Have you ever felt motivated when you set a goal? That moment, your future self winks at you and says you are ready to do it. You find yourself in a bubble of motivational phrases. Time flies and you realize that you fail to achieve your goal. What could be the missing ingredients?
Let me introduce Bob and his ordinary day. Bob thinks that he is quite smart guy but failing in his daily business and sometimes he feels drowning in his thoughts. As time goes by, one more day has flown away too.
One day he wonders that what is the missing element in his action. Because he has kept failing about getting things done, meeting deadlines, sustaining career development etc. As usual, Bob sits down and takes pen and paper; starts to write his daily actions. One particular word comes his attention: “Goal”. Bob usually has a plan no matter what the topic is about to achieve the goal he sets. Though Bob still cannot figure out what is missing.
Bob has:
- Goal
- Plan
What could be wrong in this! Right? Finally, Bob consults one of his friends about his issue. Thanks to his friend for the questions;
Friend: “Hey Bob, can you give me an example of one of your goals?”
Bob: “Well, Be more productive during the work hours”
Friend: “Huh! What is your plan to achieve that goal?”
Bob: “Limiting my breaks”
Friend: How do you track yourself whether you are following your plan or not?
Bob: I don’t particularly track my plan. I believe that if I have a plan about something, my mind and action will follow it.
Are we people easily able to change our habits? Just having or even thinking about a plan? I have doubts on that. There could be many reasons for people not to take an action about what they decided and also there are several techniques to overcome those root causes whatever they are.
Let’s have a look on one of the approach helps to define goals. Have you heard SMART goals? It is a key to reaching goals through execution of plan but an acronym too: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound
Goal or objective should have following attributes:
- Specific: Goal must be defined in more detailed way and how to accomplish it.
- Measurable: Defined goal should be tracked by quantifiable metric. So that, person can monitor the progress.
- Achievable: Goal should be realistic.
- Relevant: Goal should be relevant in broader business context or relevant to your purpose
- Time-bound: Goal should be accomplished within a defined period.
Examples
- To increase my productivity, I will limits my breaks with 20 minutes and will check e-mails in the two times a day for a month, then will evaluate my productivity state.
- I will learn Spanish by spending 4 hours in a week and get A2 level end of two months.
Setting goals is important but knowing how to define your goals helps you to achieve that.¹ Especially if you write down your smart goal and track the progress of it, you increase your chance on being successful in that.² I would recommend you to practice this approach. Try to formulate your goal in smart way. Don’t bite off more than you can chew. If your goal is too big or challenging, break it down to smaller goals.
Shakespeare once said:
“We know what we are, but know not what we may be.”
Let’s try and learn.
References
[1] Claypool, J. C., & Cangemi, J. P. (1983). Ingredients of setting and achieving goals. Psychology: A Journal of Human Behavior, 20(3–4), 44–46. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1984-31349-001
[2] Matthews, G., Goals Research Summary https://www.dominican.edu/sites/default/files/2020-02/gailmatthews-harvard-goals-researchsummary.pdf
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