Setting goals
Smart goal technique
Goals, ah goals. Most organisations love to set goals and it is, of course, helpful to know what we are working towards. There is a real skill to goal setting. Lots of us set ourselves a huge goal and then become overwhelmed as it feels impossible to achieve because it probably is, in just one step. This can lead to giving up before we started, procrastinating and feeling a failure. So lets look at how we can set ourselves up to succeed.
There are quite a few models that can be used to guide goal setting. The most widely known are SMART goals.
SMART stands for :
Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound
Specific: Clearly define the goal. This is not always as simple as it may sound! We come back to how to set a goal. Where lots of people get stuck is setting a goal like “I am going to lose 3 stones”. Okay that is a great goal, but wow, what a huge goal that is. How is that going to happen? You need, what I call ‘sub-goals’ for that. If we use this as an example. To lose weight we need to change habits. We need to maybe exercise more, eat differently and different amounts, have different food in our cupboards and so on. The overall goal is to lose 3 stone but the IMMEDIATE goal might be to remove all chocolate from the house. That is your first goal. Once that is done, you can tick it off, feels good, sets you up to succeed and want to do more. So now with this new vigour, you can think, next thing I am going to do is walk the kids home from school twice a week. You get the idea?
Measurable: Ensure the goal has criteria for measuring progress. In order to know we have achieved a goal we need to be able see we have done it. Running with our example we have already said ‘twice a week’. If we do this twice a week we can tick that goal off (and keep it going of course!).
Achievable: Set a goal that is realistic and attainable. We have naturally done this already, we have thought maybe doing this every day is not possible, but I can do this on the two days I work from home. We have realistically thought about what we can do, another tick, another feel good, another way to create energy to go onto the next goal. Building it, one step at a time to reach the ultimate goal of the 3 stone. Lovely!
Relevant: There is no point in setting a goal that we have no interest in or maybe we think we should do but we know deep down is never going to happen. To use a personal example, we are going through a very stressful time at the moment. My family has multiple, large stressors. I am probably drinking a wee bit too much, but I know it is temporary and it is not like it is a crate of wine a night. So my goal is to have 2 alcohol free nights and I can do that. So I am giving myself a bit of a break but also looking after myself as well.
Time-bound: So this about the time within which we will do the goal. Can you see how we have done that here? Again, it has to be doable!
We will explore other models of goal setting in other articles. I try to keep this short and sweet so that you have something to think about that is bite sized to try out.
Don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Have a great rest of your day.
thank you to : Photo by Ronnie Overgoor on Unsplash