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This is the week that I have been both waiting for and in some ways (if I’m honest) dreading a bit. It is the week of “goal setting”. Last year I started a Facebook accountability group that focuses on both nutritional and physical goals. We go for a few months and then start over giving members the opportunity to leave us and have others join us. We are all committed to checking in at least once a week and let the other members know how we did the previous week.
One of the first things that we all need to do is set some goals. I am a firm believer that without a goal I have merely just a wish, a desire and a want. In addition I firmly believe that without accountability and community I am more likely to fail than to succeed. I have been on a journey towards greater healing in all aspects of my life and whether I like it or not (which sometimes I don’t) this encompasses both a change in my diet as well as physical activity. For the most part I was doing fairly well but knew that I could do better. After some pondering over this I came to the conclusion that I was lacking two very important keys.
The first one was accountability and the second was realistic and clearly defined goals. Not to let the cart come before the horse, today I am going to share a bit on goal setting.
INTENTIONAL GOALS
Being an Addictions Counsellor I am aware of the importance of being intentional when setting a goal. I often will liken it to a sports team and how they work at winning their game. Before the game, during the game as well as after the game, they have a game plan. They know what they have to do and how they have to do it. Growing up in the “hockey world” I was able to witness this first hand. In order to succeed in winning the game the players had to not only practice their skills alone, they also needed a game plan on how they would play together — each member of the team needed to know what was required of him or her . In order to be a successful team they needed to be intentional when they came to play on game day.
SMART
Not only does one need to be intentional when setting a goal, they also have to be “smart”. Let’s take a look at what it means to be a “smart” goal setter.
Specific
One of the biggest hinderances in meeting a goal is not being specific in what it is you want to accomplish. Without a destination you may wind up just going around and around the block and never really getting anywhere. A question that you can ask yourself is: “What exactly do I want to accomplish?”. This is your bulls eye — your target. An example of a specific goal is:
I want to be able to increase my steps to 10,00o a day.
MEASURABLE
In order to know that you achieved your goal, or are on the way of achieving it, it will be important to have an indicator. An example of this:
I will use my Fitbit (or pedometer) to track my steps. I will keep a logbook and fill it out every night before I go to sleep with how many steps I took that day.
ACHIEVABLE
This is where a lot of people crash and burn. They set their expectations way too high and end up feeling defeated and quit. Often this happens even before they get started. Your goal needs to be challenging, yet also in your power to do it realistically. If you haven’t walked in years — other than to your car or to your couch — then you may want to start with a mini goal and then work your way up. For example your goal may be to track your steps for a week and then increase by 500 steps a day for the next week. This way your goal is attainable and it won’t be too overwhelming.
RELEVANT
This is where you ask, “Is this goal important to me?”. If it’s not important to you then it will be easy to just not do it. I have often tried to achieve a goal that was important to my parents, my husband or even my doctor, however, it really wasn’t that important to me. This has rarely led me to success. It is not until the goal is important to me that I will then put the effort into it that is required. You have time for the things that are meaningful in your life. You put effort into the areas that has relevance to your life.
TIMELY
Your goal needs to be timely. Ask yourself,”When do I want to achieve this goal by?”. It’s important to set a target date. This will not only keep you on track it will also help encourage you to the finish line.
Setting goals can be intimidating. I think it’s important to really think about the goals we are setting and be intentional by setting ourselves up for success. I encourage you start setting your goals the “smart” way and I cheer for you as you cross the goal met finish line.
Be Blessed 💞💞💞
Such great advice for goal setting! Setting goals can be so empowering but sometimes overwhelming as well, so these are nice reminders!
-madi xo
I achieve my big goals when I break them down in doable steps. Blessings
what a great way to keep it organized
Yes…. I always have all these in mind when writing goals. Thanks for the reminder. Great post
I love goal setting! It’s something I do at the beginning of each year and reevaluate at the end of each month. It’s so helpful!
April
Good for you. Blessings.
Smart goals are pretty much the best way to break down the things you want to accomplish in life. This is a great synopsis of it all.
I LOVE the SMART goals system. I wrote about it over on Superpowers Sold Separately.
Awesome.
I’ve used this many times for work and personal. It works and helps keep me on track.
Glad that you have had success with it. Blessings as you continue to set and reach your goals.
Wonderful – Smart – I love the concept. Too many of us set unrealistic goals. Saving this!
When we set up the unrealistic goals we end up just giving up all together. Blessings.
I’m in nursing school, and we have to make all of our goals SMART goals using this format. I think it actually really helps!
I think so too. Blessings on your schooling.
This is my first time to hear of SMART way. Very helpful in order to accomplish goals. Thanks!
Oh how cool…that is so awesome. I totally wish more people had this mindset.
Yes me too. I wish it was taught in schools. Blessings
“They set their expectations way too high and end up feeling defeated and quit.” THIS! Too many people set completely unrealistic goals and then constantly feel as though they’re failing. I try to always set small goals that I know are more relevant based on where I currently am. This way I feel like I’m making progress vs. chasing to catch up from behind. Great insight!
Great choice. Blessings as you continue to press forward to achieving your goals
Great advice! I keep the “smart” goals in mind when I do my budgeting!
That is a fabulous place to use them. Blessings
This so funnh, I do smart goals everyday for my patients, but I never thought of applying them to my personal life. Thanks for sharing.
I used to teach it to my clients all the time and one day I thought — hey this will work for me too. Blessings
Hmm, very insightful… this actually puts your goals into perspective because it helps you understand if it’s something that you need to let go of or pursue if it meets the SMART criteria
Exactly. Blessings
I love setting goals! But sometimes my goals are not SMART. I totally agree with you that without goals they are just like a wish.
Not all my goals have been SMART — I have greater success when I utilize this method. Blessings
Wonderful post! I’ll keep it as my experience
I usually set a really high target for my goals and obviously those targets are not practical. I will definitely use the smart way to achieve my goals in life.
I tended to do that as well until I realized that I need to have mini goals to get to the ultimate prize. Blessings to you.
What an interesting read! I really need to be better about setting goals the smart way.
April
I always try to follow the SMART method because it is the key to success!
Good choice. Blessings
Excellent viewpoint. I love where you are coming from with this. Thanks for the encouraging words!!
I’ve heard this many times but I still love the reminder. It’s easy to set a goal, but not determine how you will get there. There’s another quote along the lines of “A goal without a plan is just a dream”.
I love that quote — it’s true for me. Blessings.
It was interesting to read the article, there are really a lot of good things written, and there are good tips.
This is a great reminder! We used this method for goal setting at my previous job and it is really wonderful. I don’t know why I didn’t think to use it for personal goals as well. Thank you!
I have heard of the smart goal method before. Breaking down goals into things that are timely and achievable are so important if you want to feel successful along the way. Good information here.
This is perfect! I needed to hear this for motivation. Thanks!
Glad to be able to motivate. Blessings
Loved this post! Great interesting tips, thank you!
This is such a productive way of thinking! Sounds like it makes it much easier to achieve goals!
Making short term goals achievable is the best way to stay consistent. Thanks for sharing this!
This is perfect, thanks for sharing this, my life is going to be much better. I’ll follow your tips
Awesome. This is very timely. I’ve only recently started setting goals and intentionally doing them. I’m still 50-50 on it since most days I just want to lie in bed but there’s been little progress. Still an achievement! But yeah, you have great points which I can also adopt. I got most of these down except the T. I did not set a goal as to when I’m supposed to achieve my goals. I guess by the end of the month I set them or year? I’ll have to be more specific about it. Glad I read this.
This was an eye opening and thought provoking post. Thank you for your perspective and suggestions .i am going to try this in my life 😁
Getting yourself into an accountability group can be such a good idea, having someone to help you along and to encourage you is a must at times.
I am so grateful for my accountability group — it keeps me focused. Blessings
Shelly, i love your posts, always so powerful, educating and refreshing. I always leave feeling inspired. Setting and seeing goals through have been a life long problem of mine. But I hope to put these tips into practice
Thank you for your kind words. Blessings to you
This is a great way to make goals become a reality. I often don’t set a timeline for myself or am too vague and end up not achieving what I set out to do.
I have done that to. It gives me a way out — which is sometimes good and sometimes not so good. Blessings
“Baby steps” is really what I have learnt over my short thirty years on this planet. I have always been a big dreamer and I also have always been prone to dreaming dreams that would take steps to achieve and just expecting everything to happen immediately. I’ve now learnt to start small in order to get to the bigger dream.
Lovely post! x
Michelle
dressingwithstyle-s.com
Love it. Small steps are lasting steps. Blessings
Thanks for the much needed tips!
looks like a great system and I love the goals part the best
thanks for sharing
Thank for. Blessings as you work towards your goals.
Such good advice on setting goals. I have a couple that I need to set now. I was just thinking in the past couple days “What is my end goal? What am I EVEN working toward?” I’ve been so “busy”, but I don’t even have a goal in mind of what I’m trying to accomplish! Can you imagine? I think, as you’ve said, accountability is very much key as well.
I think it is very easy to get trapped in the business of our lives that we get blinded to the things that are important to us. I find that I have Be intentional in taking time for myself to be mindful of where I want to go in my life. Be blessed 💞
I love the SMART technique when setting goals, great article!
Thank you. Blessings as you work towards your goals.
Great post.Must keep this in perceptive.
Thanks for posting. Blessings to you
I love using the SMART technique for goal setting! It helps me reach smaller goals that are more reasonable, so I don’t feel like I’m setting the bar too high
Absolutely– it makes them so much more do-able. Blessings
Is your Facebook group still active?
Yes. We are still accepting participants till this Thursday. If you would like to join you can friend me on Facebook and I can add you. We will be starting round 4 in July. Blessings
This is perfect, thanks for sharing this, my life is going to be a lot of easier.
It takes the stress out of figuring out how to meet our goals. Blessings.
This is a great reminder! I will be using this method from now on, it makes it easier.Keep on your journey.
It has helped me stay on track of my goals. Blessings.