| Happy New Year! I hope you’ve had an amazing festive break. It’s so great to be back with you and I’m excited to be reconvening these “food for thought” messages to whet your learning appetite. You’re likely to see lots of posts on socials atm about New Year’s Resolutions. Have you set a New Year’s Resolution? Or is this really “not your thing”?! If you have set a resolution or goal, I woud love to know how you are doing (5 days in!). Are you staying on track to “smashing” your resolution? In this Issue, let’s consider why New Year’s Resolutions don’t always work out – why perhaps you aren’t “smashing” them and, more importantly, what you can do to ensure you stick to and successfully achieve any resolution, objective, goal or outcome you set. SMART needs to be SMARTER in goal setting The star of “goal setting” since the 1980s when first introduced by American Consultant George T Doran in his whitepaper “There’s a SMART Way to write management goals and objectives”. SMART is the simple and effective framework to ensure your goals can be defined, measured and achieved. You probably use this for your work objectives particularly at appraisal time right? So, have you also used it for your New Year’s Resolution? I bet you’re really proud when you can run through the SMART acronym: S = Specific Is my goal clearly defined and can it be interpreted correctly? M = Measurable How will I measure my goal so that I have tangible evidence that I have achieved it? Is there a number associated with it? A = Achievable/Attainable Is this something I am able to do? Have I got the balance right between stretching myself and ensuring I have the necessary skills, knowledge and abilities to achieve the goal? R = Relevant Does my goal fit with my needs and wants? Is it fulfilling for me? How does it fit with my other goals? T = Time bound When will I achieve my goal? What target date will I set to achieve it? In today’s demanding and fast-paced society, I’d question how robust Doran’s method actually is though. It most definitely needs to be SMARTER in my opinion. The SMARTER goal setting way Here’s the SMARTER option. You’re going to add the “E” and the “R” to your SMART goal. E = Exciting It’s all very well identifying your SMART goal but unless you have the excitement and motivation to achieve that goal, it will remain just that. A written goal. There is more likelihood of you achieving your goal if it’s something you REALLY want. Ask yourself: How exciting is this goal? What score out of 10 would you give it? (10 being the most you want this)? If you’re scoring it 7, 8 or 9 what can you add to your goal to make it a 10? Imagine you’ve achieved this goal. Does it really excite you? What are you going to gain from it? What’s in it for you? Make sure the language you use is “Towards” (Tigger!) which you can read more about here. Now identify the first step you will take. However small that first step is, this is the momentum that will ensure you’re on the path towards achieving your goal. Write your first step in SMART terms and set your Timebound criteria as the next 24 hours. R = Recorded Brilliant. You’ve recorded your SMART goal by writing it down. Now take this “recording” one step further. Share your goal with someone else. Talk to your work colleague, a relative, your partner, yourself in the mirror even! You’ve shared your goal with others and by doing so you’ve “put yourself on the line” and are likely to be more committed to achieving it. Here’s to “smashing” your goals one step at a time! And remember, I’m right behind you if you need any assistance/resources or contacts to help you too. |
