Reaching Goals and What’s Beyond
Paul White's nationally distributed syndicated column, “Reaching Goals and What’s Beyond” is published in 22 publications across seven states. This includes the following newspapers and digital publications: Midland Daily News (MI), SFGate (CA), Seattle PI (WA), Connecticut Post (CT), Laredo Morning Times (TX), Huron Daily Tribune (MI), The Telegraph (IL), and more. In this week's article, Paul shares insight into how you can reach your goals through the SMART goal strategy and how to continue improving, growing, and allowing your curiosity about what's beyond a goal to inspire you to be better every day!
Saw a quote from John Maxwell recently that said, “You did not come this far only to come this far. Your goal is not to arrive, your goal is to grow and learn and be curious.”
I completely agree and have experienced all of my success utilizing this precise thought process that Maxwell’s quote describes.
At the same time, our current culture promotes “Goal Setting” as the surest path to success. I would suggest that goals play a vital role early on in life. I also believe that our personal utilization of goals must evolve as we master their intent, until they represent a springboard propelling us to new heights rather than a crutch that promotes complacency and mediocrity over time in our life.
I’m getting a little ahead of myself so, let’s talk about goals and how they’re taught to us. First, we’re taught that we MUST have goals if we want to achieve near anything in life. This is where a lot of goal training ends…with a simple statement that we MUST have them without any additional instruction in how to develop, acquire, secure, measure, and anchor them to be a part of our life. Some additional instruction may include being told that the goals must be written down to give them credibility. It’s rare that I find anyone that has been taught about SMART goals. It appears SMART goals were created to simplify goal setting in the hope that more people would recognize the inherent value of goals. It was a PhD Chemist who first introduced me to SMART goals and I’m glad he did.
The acronym SMART is utilized to represent goals that are Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Timely.
SMART goals played a huge role in my goal development and success. I’d like to share the concept with you. The Specific piece required me to answer Who, Why, When, Where, and What. Just saying “I want to lose weight” doesn’t cut it. In a notebook or on a poster you might paste a picture of your current self (Who), a list of the benefits from losing weight (Why), a date you’re willing to commit to begin pursuit of the goal (When), the place(s) this weight loss can most effectively occur (Where), and the exact amount of weight you want to lose (What). The Measurable piece must have a number associated with it and should include a progress chart or graph. The Achievable piece is an honest assessment of whether you’re prepared with the actual capability, including resources, to reach the goal. You can also assess how many others in a similar situation to yours have achieved success. This all needs to be written down. The Realistic piece can best be achieved with a little research. Having a goal of losing 25 pounds by tomorrow is NOT realistic. Researching how others have lost 25 pounds, while maintaining solid health, can provide a realistic approach to reaching your goal.
The Timely piece may be the most important of all. Trying to do something too quickly can lead to failure and giving up. Setting too long of timeline can lead to passivity based on frustration with how long an insignificant amount of change is occurring. You need to commit to a start date and a finish date and break the time between into specific measurable amounts. Think of the old metaphor “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!” and use it to develop a plan of success. Many of the apps available today that are designed to help with weight loss suggest a goal of one pound per week as a goal that everyone can achieve. Would you be willing to commit to losing 25 pounds if it could be achieved in less than 6 months by breaking it down to just one pound per week? You should be saying YES right now with enthusiastic emphasis.
Wording is so critical regarding goals. Wording that doesn’t work: I want to make lots of money, lose a lot of weight, live in a big house, drive an expensive vehicle, travel the world, be a professional athlete, be a famous author, or eat anything I want and not have to worry about it. Not one of those statements could find a place in SMART goals with the wording I used, and yet, each of them could potentially be achieved if SMART goals was utilized to make any of those dreams a reality. I’ll set up a thought process to get you started for “I want to make lots of money.” Let’s make it a Specific yearly amount, say $100,000. You can answer the five Specific questions on your own. To make it Measurable, I’ll break it down to a weekly salary amount of $1,923 or an hourly amount of $48.
Achievability is based on your current skill sets and the proficiency in using those skill sets. This is the point you have to perform a Realistic assessment of your ability to deliver right now or a determination of what knowledge and skill sets to need to acquire/improve to have a fair shot at creating successful goal achievement with the specific amount of earning $100,000 a year. The Realistic assessment is what will influence the Timely piece of the SMART goal strategy.
Thousands of years of history proves that goals can work. If you haven’t utilized setting goals in every area of your life…you should. Get started right now with the SMART goal strategy. It’s logical and simple and will take you where you want to go in life.
Going back up to the title of this article, I’d like to offer a word of caution. I used to get so pumped up when I would achieve a goal. It was an incredible feeling. But shortly afterwards I would begin to wonder if the goal I originally set didn’t accurately assess what I was capable of. I’ve fallen into a new habit. Any time I’m getting close to achieving a goal, I stretch the goal further believing that I will never know what I’m FULLY capable of unless I continue to improve, grow, learn, and allow my curiosity of what’s beyond the goal to inspire me to be better each day.
I believe this to be true for each person on this earth, including YOU, and hope you know how much I Believe in YOU! GiddyUp!
In addition to being a nationally syndicated columnist, Paul White is an author, motivational and inspirational speaker, entrepreneur, podcaster, and life coach located in Midland, Michigan. He offers self-help and culture development to start your journey towards consistent growth and joy. If you’re interested in getting in touch with Paul, please submit an inquiry via our Contact Page.