In this article, you will discover the principles to follow when setting professional or personal goals in order to maximize your chances of achieving them and feeling truly satisfied.
If you have an important goal that you are not able to reach or if you simply want to progress in your life, you will find in this article several answers to your questions.
- the smart model, which describes the main factors that help define an objective
- how the goal is often only the beginning of a larger project
- how your values influence your well-being and the achievement of your goals
- pitfalls in defining and pursuing an objective
The Smart Model: The Main Factors for Defining An Objective
This model creates a clear vision of the goal to be achieved. Here you will find a more detailed description of the Smart model, you can use it to set in an optimized way.
S as Specific
The objective you set for yourself must be clear and precise.
You should have no doubt about the expected end result. Having a clear objective allows you to set a first path towards your goal. Over time, the path becomes more and more precise, but the path is constantly changing.
The main mistake some people make is to convince themselves that there is only one way to achieve what they want to achieve. Be careful not to mix the specificity of the objective with the uniqueness in the way you pursue it.
If on the one hand the objective must be specific, on the other hand your strategy must be extremely flexible.
With time, and especially with the actions you take, your objective will become more and more precise and you will begin to perceive it in all its small details. Day after day, you will transform your internal vision into a perceptible reality. The specificity of the objective and especially the fact of writing it down allows to mobilize very powerful and useful unconscious processes. Among these processes, the activating reticular system would act as an intermediary between your conscious and unconscious.
Effective activation of the reticular activation system would allow:
- improve the focus
- increase commitment to its achievement
- to act in coherence with your objective
If you think about the advantages and benefits you will experience, you will be in an almost state of excitement and feel a strong desire to act to achieve your goal.
If the objective is to be specific, the strategy to achieve it must be very flexible.
M As Measurable
Once you have set your goal, it is important to be able to estimate how far you are from it so that you can estimate how far you still have to go. Doing so, allows you to constantly measure your progress and organize your actions by following partial steps. The objective can then be broken down into intermediate objectives or even mini objectives. Doing this helps to keep and reinforce motivation but also to get out of blocked moments.
- Motivation is more easily maintained when it is understood that a given action corresponds to a given result and therefore a given progress.
- Motivation is enhanced when one develops a habit of organized and effective action.
- Blockages are avoided because it is much simpler to take small actions on a regular basis than to face all the difficulties in too short a period of time.
- Measuring the objective and breaking it down into mini-steps also makes you aware of the resources needed to achieve it. This allows you to understand what the price is for achieving a goal and whether you are willing to pay that price.
It is at this point that some people realize that they are not sufficiently motivated or that the price to pay is too high and could negatively impact other important areas of their lives.
We will see later in this article the importance of knowing your values in order to pursue and achieve goals that make you happier.
The measurable objective should be broken down to facilitate your motivation, progress with continuity towards your goal and check whether you are willing to pay the price to achieve it.
A As Attainable
- Do you think you can really achieve your goal?
- Do you have the resources and skills to achieve it?
Answering these questions objectively and without idealizing the situation, allows you to check whether the objective is within your reach or not. This is the time to evaluate your real chances of success by taking the current situation as a reference.
- Do you have the human qualities to stay motivated when difficulties arise?
- Are you willing to do what you need to do to manage your weaknesses and if so, how long will it take you to do so?
Once again, answering these questions helps keep your feet on the ground and avoid imagining a situation that is too far away from your current reality.
Doing so may allow you to resize the scope of your goal, or you may find that your goal is not ambitious enough.
The objective must be motivating and consistent with your current situation.
R as Realistic, Relevant
The goal must therefore be important to you and have deep meaning.
- What will you gain from reaching your goal?
- How will achieving this goal improve the quality of your life or the quality of life of others?
- What are your deepest personal motivations for getting up every morning and acting in line with what you want?
- To sum up, what are the deep motivations behind your goal?
T as Time
Your goal must be defined in time.
This is essential to define the pace and intensity of the actions you will take.
- You are not going to organize your day the same way if you have a month or a year to reach your goal.
Once you have defined this time limit, check if it is really enough or if you need a little more time.
- But above all, why did you set this precise deadline?
- Are you just in a hurry?
- Do you need little time because another goal depends on it?
- Have you thought about the disadvantages?
Ask yourself more about this time frame to see if it should be changed.
Set a specific time frame after checking that it is acceptable to you.
Improvement Of The Smart Model
The smart model is not perfect because it does not take into account other important factors such as
- planning, implementation and regular measurement of the objective
- writing and regular exposure
Your Goal Must Be Planned, Executed And Measured Every Day
Some people do not perceive the importance of planning and constantly implementing actions that bring them closer to their goals.
The planning and implementation of actions are strongly linked. Planning is the virtual aspect of implementation but its role is very often misunderstood.
- The planning of your actions is actually a precursor to these same actions. It is a kind of preparation that allows you to develop an overall vision of your near future.
- Consistency in the implementation of your actions is the key factor in maximizing your chances of success in your professional and personal life.
Some believe that success depends on a few isolated events in their lives. But long-term success does not happen by chance.
On the contrary, it is only by constantly trying to modify your own existence that you will really be able to build your ideal reality.
Try every day to adapt your strategy to your objectives and the context in which you find yourself. The more you are able to implement regular and flexible actions, the better your chances of success.
But your success in life depends a lot about on your ability to control and evaluate the effectiveness of your actions. It is therefore vital to regularly measure the distance that separates you from your goal. This is important because you will be able to quickly correct the direction of your actions and adapt it to the specifics of your situation.
Your Objective Must Be Expressed in Writing and Always Visible
To achieve professional and personal goals, it is necessary to express the objectives in writing. This is very important once again because writing facilitates the triggering of unconscious processes that are true facilitators of your success. Depriving yourself of the power of the unconscious can greatly reduce your chances of achieving your goal.
The studies implemented by Harvard University in the 1970s show that those who write down their goals and constantly act to achieve them are also those who achieve the greatest results compared to those who do not.
In addition, expressing your goal in writing on a sheet of paper for example, and posting it in one or more places that guarantee you a regular view of your goal is very important.
- This is primarily because seeing this goal helps you to constantly focus your mind on what is most important to you.
- Secondly, because by reading your goal all the time, you increase your commitment to your goal, especially since this goal is also visible to others around you.
Finally, having your goal in mind at all times increases your chances of reaching it because you become more honest with yourself about the actions you take and the results you achieve.
Putting your goals in writing gives you, right from the start, a huge chance of success if you act consistently to achieve your goals.
Your Goal Is Often Just the Beginning of a Larger Project
Understanding this is essential not only to achieve your goal but also to situate it within a larger vision of your accomplishment.
- Very often people describe the benefits of their results in purely rational terms.
- But what we perceive and express at the rational level is often only the tip of the iceberg.
In order to make this aspect concrete, the next time you describe or write down the benefits related to achieving your goals, divide these benefits between rational and emotional aspects.
The emotional benefits of a goal are linked to deeper and more important motivations.
Just as an example, imagine that you set a goal to increase your revenues by a certain percentage in a given period of time.
Once you have defined the rational benefits of your goal, you will be able to look more deeply into the emotions, needs, and even values that you seek to satisfy through this goal.
Pitfalls In Defining And Pursuing An Objective
Apart from values, other obstacles may appear on the way to your goal.
Among the most fearsome are beliefs.
The Beliefs
Beliefs are ideas that become truths and, as truths, are no longer questioned. What you believe influences your daily life. In some cases, to reach your goal, you must learn to overcome a belief that limits you.
To do so, you can:
- ask people who know you well
- pay close attention to what you say and do
- Once you have identified the belief, try to understand if it is negative for you, if it somehow limits you.
- If it is a limiting belief, try to understand the ideas and experiences in your life that contributed to its creation.
- Then, create an alternative vision of this idea, one that improves the quality of your life.
Finally, begin to take actions that go against your limiting belief in order to create a new belief.
Your feedback will help you understand that a limiting belief is just an invention of your mind.
You can start now to create new beliefs that allow you to enjoy your life to the fullest and realize your most important projects.
Aside from values and beliefs, there are other pitfalls that can affect your success and well-being.
Among these other pitfalls are false objectives that can take different forms.
Fear Of Failure
A person may decide to set a false goal because he or she is afraid to experience failure if he or she pursues the real goal.
The Difficulty to Assert Oneself
A person may decide to pursue a goal that is not his or her own to please someone.
Pursuing Another Person’s Goal
Some individuals are easily influenced by those around them. Instead of pursuing a goal that is important to them, they focus on a goal to meet the expectations of others.
In order to achieve his or her goals, each person must choose a goal that is relevant.
You must be aware that you are responsible for your professional and personal development.
- If you understand that the goal you have set for yourself does not concern you directly. It concerns the actions of others, you have not set a real goal and you need to be more committed to becoming the actor of your goal.
If your goal is really about you, you will be at the center of the actions that will change your life.
- It is important not to fall into the trap of setting goals that affect other people.
If you fall into this trap, you will have an illusion of change but you will just be wasting your time because others will not act in your place.
Pursue A Goal That Is Not Up To You
Achieving your goal must depend on the actions you take. If the achievement of your objective depends on actions that you are not initiating, then you will not succeed. The control you have may sometimes be partial because other people may be co-responsible for the objective.