THINKER'S ALMANAC - October 14

How can horses teach us to be more fearless public speakers?

Subject:  Public Speaking and Perseverance - Carnegie’s Horse Analogy

Event:  Theodore Roosevelt survives an assassination attempt, 1912

On this day in 1912, Theodore Roosevelt was shot by an unemployed saloon keeper in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Roosevelt was nearing the end of his campaign for president. Having left politics after his second term as U.S. president in 1909, he returned for a run at an unprecedented third term when his hand-picked successor William Taft did not live up to his expectations.  For this campaign, Roosevelt formed a new political party, The Bull Moose Party (officially called the National Progressive Party).

On the evening of October 14th, Roosevelt was leaving his hotel in Milwaukee to make a campaign speech.  Just as he was entering the car that would take him to the auditorium, an unemployed saloonkeeper named John Schrank, standing a few feet away, fired a shot from his Colt .38 revolver into Roosevelt’s chest.  Schrank was immediately tackled and arrested, and Roosevelt’s handlers prepared to whisk him away to the hospital.  Roosevelt, however, refused, demanding to be taken immediately to the auditorium to fulfill his campaign appearance.

Only when he arrived backstage at the auditorium did Roosevelt allow himself to be examined by doctors.  Their exam revealed that a bullet had indeed pierced Roosevelt’s chest.  Although he was bleeding, the shot was not fatal; fortunately for Roosevelt, the bullet’s path had been slowed by the folded 50-page speech he carried in his breast pocket. Stepping up to the podium, Roosevelt revealed his bloody shirt and the bullet-pierced manuscript of his speech to the audience.  He began by saying:  “Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don’t know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot—but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.”

Only after speaking for more than an hour did Roosevelt step away from the podium.  On Election Day, November 5th, Roosevelt lost the election to the Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson.  John Schrank spent the rest of his life in an insane asylum.  In a somewhat Shakespearean twist, Schrank claimed that the ghost of President William McKinley had appeared to him and ordered the hit; it was McKinley’s assassination that had made Roosevelt president in 1901.

Today, visitors to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History can view a bullet-pierced page of Roosevelt’s speech.  The bullet, however, remained lodged in Roosevelt’s rib for the rest of his life.  He died in his sleep in 1919 and is buried at Oyster Bay, New York (1).

Unlike many people, Theodore Roosevelt did not fear public speaking.  According to the Washington Post, public speaking is the biggest phobia of Americans, followed by fear of heights, drowning, strangers, zombies, and clowns (in that order) (2).

One antidote to overcoming the fear of public speaking is to face your fears head-on, as explained in the following analogy by Dale Carnegie in his book The Art of Public Speaking:

Did you ever notice in looking from a train window that some horses feed near the track and never even pause to look up at the thundering cars, while just ahead at the next railroad crossing a farmer’s wife will be nervously trying to quiet her scared horse as the train goes by?

How would you cure a horse that is afraid of cars—graze him in a back-woods lot where he would never see steam-engines or automobiles, or drive or pasture him where he would frequently see the machines?

Apply horse-sense to ridding yourself of self-consciousness and fear: face an audience as frequently as you can, and you will soon stop shying. You can never attain freedom from stage-fright by reading a treatise. A book may give you excellent suggestions on how best to conduct yourself in the water, but sooner or later you must get wet, perhaps even strangle and be “half scared to death.” There are a great many “wetless” bathing suits worn at the seashore, but no one ever learns to swim in them. To plunge is the only way. (3)

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  How did Dale Carnegie use an analogy of a horse to explain how to conquer the common fear of public speaking?

Challenge -  I came, I saw, I spoke:  How can people best acquire the courage to confront and conquer their fears of public speaking? What are your top three go-to topics for a brief speech? You’re not always given the chance to pick your own topic; however, choosing and preparing speeches on topics you care about is an excellent way to gain the kind of confidence you need to speak under any circumstances (even with a bullet lodged in your chest). For example, when Julius Caesar was a young man, he was kidnapped by pirates; to kill time during his captivity, he composed short speeches and poems and read them aloud to his captors. Brainstorm a list of your go-to speech topics — topics that you know something about and are passionate about.  Then compose a short speech sharing your passion with an audience.

1-O’Toole, Patricia. “The Speech That Saved Teddy Roosevelt’s Life.” Smithsonian Mag.com Nov. 2012. 

2-Croston, Glenn. “The Thing We Fear More Than Death.” Psychology Today.com 29 Nov. 2012. 

3-Carnegie, Dale. The Art of Public Speaking. Springfield, Mass.: The Home Correspondence School, 2015. Public Domain.

THINKER'S ALMANAC - October 14

How can horses teach us to be more fearless public speakers?

Subject:  Public Speaking and Perseverance - Carnegie’s Horse Analogy

Event:  Theodore Roosevelt survives an assassination attempt, 1912

On this day in 1912, Theodore Roosevelt was shot by an unemployed saloon keeper in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Roosevelt was nearing the end of his campaign for president. Having left politics after his second term as U.S. president in 1909, he returned for a run at an unprecedented third term when his hand-picked successor William Taft did not live up to his expectations.  For this campaign, Roosevelt formed a new political party, The Bull Moose Party (officially called the National Progressive Party).

On the evening of October 14th, Roosevelt was leaving his hotel in Milwaukee to make a campaign speech.  Just as he was entering the car that would take him to the auditorium, an unemployed saloonkeeper named John Schrank, standing a few feet away, fired a shot from his Colt .38 revolver into Roosevelt’s chest.  Schrank was immediately tackled and arrested, and Roosevelt’s handlers prepared to whisk him away to the hospital.  Roosevelt, however, refused, demanding to be taken immediately to the auditorium to fulfill his campaign appearance.

Only when he arrived backstage at the auditorium did Roosevelt allow himself to be examined by doctors.  Their exam revealed that a bullet had indeed pierced Roosevelt’s chest.  Although he was bleeding, the shot was not fatal; fortunately for Roosevelt, the bullet’s path had been slowed by the folded 50-page speech he carried in his breast pocket. Stepping up to the podium, Roosevelt revealed his bloody shirt and the bullet-pierced manuscript of his speech to the audience.  He began by saying:  “Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don’t know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot—but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.”

Only after speaking for more than an hour did Roosevelt step away from the podium.  On Election Day, November 5th, Roosevelt lost the election to the Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson.  John Schrank spent the rest of his life in an insane asylum.  In a somewhat Shakespearean twist, Schrank claimed that the ghost of President William McKinley had appeared to him and ordered the hit; it was McKinley’s assassination that had made Roosevelt president in 1901.

Today, visitors to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History can view a bullet-pierced page of Roosevelt’s speech.  The bullet, however, remained lodged in Roosevelt’s rib for the rest of his life.  He died in his sleep in 1919 and is buried at Oyster Bay, New York (1).

Unlike many people, Theodore Roosevelt did not fear public speaking.  According to the Washington Post, public speaking is the biggest phobia of Americans, followed by fear of heights, drowning, strangers, zombies, and clowns (in that order) (2).

One antidote to overcoming the fear of public speaking is to face your fears head-on, as explained in the following analogy by Dale Carnegie in his book The Art of Public Speaking:

Image by Freddy from Pixabay

Did you ever notice in looking from a train window that some horses feed near the track and never even pause to look up at the thundering cars, while just ahead at the next railroad crossing a farmer’s wife will be nervously trying to quiet her scared horse as the train goes by?

How would you cure a horse that is afraid of cars—graze him in a back-woods lot where he would never see steam-engines or automobiles, or drive or pasture him where he would frequently see the machines?

Apply horse-sense to ridding yourself of self-consciousness and fear: face an audience as frequently as you can, and you will soon stop shying. You can never attain freedom from stage-fright by reading a treatise. A book may give you excellent suggestions on how best to conduct yourself in the water, but sooner or later you must get wet, perhaps even strangle and be “half scared to death.” There are a great many “wetless” bathing suits worn at the seashore, but no one ever learns to swim in them. To plunge is the only way. (3)

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What are the differences between the two horses that Carnegie described, and how does the analogy explain how to overcome the fear of public speaking?

Challenge -  I came, I saw, I spoke:  How can people best acquire the courage to confront and conquer their fears of public speaking? What are your top three go-to topics for a brief speech? You’re not always given the chance to pick your own topic; however, choosing and preparing speeches on topics you care about is an excellent way to gain the kind of confidence you need to speak under any circumstances (even with a bullet lodged in your chest). For example, when Julius Caesar was a young man, he was kidnapped by pirates; to kill time during his captivity, he composed short speeches and poems and read them aloud to his captors. Brainstorm a list of your go-to speech topics — topics that you know something about and are passionate about.  Then compose a short speech sharing your passion with an audience.

ALSO ON THIS DAY:

-October 14, 1066:  At Hastings in Sussex, England, the Saxon army of King Harold confronted an invading army of French-speaking soldiers from Normandy, a province of France just across the English Channel.  The Battle of Hastings was fought from approximately 9:00 AM to dusk.  Thousands of soldiers died that day, and the Norman army, led by William, Duke of Normandy, prevailed.  Harold was killed, shot through the eye with an arrow, and William marched his victorious army to London, where he was crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1066.  Scenes from the bloody battle are depicted in the colorful Bayeux Tapestry, a 229 foot long embroidered cloth, which was commissioned by William's brother not long after the battle (4).

Sources:

1-O’Toole, Patricia. “The Speech That Saved Teddy Roosevelt’s Life.” Smithsonian Mag.com Nov. 2012. 

2-Croston, Glenn. “The Thing We Fear More Than Death.” Psychology Today.com 29 Nov. 2012. 

THINKER'S ALMANAC - December 16

What does it mean to think that nothing is indubitable?

Subject: Epistemology - Russell’s New Decalogue

Event:  Bertrand Russell’s essay “The Best Answer to Fanaticism - Liberalism,”1951

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts. -Bertrand Russell

On this day in 1951, British philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote an essay in The New York Times entitled “The Best Answer to Fanaticism - Liberalism.”

Liberalism, according to Russell, is not a belief; instead, it is a disposition or attitude toward belief.  He credits John Locke as liberalism’s “great apostle” because he argued that all people should be capable of living at peace and that it was not necessary for everyone to agree.  Instead, Locke argued that all opinions should be treated as fallible and any belief should be open to question.  

Russell called into question those who argue that the truth is already known.  These people hold the opposite view of liberalism because their purpose “is not to discover truth but to strengthen belief in truths already known.”

                                                                Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay 

At the core of Russell’s argument is how to approach old ideas versus new ideas.  His conclusion is that all ideas should be welcomed, but at the same time, all ideas, whether old or new, should be subject to scrutiny and debate.  To help facilitate the liberal outlook, the correct epistemological attitude, Russell ends his article with what he calls a “new decalogue,” a kind of ten commandments of epistemology, in other words, ten rules that will help bring all of us closer to the truth:

1. Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.

2. Do not think it worthwhile to produce belief by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.

3. Never try to discourage thinking, for you are sure to succeed.

4. When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavor to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.

5. Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.

6. Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.

7. Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.

8. Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.

9. Be scrupulously truthful, even when truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.

10. Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool’s paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What is the purpose of Russell’s New Decalogue?

 

Challenge - The Best of the Ten: Read through Russell’s ten rules.  Pick the one rule that you like the best, and write a paragraph explaining why you feel that the rule is important for people who are trying to find the truth.

 

ALSO ON THIS DAY

December 16, 1906: On this day in 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt wrote a letter to a friend explaining a recent political defeat.  Roosevelt, who won fame as a Rough Rider in the Spanish-American War and served two terms as president from 1901-1909, was not used to defeat.  He broke up monopolies, championed federal regulation of railroads, spurred the conservation of natural resources, and began the construction of the Panama Canal.  As the leader of the Progressive Movement, however, there was one reform that Roosevelt could not make happen:  spelling reform. In addition to being an age of reform, the 19th century was also a time when public education was being expanded and democratized in America.  Roosevelt, along with other education advocates, viewed spelling reform as a practical and economical way to improve education.  After all, English orthography is plagued with words that have more letters than necessary as well as inconsistent and capricious spelling rules. In March 1906 the Simplified Spelling Board was founded and funded by industrialist Andrew Carnegie.  Its mission was to reform and simplify English spelling.  On August 27, 1906, President Roosevelt issued an executive order that 300 words from the Simplified Spelling Board’s list of revised spellings be used in all official communications of the executive department.  Some of the examples of changes are as follows:

 

blessed to blest

kissed to kist

passed to past

purr to pur

though to tho

through to thru

 

On December 3, 1906, Roosevelt wrote his annual message to Congress using the new spelling.  He became an easy target for criticism, however, as can be seen in the following sentence from a newspaper editorial:

[Roosevelt] now assales the English langgwidg, constitutes himself as a sort of French academy, and will reform the spelling in a way tu soot himself.

On December 13, 1906, soon after it received Roosevelt’s annual message, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution rejecting the new spellings and urging that government documents be written using “the standard of orthography prescribed in generally accepted dictionaries of the English language.” At this point Roosevelt decided to surrender.  He withdrew his executive order, and wrote a letter to his friend Brander Matthews, who was also the chairman of the Simplified Spelling Board, admitting defeat:

I could not by fighting have kept the new spelling in, and it was evidently worse than useless to go into an undignified contest when I was beaten. (2)

Sources:

1-Russell, Bertrand.  “The Best Answer to Fanaticism -- Liberalism.”  The New York Times 16 Dec. 1951.

2-Thomas V.  Teddy Roosevelt, Rough Ride Over Spelling Rules. The Wall Street Journal 16 April 2015.

THINKER'S ALMANAC - April 30

What rhetorical strategy did Lou Gehrig borrow from Aristotle that allowed him to hit a home run in his final speech in Yankee Stadium in 1939?

Subject:  Rhetoric - Advantageous

Event:  Lou Gehrig plays his final game, 1939

. . . you need to convince your audience that the choice you offer is the most “advantageous” — to the advantage of the audience, that is, not you.  This brings us back to values. The advantageous is an outcome that gives the audience what it values. -Jay Heinrichs

On this day in 1939, New York Yankee first baseman Lou Gehrig played his 2,130th consecutive major league game.  The game would also be the final game of his career. Not long after his final game, Gehrig learned that he had an incurable and fatal disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) — a disease known today as Lou Gehrig’s disease.  

In his 17 seasons, all as a Yankee, Gehrig was a World Series champion six times, an All-Star seven consecutive times, an American League Most Valuable Player twice, and a Triple Crown winner once.  Gehrig was the first major league baseball player to have his number (4) retired, and he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York in 1939.

In June 1939, the New York Yankees officially announced Gehrig’s retirement, and on July 4, 1939, they invited him to speak at Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day (1).

On that day, Gehrig gave what has become not just one of the single most memorable speeches in sports history, but one of the most memorable speeches in history, period.

It was a speech of startling magnanimity.  Everyone in Yankee Stadium that day came to honor Gehrig and to share the sorrow of a career and a life that would be cut short.  Under the circumstances, it would be natural for the speaker to give a mournful, gloomy speech about himself, about his bad luck, and about all he had lost.  Instead, Gehrig spoke in positive and thankful tones, focusing not on himself but on all the people who helped to make him the “luckiest man in the world.”

Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.

I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans. Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn’t consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day?

Sure I’m lucky.

Who wouldn’t consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball’s greatest empire, Ed Barrow? To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy?

Sure I’m lucky.

When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift – that’s something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies — that’s something.

When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter — that’s something.

When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so you can have an education and build your body — it’s a blessing.

When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed — that’s the finest I know.

So, I close in saying that I might have been given a bad break, but I’ve got an awful lot to live for.

The effectiveness of Gehrig’s speech illustrates an ancient principle of rhetoric.  Aristotle taught that giving a speech is about much more than just what you want to say; instead, it’s important to consider the audience.  The Aristotelian triangle is a model that helps speakers and writers assess the rhetorical situation. The triangle’s three points are the speaker, the subject, and the audience. Looking at all three points of the triangle reminds us that the speaker is only one part of the formula for successful persuasion.  Truly successful speakers, like Gehrig, must appeal to the audience’s advantage. Therefore, when we think about our purpose in speaking, we should not just ask, “What’s in it for us?” Instead, we should ask, “What’s in it for them?”  As the American humorist, Will Rogers put it: “When you go fishing you bait the hook, not with what you like, but what the fish likes” (2).

Winning rhetoric always employs “The Advantageous” by considering the rhetorical situation from the audience’s point of view.  Gehrig might have made his speech all about himself; instead, he made his message much more inclusive by considering his audience.  His thankful and optimistic tone transformed a seemingly sad, hopeless occasion into a positive, hopeful reminder of the indomitable nature of the human spirit.

In the opening chapters of Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout recounts her first day of school.  Seemingly everything that could go wrong, goes wrong for Scout, especially when it comes to her relationship with her teacher, Miss Caroline. As Scout tearfully recounts her run-ins with her teacher to her father, she declares that she doesn’t ever want to return to school again.

At this point, Scout’s father, Atticus Finch, shares a valuable lesson with her:

`First of all,' he said, 'if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view — until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.'  (3)

Atticus, a lawyer, understood that winning over a jury requires more than just arguing your case; instead, it requires understanding your audience’s point of view -- their beliefs, expectations, and desires. 

Atticus’ lesson is summed up in an ancient persuasive principle that is directly related to ethos, known as “the advantageous.”  When trying to persuade, resist the temptation to appeal to your own advantage; instead, frame your message in a way that appeals to your audience’s advantage.  In other words, instead of focusing on what is good for you, climb into your audience’s skin and try to see things from their point of view -- what’s good for them.

Dale Carnegie, in his classic book How to Win Friends and Influence People, recounts a story about the American poet, philosopher, and essayist, Ralph Waldo Emerson:

One day Emerson and his son tried to get a calf into the barn.  But they made the common mistake of thinking about what they wanted; Emerson pushed and his son pulled. But the calf was doing just what they were doing; he was thinking only of what he wanted; so he stiffened his legs and stubbornly refused to leave the pasture.  A housemaid saw their predicament.  She couldn’t write essays and books; but, on this occasion at least, she had more horse sense, or calf sense, than Emerson had.  She thought of what the calf wanted; so she put her maternal finger in the calf’s mouth and let the calf suck her finger as she gently led him into the barn. (4)

The housemaid was successful because she looked at the situation based not on what she wanted, but on what the calf wanted.  By applying the advantageous, a little effort was all that was needed to win over her audience.

Challenge - Aristotle, Ads, and Addresses:  What are some examples of great speeches or classic advertisements where the speaker or the writer has employed the advantageous for effective persuasion?  Analyze a specific speech or advertisement that is an example of effective persuasion. Use the Aristotelian Triangle to discuss the relationship between the speaker, the audience, and the subject.  How did the speaker specifically relate and appeal to his or her audience to effectively fulfill the purpose? 

Sources:

1-Larkin, Kevin. “April 30, 1939: Lou Gehrig plays his final game with Yankees.” Society for American Baseball Research. 

2-Heinrich, Jay. Thank You For Arguing. Three Rivers Press, 2007.

3-Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. New York:Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006.

4-Carnegie, Dale, 1888-1955. How to Win Friends and Influence People. New York :Simon & Schuster, 2009.

 

THINKER'S ALMANAC - August 4

How can soccer help us understand effective goal setting?

Subject:  Planning - SMART Goals

Event:  Birthday of Dr. George T. Doran, 1939

If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy and inspires your hopes. — Andrew Carnegie

You can have a lot of fun kicking a soccer ball around with some friends, but things get more interesting, more focused, and more fun when you set up a goal on the field.  Just as a soccer goal enriches the experience of playing soccer, setting up personal goals can enrich our individual lives.  We can run up and down the field for hours using up a lot of energy and feeling like we’re getting something done, but setting up a goal immediately gives us more purpose and a way to specifically measure our levels of success.

When you set up a soccer goal, you need to give some thought to its height, its length, and its depth; likewise, setting effective personal goals requires thought about the specifics; after all, you can’t get the ball in the goal unless the goal is properly placed and visible.

Image by Alexa from Pixabay

One truly smart man, Dr. George T. Doran (1939-2011), left as his legacy a tool we can use every day to both envision and achieve our goals.  Born in Queens, New York, Doran became a professor, author, and entrepreneur.  In 1981 when he was working in Spokane, Washington, with the Washington Water Power Company, he published an article entitled, “There’s a S.M.A.R.T. Way to Write Management's Goals and Objectives.”

In the article, Dr. Doran used the SMART acronym to identify the different elements that a goal needs if it’s going to be meaningful:

Specific:  Often we set goals that are too ambiguous.  Like a soccer goal, a good goal needs to be as specific and as concrete as possible.  To use another analogy, a goal is a target, and your chances of hitting a target are low if you can’t see it.  

Measurable:  Part of making your goal specific is quantifying it.  For example, if your goal is to get better grades this year, you should quantify exactly what  “better” means by setting a goal with specific numbers, such as an increased grade point average or getting no lower than a B in any of your classes.  Again, the more measurable your target, the more clearly you will be able to see it up ahead and the more obvious it will be when you arrive at it.

Assignable:  If you’re working with a team, it’s essential that everyone knows their role and what specific job they will be doing toward achieving the goal.  Likewise, everyone needs to not just know the goal but also commit to doing their best to achieve it.  If you are working on an individual goal, think of the A as ACTION; what specific actions are you going to take to reach your goal? What can you DO today that will make you more likely to reach your goal?

Realistic:  Realistic placement of your target is essential if you’re going to hit it. Running a sub-four-minute mile is humanly possible, but if you have just started running, it’s not a realistic goal to start with.  Similarly, it would be ambitious to attempt the goal of earning all A’s in your classes this year, but as you are writing down your goals, temper your ambition with realism, by not setting the bar too high.  

Timely:   Whenever you set goals, have a calendar at hand.  Write down the specific date that you will measure your progress.  Having a deadline can be a lifeline because it can motivate you each day to do something toward reaching your goal.  It can indeed add stress to your life, but if your goal is truly a worthwhile one,  you should reframe the stress as the necessary motivation you need to succeed.

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What are the five elements that make up an effective SMART goal?

Challenge - Get SMART:  Practice using the SMART goal acronym by writing down a specific goal with notes about each of the five elements.

Sources:

1-Doran, George. “There’s a S.M.A.R.T. Way to Write Management's Goals and Objectives.” AMA Forum November 1981.