SMARTy Pants

When we talk about good goal setting, the SMART model is often used as a guide.

Specific
Measurable
Agreed upon
Realistic
Time-based

My SMART goal will be to read a minimum of 50 pages per week starting today, September 23, with the week being standard Monday to Sunday. These pages can be distributed between either the AMC leadership book or whatever personal reading I'm doing from a single source.

Setting well-formed goals is of utmost importance to achievement. While we're certainly able to achieve "something" just by wandering about our daily lives and being productive, there's no scaffold to help maintain long-term goals. Without the above criteria, we're left to guess, poorly, whether or not what we're doing or have already done is satisfactory. How often have you really wanted to make some personal improvement so you told yourself that you'd do something, maybe at a later date, maybe at that moment, but the goal was so poorly thought out that as soon as some mild life pressure came into the scene, you dropped your aspirations. Without a single definition of what we want, we can constantly change the definition of what we want; this makes putting that pizza slice down seem much less morally ambiguous to the person who counts calories versus the one who kinda maybe wants to lose between five and 50 pounds. By committing yourself to realistic goals and being specific in terms of goal, timeline, and increments of progress you give yourself a measuring stick of greatness.

"Just do it" - Shia LaBeouf

Are we more than just Glorified Paddle Holders?

If you were to ask the average person what constitutes a profession, you’d get a variety of answers and a few confused looks. While we use the term often in our daily life, it isn’t as common for us to provide definitions for seemingly well-understood ideas. I think if we could narrow down the common perception of a profession, it would be the use of a certain skill set for a certain job with a common standard of excellence. Of course, this isn’t a terribly specific way to describe the term so let’s cue the semantics of sociologists to help. 

While there has been numerous takes on what defines a profession, the most recent criteria listed in Structure magazine’s November 2008 issue was written by Michael Bayles. Bayles believed that there are three necessary features that qualify a profession: it must require “(i) extensive training that (ii) involves a significant intellectual component and (iii) puts one in a position to provide an important service to society.” I believe this is the most accurate and minimal description. Previously, Ernest Greenwood had suggested that all professions must possess systematic theory or abstract knowledge, authority over their services, community sanction, ethical codes, and a culture. While some features like an ethical code and culture that holds practices to a certain esteem are important to maintain consistency, his focus on abstract knowledge seems misplaced and with respect to authority, generic. So, while I agree with some points, I do not believe all professions must have all of the valued attributes.

Understanding how sociologists have viewed professions and what is entailed in being an outdoor adventure guide, I would say that guiding is absolutely a professional career. Guides generally need extensive training that consists of a large body of knowledge both practical and theoretical, they provide a valuable service to society, and there is a growing trend towards standardized expectations and certifications within the industry. Given the associated risks and the large gap between the skill and knowledge of the guide and the client, it's of utmost importance for guides to uphold a high standard of practice that we would associate with professionalism; to do otherwise is to risk the safety and well-being of the client and the guide's livelihood. Since these traits match closely with those set out by Greenwood and Bayles, they, in my opinion, validate outdoor guiding as a profession.

References

Schmidt, J. (2008, November). What is a Profession? Structure Magazine, 9.   

Retrieved from: http://www.structuremag.org