Making your goals as SMART as you are!

It's the first of the many hundreds of acronyms that exist in the world of Psychology, and I'm sure it won't be the last to crop up on Boost. I've spent my career so far dealing in acronyms, from CBT to TSP, HRP, RSG, MI, and ABC, and many many more! Most of them will never be relevant to ever include on here, but SMART is pretty crucial in the world of making goals more achievable.

When you were little what did you want to be? I wanted to head up a charity saving the lives of Whales and Dolphins, and be out there on the boats giving the Whale killing bastards hell, and swimming with them. Didn't happen, (obvs!) but I suppose if I'd decided the world of Psychology wasn't my true calling, I could be frollicking with Willy as we speak. (I'm sorry, I could not resist)

As I grew up my goals changed, from being the wife of Taylor from Hanson, to becoming Scully on the X-Files (and the wife of David Duchovny), to playing the drums in a band, and then a criminal psychologist. I settled on a career path quite early on, and knew that working in psychology, with people who really needed the help was what I wanted/needed to do with my life, and I did it, and am still doing it.

Our motivation can get a little 'lost' (or battered) as we get older, and we can forget the importance of breaking out of our comfortable existence to strive for something more. I remember a quote we used to discuss in sessions in prison which is "If we always do what we have always done, we will always get what we have always got". Henry Ford apparently said that, and it was a thought provoking poem that got a lot of discussion going about the need to work on new goals.

So how do you start working towards your goals? SMART is the key, and here is what it stands for:

S- Specific- Make your goals detailed and specific, rather than vague and lofty. For instance, if your goal was fitness related, it's not helpful to say "I want to get fitter". What does that mean? What does that look like? Make it specific and all of a sudden you know what you're working on, like "I want to run further", or "I want to lose weight" . These are examples of specific goals.

M- Measurable- You need to have a clear picture of what you are measuring your goal against, and when you've reached it. Following the same example, if your goal is to "get fitter", how do you know when you've reached that goal? If you have something you can measure, you'll be spurred on more to continue. A measurable goal is "I want to run 2 miles", or "I want to lose 10lbs", or "I want to fit in those old skinny jeans". You know when you've achieved it, and you know exactly what you're working on.

A- Achievable- To avoid losing the will to live, make your goals achievable. If you set a goal to run a marathon tomorrow, and you've barely walked further than the kitchen in years, you're gonna fail. And failing doesn't feel good, and you'd likely give up. Break down your goals into smaller more achievable chunks, and you'll find you're succeeding pretty quickly, and that feels good! So if you've decided to get off your ass and run a marathon, perhaps your first goal should be to walk a mile, and take it up step by step from there.

R- Relevant- The 'R' is a little debatable in some definitions of SMART, and often stands for 'Realistic', but I find that too similar to 'achievable', so I prefer relevant. If your goal is relevant to you, and it matters to you, it's a good goal. If you don't actually care that you don't fit in those old jeans, what's the point? To succeed at our goals we have to genuinely want it. I've never fancied running a marathon, so if I tried, even if I made the goals small and measurable and specific etc. I'd probably not get there because it doesn't really matter to me. So choose a goal you care about.

T- Time Bound- I find this the most useful element of this exercise, because as you know I'm a procrastinator, and if I have a time frame I've set for myself I'm a lot more likely to do it. For example, to continue with the same goals, they would look something like this "I want to be able to run 2 miles in the next 6 weeks", or "I want to lose 10lbs in the next 6 weeks", or "I want to fit into those skinny jeans by the 1st of April". Setting a deadline, and making it realistic (you won't lose 10lbs by tomorrow...I'm sorry), is a great way of really knowing what you are working on and how long you plan to take. Then once you've got to the 1st of April, you'll know if you succeeded or not, and if you did, you can move on to the next one!

Have a go at drafting your perfect SMART goal and putting it on the fridge door. You could find yourself further than you ever thought possible.

Here's my SMART goal I'm currently working on: "Write 10 blog posts by Wednesday". Back to work!

#goals #selfimprovement #lifecoach #tips #productivity