By Bill Humbert, recruiterguy.com

There is a difference between properly setting a goal and making a resolution for your business. I know. I have been in business for 34 years.

Why not make a “resolution”? The answer is easy. Are many New Year’s resolutions kept? Over my past 34 years, maybe two New Year’s resolutions were kept—and they were easy resolutions.

Every time that I decided to evolve my Talent Attraction Advisor business, I set a BHAG—and was successful.

Who taught me proper goal setting? When I was a freshman at DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, MD, a future Basketball Hall of Fame basketball coach, Morgan Wootten, was my home room teacher, my world history teacher, and a customer on my Washington Post paper route (the revenues were used to pay my way through DeMatha).

He discussed proper goal setting with our class. While he never discussed his personal goals with us, as a famed high school basketball coach, he must have set goals for his development of high school boys into skilled basketball players. Many of his players graduated from college and then played in the NBA. Adrian Dantley, DeMatha ’73, was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Fast forward to 2009 when I wrote my first career search book, RecruiterGuy’s Guide To Finding A Job. For the first time, I sat down and created an acronym to make setting a goal easy to remember. It is as important to set career goals as it is to set business goals. Why? Without a properly set goal, a person or a company does not have a path to follow to succeed.

On Easter Sunday in 1969, I was home from Assumption (College) University in Worcester, MA for the holiday week. After mass, I perused The Washington Post and saw an ad from Greyhound Bus Company. They said they could take a person from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles in five days for $99. I thought, “I can do that!”

I properly set a goal to hitchhike from College Park, MD, to Los Angeles in five days and invited my best friend at the time, Jack, to join me. We departed from College Park on the on-ramp from US Route 1 towards Route I-270 on August 2, 1969. When we arrived in Los Angeles on August 6, 1969, we could not have anticipated the risks we faced.  These stories show up in a book I am writing on the journey.  Talk about reinforcing Proper Goal Setting! Until reading “Helter Skelter” by Vincent Bugliosi in 1974, we did not know how close we came in 1969.

How do you properly set a BHAG business goal? The following is my acronym that you may use, but first, you must be passionate about meeting that goal. Otherwise, it is simply a resolution.

My acronym is SCAMPS

S – Specific with a Strategy – A goal must be specific with a strategy to meet your goal. One way to test the strength of your strategy is to see if it is repeatable. My buddy and I achieved our goal of hitchhiking from D.C. to LA in five days in 1969. In 1970, we set a “stretch goal” of hitchhiking from D.C. to Santa Barbara in five days—and made it. After completing two amazing English courses at UC Santa Barbara, we set a goal to return to Washington, D.C., in five days and made it again. We were probably more reliable than Greyhound in those days. In 1971, I set myself a BHAG goal: to hitchhike from Las Vegas, NV, to Boston, MA, in 24 hours. I completed that goal in 16 hours. My strategy worked and was repeatable.

C – Challenging – A goal must be challenging. Your brain loves challenges. Challenges are exciting—especially when you attain your goal. That process can then reinforce the excitement for your next goal. Think about how attaining challenging goals excites and engages your team!

A – Attainable – Your brain is smart! If there is no viable strategy, your brain yawns and says, “I am bored.” If your goal is not challenging enough, your brain is not interested in working on the goal. It will provide you with many distractions that will keep you from earning the reward of your goal. Demonstrate to yourself or your team how your goal is attainable.

M – Measurable – Your goal must be measurable. When we set the goal to hitchhike across the US, we decided to hitchhike from College Park to Kansas City on I-70. Then we planned to head south on I-35. We needed to be in Kansas City by our second night to have a reasonable chance of being in LA in five days. We were able to measure our progress against that goal. If you want to grow your business, your goal may be an increased earnings and profitability goal. When during the year will your earnings be the highest? The summer? My suggestion is to measure your progress toward meeting your goals weekly or monthly. What activities will help you meet your goal? Those activities need to be measured. If you fall behind your increased earnings curve, it is Important to raise your business activities to get back on or ahead of track.

P – Public – If your BHAG goal is public with your team and others who support you, they will hold you accountable. They will ask about your progress towards meeting your goal. We used homemade signs to engage with drivers while we hitchhiked. The photo is my college yearbook photo I selected with one of these signs (I still use this Santa Barbara sign when I speak).

S – Specific End Date – The S’s make up the bungee cord that ties SCAMPS together. Your specific end date provides your business with a target and enables you to use the measurable step to see where you are relative to making your goal.

Every organization is different, even in the concrete industry. Your goals will differ from other companies. If you have never set a business goal, now is not the time to set a BHAG. Practice properly setting smaller goals. Achieve those goals! Then your brain will believe your BHAG is attainable. Expect success!

Want to read more about this journey?  My book with a working title of “True Tales of a Hitchhiking Goal Setter – Hitchhiking 15,000 miles Criss-crossing America in 1969 to 1971″ is soon to be published.