Archive for the ‘Goal setting’ Category


6 ways to create smarter goals

January 5th, 2010 by Jane

goal-setting-picIf you type ‘SMART goals’ into a google search you’ll come up with nearly 17,000,000 hits.

‘SMART’ represents a set criteria to help you evaluate your goals. Goal setters are asked to consider ‘Is your goal specific? Measurable? Attainable? Realistic? and timely (has a deadline)?

S = Specific
M = Measurable
A = Attainable
R = Realistic
T = Timely

Personal development gurus and teachers tell us time and time again “Goals should be SMART”. I can appreciate this advice, especially after recently stumbling upon a list of goals I had set for myself several years ago. I couldn’t help but cringe at how vague these goals were (e.g. “Enjoy life more” and “Save money more effectively”). It was of no surprise to discover that I hadn’t achieved half the things on my list of goals.

But quite frankly the SMART criteria just doesn’t do it for me anymore.

I have got to the stage where I find this formula for success (or at least the way it is phrased and presented) uninspiring.

The SMART criteria fails to excite my imagination and leaves me feeling like goal setting is nothing but a boring chore similar to scrubbing the floor or filling out an application form.

At the heart of it, goal setting is about your dreams. It’s about going for something that would really change your life if you achieved it. It’s about breathing life into areas that have gone dead/stale or you may have given up on.

David Rock in his book ‘Personal Best’ writes about how to set goals worth going for. Rock goes beyond the stock standard SMART criteria and discusses some other nifty strategies to help beef up your goals.

1. Don’t be conceptual, work towards a project with a real conclusion

Back in 2007, I set this goal for myself “Be more creative/create contemporary art”. Nice idea, but do you think I did this? No. Besides totally abandoning and failing to meet the SMART criteria, this goal had no real end point. What was lacking was an exciting project to work towards.

David Rock suggest that a better goal to set would be “Have an exhibition” (even if it’s just with friends and family). If you want to get fitter, instead of a goal of “Get fitter” you could set “Salsa dance for one hour non stop”.

2. Go for goals that extend you but are still achievable

David Rock encourages us to extend ourselves and to be open to being challenged and learning new skills. He believes the best goals are the ones you may not know how to achieve but you have this feeling that no matter what you’ll be able to work it out if you apply yourself.

I have always felt restricted by the ‘Achievable’ criteria when it comes to the A in the SMART goal setting criteria. I used to think to myself when evaluating my goals “I think this is achievable but what if I’m being overly ambitious? What if I can’t actually do this?”. There was always this feeling of holding back and not fully going for something if there was even the smallest doubt I wouldn’t be able to achieve it.

Alternatively, there were times when I set totally outrageous goals such as “Be earning $100,000 a year” (in my final year of university), only to later look back on that goal and think “What on earth was I thinking?”

In relation to setting achievable goals David Rock states –

“Sometimes you might start out with a goal that you think is achievable, then a few weeks into it you realise it isn’t, it’s okay to change your goals at that time….there’s nothing wrong with giving something all you’ve got, then discovering you need to change course mid-stream”.

I find this idea helps to take the pressure off setting goals perfectly. There really is no reason to hold yourself back when you know you can stop, re-assess and change your goals at any point in time.

3. Keep your goals short and snappy

Since you want to be taking action towards your goals every day, you want to be thinking of your goals and saying them to yourself on a daily basis. In order to do this, David Rock tells us to keep them “short and snappy”. He also mentions that “the best goals are around five words, not long statements”. Instead of “Pay off my HECS debt and car loan” a snappier goal could be “To be debt free” or “To love my bank statements” as Rock suggests.

4. Give your goal a visual element

Many of us respond well to visual images, so we should try to capture each of our goals in striking visual images that moves us. For example, ‘Wear a bikini to the beach’ is much more powerful than ‘Lose 10 kilograms’.

If you respond well to other senses (e.g. smell and taste) try to tap into those. Rock gives the examples of “live where I can smell the ocean” and “hear my song played on the radio”

5. Give your goals a 90 day (3 month) deadline

You won’t be able to achieve all of your goals in a 90 day period, but significant action can certainly be taken to bring you closer towards achieving your bigger goals. David Rock states -

“I have found that 90 days is enough time to really make an impact on people’s lives, but short enough to maintain motivation and excitement”

On your wall calendars and in your diary, schedule in a 90 day countdown for your goals.

6. Take your time creating your goals

We live in a world that is obsessed by speed (fast food, faster computers and internet connection, etc). Perhaps this explains why many of us get easily frustrated when we fail to come up with goals in a few minutes that inspire us. We want instant inspiration.

The fact of the matter is that setting great goals worth going for takes time. You may need to write your goal down, put it aside and then come back to it a few days later.

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43 things to help you achieve your goals

January 28th, 2009 by Jane

Do you need a bit of inspiration and help with setting your goals for the year? Not sure where to start or how to word your goals?

I recently stumbled across a great goal setting website called 43 things.

It allows you to list your goals, share your progress and encourage others to do the same.

Better still, people who have achieved the same goal that you are currently after can tell you how they did it and what made a difference to them!

When I’m on 43 things, it’s like I’m on facebook. The only difference is I’m not wasting time looking at random photos and thinking about what to update my status to. Instead, I’m setting goals and getting inspired about my life (which is a way more productive use of my time if you ask me).

The basic idea behind the website is simple: if you write your goals down in a list, then you’re half way there to achieving them.

Sounds too simple? Too good to be true? Well, maybe that’s a little oversimplified but I love the basic idea behind the site.

My only gripe is often we set goals for ourselves and then feel completely overwhelmed by them. The website doesn’t really appear to go into detail about how to maximise your chances of actually achieving the goals written on your list.

‘How will I get from here (where I am now – thesis not finished) to over there (where I want to be – thesis finished)? It seems all too hard!’ is what goes through my mind nearly every day.


But then a hungry jacks whopper will flash before my eyes.

No, I’m not binging on hungry jacks. The whopper is symbolic.

Years ago (when I was feeling overwhelmed by a big project) a friend sat me down and said:

Friend: ‘Jane, how would you normally eat a burger?’
Me: ‘I guess I’d press down the top first…’
Friend: ‘Yeah and what else would you do?’
Me: ‘I’d take a bite…’
Friend: ‘And then what?’
Me: ‘umm…if it tasted good, I’d take another bite’
Friend: ‘You wouldn’t put the whole thing in your mouth at once would you?’
Me: ‘No, that would be stupid…I’d feel sick and bloated..’

My friend went on to tell me that the burger represents my long term goal (the project I am working on) and the bites out of the burger are my short term goals. It’s only through taking one bite at a time that I’d be able to eat the whole burger. The thing is all those little bites add up.

That image of the burger has stayed with me ever since. I now know that if I want to achieve a goal, I need to break it down into all the little action steps. A mind map usually does the trick.

Then of course, I need to take action.

But where do I start?

David Allen in his book ‘How to get things done’ recommends we ask ourselves ‘What’s the next action I can take to move me forward on this project?’

So in a nutshell: Write it down, break it down, ask yourself ‘What’s next?’ and then do it.

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The secret ingredient of achieving your goals

December 7th, 2007 by Jane

I’m not a fan of Kentucky fried chicken but I admire the man behind all that greasy chicken. Colonel Sanders was a master goal setter and never lost sight of his vision.

harland sandersThey say the Colonel was 65 years old when he received his first pension cheque in the mail. He took one look at it, saw that it was for $105 and felt angry. He had to come up with a way of earning some extra money. Over the years he had been perfecting a chicken recipe that friends and family couldn’t resist. He thought ‘I can work with this!’ He got in his old car, started to drive around America and approached different restaurant owners about his chicken recipe. Colonel Sander’s idea was that he would sell his chicken to the restaurant owners and receive a percentage of the profits. You can imagine that these owners took one look at the old man and told him ‘no thanks’.

Did this stop the Colonel? No, he kept driving around America approaching restaurant owners for 2 years! After 1009 rejections the Colonel finally heard his first ‘yes’. Someone had finally agreed to take his chicken on board.

This story makes me think about how many of us (particularly myself) can be in life in the face of setbacks. One, two or three ‘no’ responses and everything suddenly starts to seem all too hard. ‘Do I have what it takes?’, ‘Is this a stupid idea?’ and ‘Maybe I should try something else?’ are some of the thoughts that race through my mind.

So, how can we harvest some of the Colonel Sanders spirit within us? How can we remain strong in the face of setbacks and the word ‘no’?

Here are some suggestions:

1. Don’t make it mean anything: Often when someone says no to us or something doesn’t go our way, we take it personally and make it mean something. We create stories and reasons for why certain things happened the way they did. ‘I did poorly on that test because I’m stupid’ or ‘They said no because they don’t like me’. These stories that we create about why things have occurred often aren’t the truth, don’t serve us and can be unhelpful. Acknowledge the story that you have created and don’t let it distract you from your original intention or goal.

2. Focus on the positive: A school teacher once said to me ‘If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re probably not learning much’. Let’s face it, if you never attempt anything then you’ll never make a mistake, but you’ll probably never attain your goals! Making mistakes along the way and experiencing setbacks is all part of the process of attaining your goals. Setbacks provide us with feedback, opportunities to reassess things and readjust our behaviours. They also allow us to grow.

3. Have patience: I created a presentation really close to my heart earlier this year (Global warming: Too hot to handle?) and set a goal of presenting it to over 1000 students by the end of the year. I poured my heart and soul into creating it and expected dozens of teachers to invite me to their schools. The opposite happened. I ended up speaking to a science teacher who was a climate change skeptic and I was left feeling disheartened, naive and nearly gave up on my vision of educating and inspiring young people to take action. Luckily, friends and family encouraged me to be patient and stick with it, and it wasn’t long before I was delivering my talk to hundreds of students in high schools.

Even though I will probably never eat the Colonel’s chicken, I have to admit that I admire the man for his courage and determination. His story sends an important message to us all – never, ever give up on your dreams.

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