，SMART是5个英文单词首字母的缩写：
S 就是 specific ：意思是设定绩效考核目标的时候，一定要具体——也就是目标的法则。
M 就是 measurable ：就是目标要可衡量，要量化。
A 就是 attainable ： 即设定的目标要高，有挑战性，但是一定要是可达成的。
R 就是 relevant ： 设定的目标要和该岗位的工作职责相关联。
T 就是 time-based ： 对设定的目标，要规定什么时间内达成。
特别注明：有的又如此解释此原则
——S代表具体(Specific)，指绩效考核要切中特定的工作指标，不能笼统；
——M代表可度量(Measurable)，指绩效指标是数量化或者行为化的，验证这些绩效指标的数据或者信息是可以获得的；
——A代表可实现(Attainable)，指绩效指标在付出努力的情况下可以实现，避免设立过高或过低的目标；
——R代表现实性(Realistic)，指绩效指标是实实在在的，可以证明和观察；
I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.
My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.
This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960’s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
In the morning, James and I, for the first time, made a combination as MC group. The experience was totally cute. We shared same characteristics as being energetic and passionate. Therefore, both of us would like to rock the introduction part of HC.
At the beginning, he’s kind of afraid of the formality and turned down my suggestion to add some interaction parts to break the ice. However, as time went on, we found dean himself would also like to make the participants involve in the whole process. We suddenly relaxed~ We even made jokes with the freshmen and dean ^O^
Both of us were high and even didn’t want to stop~~~HOHO
What’s more, some clubs where the freshmen belong to even want to invite us two as host/hostess for their upcoming event : )
Several of them even asked me for contact information and did communicate with me about the HC experience and application procedures for hours and hours….Although there days I am really busy, I enjoy myself being young and sharing with the youth…Giving is another way of receiving…Their happy and satisfied faces lighted up my sprits~~~
I’m enjoying it!
It was indeed an unforgettable day. We went to talk with our FBA coordinator for the exchange program. The description from Rico was so amazing that we all lost ourselves in the imagination about our life in US….Wow…Oh my, after New York, back to America, heading for Michigan…can’t help smiling sweetly…I enjoy travelling…enjoy being representative of our UM…enjoy making friends all over the world..Just enjoy it!!!
Just as if it was not enough, Professor brought an amazing activity called “Pik-Pak-Boom”-----Ohh…
Imaging that 3 girls holding hands together with one word for each at one time with a fast speed and cooperation~~
Although we were not the winners, because one of us made a small mistake, we enjoyed the game. We laughed to all, nicely joining our hands, feeling closer to each other than before and sharing the snacks altogher^3^
It’s really wonderful after all days with projects, presentations and tests.
Finally, with our HC family, with Professor Udani, with the lovely atmosphere, we enjoy ourselves simply being together…
Life returns to the starting point with peace and joy… and a serene mind…
I’m enjoying HC journey and I love my life~~~so lucky to be an HC member…See you guys, my little bros and sisters in HC~~
----------------------------------Thanks to Professor Udani for the kind help ^O^
----------------------------------Thanks to dear all members of group B ^_^Y
----------------------------------Thanks to all the participants for your involvement :-)
The “CAN” workshop successfully proved that we “CAN”!
You are what you think. If you think you “CAN”, you can. If you think you cannot, then you cannot.
Actually, the not-so-perfect activities came out through a lot of discussion. For example, as Steve said, opinions might diverge greatly on the game design. We all intended to rock the freshmen and wanted them to enjoy most of our workshop. We came up with lots of intelligent plans for leadership discovery/development tasks. However, to choose only one instead of many was hard and tough. Everyone thought his/her idea suited best. The process was not enjoyable, choosing one instead of another hurts people’s feelings.
But, who cares!!!We share success and failure altogether!!!
I shared my AIESEC evaluation form and game book~~We are friends and we share resources!!!
As long as the result is good,(it was proven yesterday) all the members will be equally happy.
The feeling of belonging increases so much that we all actively share and commented on facebook. Even now, my mind is stilled occupied by the wonderful time spend with my Group A, and my facilitated Group Blue!
This time, I was a facilitator not the MC. My role was to stimulate all the activities we organized among the participants and help them solve possible obstacles in the way.
Carmen and I really enjoyed being with those 5 cute boys. At first, all of them were shy. They stared at the floor and didn’t talk. I found many of them were from FST, where students were too busy working on projects individually and might not good at communication. Realizing this character, I began to take coordinator role as an elder sister. I talked to them and encouraged them to communicate with each other. I refueled them during the ice-breaking part and smiled to them. They gradually relaxed themselves and began to unite together for all the tasks efficiently. Thereafter, I motivated every one of them to take the chance to stand in front of others and make their voices heard. And…The inner sleeping lions in their hearts were wake up and it was very likely that my passion and enthusiasm worked!!! They finally made it!!! What’s more, some of our members even spoke several times!!! ^O^
One boy told me, he never took leadership role when he was young. But, this time, he did it. His courage showed not only me but also all of our HC members that, he was able to become a real leader soon! I’m proud of you, TieNan.
The feeling of developing people makes me feel so happy and proud of myself, as one of the HC members, who are making their own efforts to make a positive impact towards all the participants!!!Servant Leader—I finally understand it!!!Helping others makes me feel really worthwhile as an elder sister. That’s why I didn’t even hesitate and volunteered to help HC family to conquer TOEFL. (After the workshop, I even received their thank you messages from facebook!!! You are so kind, dears!!!J I’m so happy…WOW)
I love the workshop, I love being with my Group A, I love our Group Blue!!!
I’ll keep working as a qualified elder sister, I promise to you all!!!
Recently, Wednesdays have been arranged with too many tests and quizzes. Performed really badly, because of my over-occupied mind, I decided to temporally quit all my activities and focus on the “fight” with this Wednesday’s economy mid-term to end up the nightmare of all my schoolwork with a happy ending. I became too nervous and upset, with the heart palpitating.
The day was totally messed up by the worried mind.
“Are you too busy or too serious to isolate yourself from others?”
Professor unexpectedly came up with such a question.
Wow! Too busy? Too serious? Is that me?!
Oh my! I was shocked…and afraid..
Originally, I thought those who got encouragement from friends were lucky dogs, who won the support and care from friends. However, as Professor said, another interpretation is, the person might be isolating himself or herself from the crowd, which makes their behavior eyes-catching.
Amazing! But it is also a possible rational thinking…then did it show I was the isolated person?! Oh my!
Thanks to Professor Udani’s “Thank-U Note”, my uneasy mind was finally disappear with such cute notes from my friends.
Although our experience or activities being together was different, they commented one thing in common---“thanks for your shiny smile to me and all of us”.
Wow, am I? ^_^
What they all loved is my smile and happy face! I thought I had lost them after recent sufferings in minds! Am I?
Cool! Thanks so much, my dears. U all are telling me that I am still me, Giselle, the optimistic girl with happy face, not the one who transfer sufferings and sad mood to peers!
I am still myself?! You do raise me up, my dears, help me finding the person who I was and am and will keep being. I love You All!!!
The tight relations make us together, from “You” to “We”, from “Peers” to “Friends”, from “familiarity” to “friendship”… and our friendship will last long!
That the most important thing we gain from HC, the privilege to be friends with excellent persons in personality and academics; the privilege to build us a Team and a HC Family.
I think this is also the reason why Professor keeps inviting and proposing activities for HC family members to be together and social together to build up closer links!
Thanks to Professor Udani, we finally make it. We are family, we are together! Thanks to you all and the happy journey with you all!
Today, Professor Udani showed us some collection of the students’ expectation at the beginning of this semester.
The expectation has three levels:
Cognitive Level
--It is more related to the minds development of us. Each one of us is supposed to give reflections of what they are performing or improving and maybe share it through blogs. In this way, we will be able to look back from the past and keep growing.
Affective Level
--The leading question: How do u use your emotions? Are dominated by ur emotions, or u r so lucky to be the master of emotions?
These questions embarrassed me, when professor looked into my eyes and said, “u know I can easily know some of your emotions. They are just on ur face”. Oh my, indeed, I am the person, who doesn’t hide the all of my emotions. Sometime, even though I know the side effects, that is, leaving a poor impression of myself, I just let the emotion go. I am the one that is more likely to be impulsive. From the start point, I want to become more rational. But now…I still act as a child…What a shame on me…I have to change…T^T…
Behavioral Level
I swear I’ll put my feet on the ground!
As for improving communication skills, which the majority of us desire, it may be achieved on 4 aspects:
1—Reflection---the feeling or the gaining from music, videos
2---Awareness----aware of who u are
3—Acceptance---accept who u are and the reality
4---Action—change to be a better urself
The most touching part is the “Message-Sending” part. Although some of our classmates don’t receive messages, I am really luck to be cared for by my dear friends. After so much suffering both mentally and psychologically, I simply find it too hard to hold on. Suddenly, the warm words, the encouragement come, hug me with the strongest and the kindest supports. A tough girl, like me even couldn’t help trembling in my voice, when showed my sincere thanks to them. I LOVE THEM! ^_^ That’s why I choose to update my blog today!!!
Now I’m strong enough to face all the problems and obstacles. Like tonight, with one exam to prepare for tomorrow, 2 group discussions and 1 report, I have your warm words to help me actively deal with all of the tasks!!!
The second warmest part is the “You are your Lens” learning.
“ The way people see others is a reflection of themselves”.
Yes, if you have a flower in your mind, the people around you are flowers in your eyes. But if you focus on the bad things in your heart, others will be bad persons who do the bad things.
Attitudes decide the altitudes you’ll reach.
Remember, change yourself to the kind of person you want to be, then you will begin to view things in a different way. By the time you change your way of thinking, all the relationships around you will be changed.
To be a thankful and contented person, don’t focus on what we have, instead, focus on how we develop ourselves in the long journey of life.
“Do your best and leave the rest to God”.
Tonight, I’ll make it into practice and efficiently & effectively finish all of my TASKS! Keep adding Energy!
