SETTING GOALS (THE SMART WAY)

 Dear friends,

Today I present to you another very interesting life coaching article: how to set your goals intelligently.

Some people have beautiful visions for their lives that are on incredible scales like: ending child poverty, saving endangered species, or ending slave labor. While these are admirable ambitions in life, they lack specificity and scale. If we dive too deep into our own confusing reasons why we have grandiose ambitions, we end up lacking actionable steps to turn our vision into reality.

The definition of INTELLIGENT goals ( SMART GOALS)  is : 

The place where we critique and analyze our best intentions so we can become more effective and start making progress.

Smart Goals have distinctive characteristics which are:

• SPECIFIC

• MEASURABLE

• REACHABLE

• RESULTS FOCUSED

• IN TIME

SPECIFIC

First we need to ask ourselves the following questions about our visions: what, how and why. We all start out with at least one of these already known: we may know what we want to do, but we don't know how to do it or even why we want to do it; or we may know why we want to do something (like advocate for animal rights), but we may not know what to do about it or even how to do it; or maybe we know how to run a campaign or start a business, but we don't know which company we would like to start and why we would like to start it.

Many of us get trapped into doing something for the sake of doing something or keeping busy just to feel busy. Without a "why," you will lack motivation; without a "how," you'll lack momentum, and without a "what," you'll lack direction.

MEASURABLE

Once we know why we are pursuing what we are pursuing and how and what we are doing, we need to be able to measure the goal and our progress towards it. 

Realistically, we can only measure a goal when we see examples of our work having an effect.

When determining the measurability of a goal, we need to ask ourselves the following: 

What are my short, medium and long term goals? 
What are the milestones I'm aiming for and how will I know when I get there? 
How  will I know  when I start making progress or making a difference?

REACHABLE

We must also check for ourselves whether our goals are realistically achievable or not. While you may want to end world poverty, can you honestly expect that much of yourself, particularly considering that there are billionaires around the world who have enough money to buy food for millions of people, but even with their status, wealth and power they cannot positively influence global politics and systematic poverty? How can one person achieve so much?

While it's good to have challenging goals, they need to be practical and pragmatic. Rather than striving to end world poverty, could you instead consider joining a charity, political party or organization to fight poverty in your city? If we set goals that are unattainable, and I spend years pursuing that goal, I'll be less open to pursuing more achievable goals because I'll assume that what I've pushed myself to do (and failed to achieve) is the standard experience for all the goals I've set for myself.

RESULTS FOCUSED

Outcome-focused goals depend on how relevant they are to you. Only you can decide if what you are striving for really matters to you and also aligns with other goals you are pursuing.

You will also want to ensure, with a results-focused mindset, that you measure your progress in terms of results rather than activities. While you'll likely need to adopt new skills, gather new resources, and produce new plans to achieve your goals, it's easy to get bogged down in the details and suddenly make your "achievement skill X" your overriding goal, rather than a sub-goal that's necessary to achieve your overriding goal.

The only way to keep people on track when it comes to adopting new skills, training, resources, etc. is to establish a result, set goal before starting a new sub-goal.

For example, let's say you want to be a graphic designer and you know you need to study graphic design and learn how to use certain programs and tools. If we measure our goal by the number of activities we are doing (e.g. learning Photoshop, Indesign, attending night classes, taking an online course, learning Illustrator etc.) we may feel productive, but we won't be productive for long because we may keep learning forever but never get anywhere near our ultimate goal. Rather, we need to measure our accomplishments as: producing twelve artworks for a portfolio and seeing each completed piece as our accomplishment. Studying is necessary and is a measure of growth, but we cannot  count hours of study and practice  as a measurable progression, only the fruit of that growth is. 

IN TIME

Goals should be limited to a time limit that creates a sense of urgency. Time is money, so the last thing we should do is waste it or treat it lightly. Stay accountable for your timing and boost your morale as you meet your goals or demonstrate a genuine commitment to meeting your deadline . However, it's important to keep your time limits flexible and realistic as too much pressure can jeopardize your productivity and cause you a lot of stress and panic.

The last lines of this article are suggestions from illustrious personalities that I hope will inspire you. 

“Grow with discipline. Balancing intuition with rigor. Innovate around the core. Don't embrace the status quo. Find new ways to see. Never expect a silver bullet. Get your hands dirty. She listens with empathy and over communicates with transparency. Tell your story, refusing to let others define you. Use authentic experiences to inspire. Stick to your values, they are your foundation. Make the hard choices; it's how you execute that matters. Be decisive in times of crisis. Be nimble. Find the truth in the trials and the lessons in the mistakes. Be responsible for what you see, hear and do." —Howard Schultz 

"There's no decision we can make that doesn't come with some sort of balance or sacrifice." Simon Sinek

“Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines that are practiced every day.” - Jim Rohn

“A successful man is one who can lay a solid foundation with the bricks that others have thrown at him.” -David Brinkley