Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible. You hear some of the worlds most influential and successful people tell you to set goals. Even if you hear that phrase 10 times a day, none of it will be effective until you put it to work. Setting goals sends a signal to your conscious and subconscious mind of what you want to achieve, and most important, who you want to become.
That means you need to set effective, real, challenging, and attainable goals. We are here to help you get from an idea, a seed, or even a want, all the way to final product that you can leave your name on, excited and proud that you accomplished it.
You must start with the end in mind. The only way to get started with effective goals is to know how to set them. Thats why setting S.M.A.R.T goals is so important.
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Realistic
- Time-Bound
Once you write down your goals using the S.M.A.R.T method, it is also very important that you write down your “why’s”. In other words, each goal must have a why, a reason of why you want to achieve that goal. The “why” must also be as specific as possible. Tony Robbins says: “Reasons comes first, actions come second.” The importance of your “why’s” is that these will provide you with the emotional drive to keep pursuing your goals even in the face of adversity.
We will now get into the details of the S.M.A.R.T methodology so that you can get the most benefit from it.
Set Specific Goals
It is hard to hit a fuzzy target. Setting a goal when not in the right headspace can seem productive, but many times it can be the opposite. If your goal is to be financially free by 35 years old, you need to be specific with what that means to you. How much do you need to make a year so you don’t have to worry about living expenses? How much per month? You need to set these goals with specifics in mind so you know when you hit them. You want a new house? How big? How many rooms? What color? Where? Do you want a new car? What model? What color? You must be as specific as possible so that your brain knows what you are looking for.
Set Measurable Goals
Saying “I want to be rich when I’m 30” is not measurable. If you are interested in being successful, you need to measure each thing you go after. Instead, setting a goal of “being a millionaire by 30” is a lot more measurable. On the morning of your 30th birthday, you can pull out your laptop and check on all of your assets. If you’re at a million, you’ve done it. You’ve hit your measurable goal.
Set Attainable Goals
If you’re making $30,000/yr right now, it most likely isn’t in your sights to go make $2.5 million in a calendar year. Set something that is realistic, but still something that is going to be pushing you for the entire week, month, or even year. While you are setting your measurable goal, its a lot easier to know what is attainable when using metrics that you know and are easy to keep track of.
Set Realistic Goals
Nearly in the same breath as attainable, you need to be realistic with yourself. If you need to lose weight for your sisters wedding coming up, its not realistic to tell yourself that you need to lose 45 pounds. Barring a massive surgery or a terrible illness, its not realistic. Be honest with yourself and you will find that it is a lot easier to achieve a hard goal than it is to chase and unrealistic one. But don’t fool yourself. Don’t set “easy to reach” goals. Make sure the goals that you set for yourself challenge you in every possible way.
Set Time-Bound Goals
If you are setting a goal and you write something along the lines of “I want to make $1,000”, you aren’t doing this right. Something that would be realistic and time-bound would be saying “I want to make $1,000 in a span of three business days, and I will achieve this within the next month.” This forces you to not only have a time cap on your goal, but it is very specific and achievable. There is a reason for these five different steps for goal setting. It works. Stick with it and the results will do you wonders.
Reasons: The emotional drive
Tony Robbins says: “Purpose is stronger than outcome”. Goals by themselves will not drive you to achieve them, but your reasons will. We need to have a strong enough “why” or reasons that drives and helps us to succeed. These reasons will also provide a sense of meaning and purpose to your goals and will also drive you forward to do whatever it takes to achieve them. Reasons are like your “fuel” for achieving dreams. You can add your reasons to each one of your goals following two simple steps:
- Write down what you will gain by achieving your goal. What emotions and feelings will you experience as a result of achieving your goal? How will this improve the quality of your life? Who will benefit from it? What impact will you create? Who will you become as a result? The stronger the reasons, the stronger the drive these will give you.
- Write down what it will cost you if you do not achieve your goal. How would you feel? How will this impact the quality of life you desire and deserve? The purpose on this one is to link pain to not achieving the goal. Again, the stronger the reason, the stronger the drive.
Flexibility is power
Tony Robbins says: “Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach”. Napoleon Hill also described the same principle using different words: “When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted goal.” When you set a goal, you make a plan on how to achieve those goals. On this process it is very important that you track your progress in your journey to achieve your goal to make sure you are right direction. So what happens if you find yourself off-course? What if you are not moving forward? What if you are not having any progress? Do you change your goals to something easier? Not exactly. You change your approach. You change your strategy. And you keep changing it until you find the approach that works.
The easiest and quickest way to find the right approach for you goal is to model success. Find someone who has already achieved what you want to achieve and model after their success. What are the strategies they used? What methods? Which were the difficulties they had so that you can anticipate them? What mistakes did they make so that you do not repeat them?
Stay committed to your goals, but be flexible on your approach. Be agile. Be willing to pivot and change your approach as soon as you notice that you are not having the results you want.
The Universe Respects Goals
If you are new to goal setting, this might sound like some sort of fiction. It’s not. When you write a goal, plan multiple routes to get there, and wake up every morning ready to execute on your plan, you will find yourself at your end goal. If your goal is to sell 15 printers in 5 days, and you know how you are going to do it, it will happen. Be to work on time, make the calls needed, and don’t lose any easy deals. On the fourth or fifth day, it will seem like the people calling in to buy from you heard about your goals and decide to take a part in the realization of them.
The law of averages will come to life as you play the numbers game. If you know that it takes you 18 calls to find one person that is willing to buy, you simply need to make 270 calls to qualified buyers to hit your target. Know that results are hard work and execution.
What Should My Goals Be?
What is worthy of being a goal? Your parents might tell you that it’s whatever your heart wants. And although that might be true, if you have other people relying on you, setting goals that is going to be beneficial for them too is important. Brian Tracy, an icon in the productivity world, is known for the 10 rule. Grab a pen and paper right now and right down your top 10 goals in order of your want and need for them. From there, you can shave off the goals at the bottom that are going to hinder your progress with the most important goals at the top.
Elon Musk, the founder of PayPal, Tesla, SpaceX, and many other groundbreaking companies says “If you have a five year plan, ask yourself how you can achieve the same goals in five months. You probably won’t do it, but you’ll be a lot closer than you would’ve been if you told yourself it was going to take five years.”
Be aggressive with your goal setting. Challenge yourself. Challenge your perceived current limits. We are here on this earth to grow and expand. At the end, it is not about achieving a goal, but who you become on the journey of achieving it. If you have an experience about goal setting or have questions or topics you want covered, let us know in the comments below!