Do you ever wonder why it is that the goals you set for yourself don’t seem to like getting met? Is it possible those goals aren’t clear enough to aim at?
Goals are often set at unrealistic levels, setting us up for failure before we even start.
As a coach I work with goal-setting every day and I’ve found the common mistakes people make when they believe they are creating goals can be easily fixed with the SMART goal method.
If you say your goal is to be happy and that’s it, what does that actually mean? What, specifically, does happiness look like to you? How will you know if you’ve reached your goal?
If you decide you won’t be satisfied with your hair until you grow it out again, at what point will you be satisfied? Grown out to your shoulders? Shoulder blades? Waist? What’s the measurement we’re aiming at here?
If you decide your goal in life is to become a prima ballerina, but you’ve never tried ballet and you’re 40, is that something that can actually be achieved?
If you haven’t worked out in a year, is it realistic for you to say you’re going to begin working out every day starting tomorrow?
If you want to save enough money to take a European tour in the next eight months, but you barely make enough money to pay your bills, is that time line really going to happen?
SMART goals are:
SPECIFIC
MEASURABLE
ACHIEVABLE
REALISTIC
TIMELY
We want to set you up for success with every endeavor, right? So, let’s get honest and settle in to write up our goals the SMART way.
SPECIFIC
Other ‘s’ words used for this category are things like ‘simple’, ‘sensible’, ‘significant’. This isn’t an exact science. I like ‘specific’ so that’s what we’re using for our purposes today.
Look, I know it’s fun to dream. It’s fun to make wishes. But none of those dreams or wishes will happen if you don’t nail them down.
Vision boards are great for this. Take a big board, cut or print out a bunch of pictures and words that relate specifically to your hopes and dreams; create your masterpiece.
If you want to make a $1,000,000 by the time you’re 30, great! That’s nice and specific!
But if you say you want to be rich, what does that mean? What is “rich” to you? If you aren’t able to be detailed in describing your goal, then it isn’t a goal yet.
I ask clients to write their goals down clearly and concisely.
If you can write it down clearly so that anyone who reads it will understand exactly what you are aiming at, now you have a goal.
MEASURABLE
Other ‘m’ words: ‘meaningful’ ‘motivating’. These are great words, use them yourself. For now, I’m in charge so we’re going with ‘measurable’.
I’m liking that “make $1,000,000 by 30” goal for this! Super measurable.
The dollar amount is measurable, and the point at which it will be reached is measurable. Our goal-setter is putting a big $1,000,000 on their vision board and meditating on seeing themselves at 30 rolling around in a Scrooge McDuck safe.
“I want to be thin” yeah, and… “I want to lose 20 lbs” ah-ah, I see! Okay, let’s create a plan.
Measurable isn’t rocket science. I think you get it.
ACHIEVABLE
Other ‘a’ words might be ‘agreed’ or ‘available’. You’re in my world. We’re sticking with ‘achievable’.
(Seriously, I have no idea why I’m all feisty about this, but we have two more to go and I’ve got a thing going).
How does our $1,000,000 by 30 goal hold up? Well…it depends.
If this hinges on you winning the lottery, I won’t tell you that’s impossible, because it isn’t. I will tell you it might not be the most attainable goal you could set for yourself. So perhaps we could work on it.
Do you have a job that will get you to your goal? If you’re a kindergarten teacher, I am sorry to say, I don’t think this is an achievable goal.
If you’re a kindergarten teacher who has just invented a way to get 5-year-olds to stop wiping their boogers on each other, whoo-hoo! Now we’ve got something.
REALISTIC
You know what’s coming. ‘R’ words are ‘reasonable’, ‘relevant’, ‘results-based’, or ‘resourced’. Nope, nope, nope, and nope. ‘Realistic’ it is!
So, the goal now is to make $1,000,000 by 30 with the Booger-be-Gone patent. Sweet.
If your ground breaking invention is to repeatedly say “stop doing that” we may be stalled out on our goal. I hate to break it to you, but that has literally, never in the history of kindergarteners, ever worked. Not once. Boogers everywhere.
But, if you discovered some magical, non-toxic, inexpensive to reproduce elixir that has undergone rigorous testing and passed the FDA…well, sister, now you’re cooking with gas!
It’s also important to be honest with yourself about who you are and what your talents and resources are to reach a goal.
“If I’m honest with myself [fill in the blank]” is my favorite sentence starter for this.
Honesty equals reality. If you know you hate working out in the evening, it wouldn’t be a realistic goal or honest to say you’re going to work out after work every day. You would break your commitment to yourself almost immediately because the goal isn’t based on a realistic picture of yourself.
It is possible to have realistic goals that get you excited. You can also create a reality no one else thinks exists because you haven’t shown it to them yet. Dream big.
TIMELY
And, finally, we come to other ‘t’ words like ‘time bound’, ‘time-based’, ‘time limited’, ‘time/cost limited’, and ‘time-sensitive’. Yeah, ‘timely’ kinda covers it.
Okay, we’ve got a pretty freaking awesome goal going here. $1,000,000 by 30, based on the sale of the Booger-be-Gone, which has gone through all of the stuff required, and we’re ready to hit the ground running!
Oops, time passed. You’re now 35. I mean seriously, did you think that rigorous, FDA required testing was going to happen that quickly? You’ve invented fairy juice we’re going to give to little kids, it was going to take some time.
No problem! You’ll have the million by 40 instead. Problem solved.
That’s the fun thing about goals. As you assess their validity you can adjust them as needed.
As things change over the course of time you get to re-assess and re-adjust as many times as you need.
Timeliness is all about addressing the reality of how long this thing is going to really take, or when you want to get to your goal.
Want to lose that 20lbs by Christmas? Cool. These words are posting on August 20, you have four months. With healthy adjustments to your nutrition, commitment to regular movement, and lots of self-loving talk, you got this.
Look at that: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. You’re on your way!
GET OUT THERE AN SET SOME GOALS
You can have anything you want in this world. Come at it knowing exactly what it is you want, a clear way of identifying what it is, a way to make it happen that currently exists or you can make exist, and a clear timeline; the world is yours.
Doesn’t feel quite that easy to you? No problem! I got you!
Life coaching is about tons of things and goal-setting is at the core of it all. Set up your sessions today and we’ll get your goals in place in time for dinner. Talk to you soon!