You know the feeling... the motivation to make positive change and achieve your personal goals suddenly strikes. You dive into setting ambitious targets, fuelled by the energy of potential change. But when the plans you made and goals you set don't actually happen you feel disappointed and you lose your motivation.
Get this wrong a few times and it’s easy to lose faith in your ability to grow and change. But, the truth is - it’s probably nothing to do with your capability for change and everything to do with your approach.
Schools and jobs rarely teach us the vital skill of self-improvement. Self-improvement in all areas of life is completely our own responsibility. That’s why so many fail to achieve the success they desire.
Here’s the good news - you can learn an extremely effective and easy way to do this. In this article we’ll be outlining ‘SMART’ targets.
We explore why they’re most effective when:
- they are well aligned with our core values and
- have a clear set of steps to achieve your goal.
Whether it’s bigger goals like running a marathon or something simpler like saving money - the method is the same and really works.
Understanding SMART ‘goals’
You may already be familiar with the term, or this might be a completely new thing for you. But SMART targets are a goal setting tool for producing useful targets:
Be specific. Avoiding vague statements like ‘get healthy’ or ‘save money’. Instead create a really clear picture of what you want to achieve like ‘reduce my blood pressure’ or ‘save £200 for a weekend away’
Make it measurable. How are you going to know when you’ve got there and feel great about it if you can’t measure the success? There needs to be a way to put a number or definite success criteria to what you’re doing. It’s easy to know when you can run 3K without stopping; whereas “Run more” is never ending.
Only set achievable goals. It’s not helpful to set yourself unrealistic goals. You have a much higher chance of failing or it will take longer than your motivation and discipline lasts. Much better to set small goals that you can achieve sooner and use the resulting sense of accomplishment to motivate the next goal.
Keep it relevant. In the context of personal goals this means aligning it to your values and sense of purpose. It’ll keep you motivated and mean that a successful outcome builds your life in a positive direction. Relevant goals are often part of a bigger picture or purpose.
Set a time limit. Short or long term goals still need a deadline. This is important because it helps spur you into action and adds to the sense of achievement at the end. It will be easier to find the discipline to achieve something “by the end of the month” than when there is no cut-off date.
Getting it right
Every goal you set should include each of these elements. Here are some examples:
- Example 1: Health & Fitness
- Instead of: "Get fitter"
- Try: "Improve my heart health by running 5k without stopping within the next 3 months, by following a couch-to-5k training plan and attending 2 running sessions per week."
- Example 2: Finance
- Instead of: "Save more money"
- Try: "Save £350 for a weekend trip to Scotland in 6 months time by automatically transferring £60 to a dedicated savings account each month and reducing my weekly spending on takeout coffee by £15."
- Example 3: Personal Growth
- Instead of: "Learn a new language"
- Try: "Become conversational in Spanish within the next year by completing an online Spanish course, practising speaking with a language partner twice a week, and taking a 1-week immersion trip to Spain in 6 months."
The importance of aligning with your values
A lack of motivation can often really get in the way of achieving your goals. The simplest way to overcome this is to link your goals to things that are important to you. We can think of these important things as our values. According to psychologists, there are two types of values:
-
Terminal values. These are values that describe desirable goals. For example, good health, financial security, or healthy relationships. They are bigger picture things with an endpoint that we want to move towards.
- Instrumental values. These are values that describe desirable ways to act or behave. For example, being honest, responsible and kind. They are how we would like others to describe us and are about our sense of self and identity
It’s easy to see that identifying what these are before you start setting yourself goals is time well spent. When your goals align with your values you will feel motivated to work on them. It also gives a bigger sense of achievement when you reach your goal; knowing you are building on what’s really important to you.
Without guidance this can be difficult - which is why we’ve developed our My Monthly Intention Setting journal. It takes you through simple steps which identify your values and set intentions to live daily life in line with them.
How to move forward with habits
So once you have your values figured out and you’ve set your SMART goals - what’s next? It seems obvious that you simply start working towards the goal - but how?
This is where we use the power of creating good habits, tracking them and regularly reviewing your progress.
Habits are automatic behaviours that have become second nature. They serve a powerful purpose because they make our behaviour more efficient which in turn reduces the burden of decisions and frees up mental energy for more important tasks. The end result is it becomes easier to work towards our goals - even automatic.
Like with values, knowing how to start with creating these habits can be hard. But actually, with a few simple steps, it can be really easy.
We created our My Weekly Habit Tracking journal to help with this. It goes through a process of identifying cues and deciding on specific actions. It then holds you accountable with a tracking table each week. It’s a brilliant way to start taking action on your SMART goals.
When it all comes together
This may seem like a lot of work just to achieve a goal but it can really be the difference between success and failure.
Let’s say one of your terminal values is to live a long healthy life. You also identify being social and supportive are values you want to be known for. This leads to a new SMART goal of building up to attending the town running event 3 times a month. You set the deadline as before the end of the summer holidays.
To help, you create a new habit of reading about the benefits of running each time you feel compelled to scroll on social media. This all contributes to feeling really motivated to achieving your goal and having a clear vision of why you’re doing it.
Do you have some goals in mind that you could use this for? Why not start today? Setting and working on just one goal can improve your life in so many ways. The achievement will benefit your mental health and the end result is a better overall sense of purpose and accomplishment.
