Setting goals the SMART way
Setting goals is something that seems to be quite simple and easy; decide what you want (set the goal) and then go after it. But often after we set a goal, we find that, for whatever reason, things just didn’t quite seem work out as we thought they should. Events didn’t happen in the way we thought they might; people didn’t react in the way we thought they should and our cherished goal slips away into the distance, seemingly more unachievable than ever.
However if we keep in mind some simple rules, then setting a goal can really lead you to where you’d like to be. In the world of business, goals are supposed to be SMART and we can very usefully adopt the same technique in our personal lives. Working with a Hypnotherapist on your goals can help to refine your aims and build on the powerful technique outlined below.
The ‘S’ means specific, make your goal, very specific say exactly what is that you want to achieve. Not simply “I want to lose weight” but “I want to lose seven pounds”.
The ‘M’ means measurable, how will you actually know that you’ve achieved your goal. The outcome must be measurable.
The A stands for achievable, can you really achieve the goal you set yourself? Is it really possible, or are you effectively asking yourself to walk on water? How will you do it?
The ‘R’ means realistic, that’s to say, if you applied a commonsense judgement to this goal does it seem reasonable? Is it actually possible?
The final letter T means time-bound or in a timely manner. So if you set yourself a goal to lose 7 pounds but you define that this should happen by next Monday, it’s timely but not realistic. Any goal you set needs to have an achievable timeline attached to it.
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