What is SPIRIT? How it is used for setting goals?
Therefore, when setting goals, always make sure they have S.P.I.R.I.T.!
Specific
Be specific about what you want or don’t want to achieve. The result should be
tangible and measurable. “Look gorgeous” is pretty ambiguous, but “lose 20 pounds”
is specific.
Prizes
Reward yourself at different points in the goal, particularly if it’s long-term. If your
goal is to set up a home office, for example, you might purchase a new desk when
the room is cleared out and ready.
Individual
The goal must be something that you want to do. If your spouse wants you to lose 20
pounds but you think you look fine, you’re not going to want to work towards the
goal.
Review
Review your progress periodically. Does the goal make sense? Are you stuck? Do
you need to adjust certain parts of it?
Inspiring
Frame the goal positively. Make it fun to accomplish. Consider documenting your
results and framing them for future inspiration.
Time-Bound
Give yourself a deadline for achieving the goal. Even better, split the goal into small
parts and give yourself a deadline for each item.
. Smart goal setting. Don’t you wonder what successful people are doing differently
than those people who aren’t successful? Even if top achievers don’t realise it, they
are applying the principles of smart goal setting almost all the time.
I know you’ve heard of the smart goal acronym probably many times before, but I
don’t want you to read through this section unconsciously, like a laundry list. I believe
people often do this because they aren’t satisfied or excited by what they read.
goal is to explain smart goal setting on a new level — one that will increase your self-
awareness and motivation!
Please Don’t take Smart Goal Setting for granted!
Do you want to know one principle or way of thinking that really separates successful
people from non-successful people? People of the latter take well known information
on how to set goals for granted.
They’ve heard of the steps for goal setting, but they appear to be too simple, and so
they avoid using those principles. Don’t let this happen to you! Instead of examining
what advice they are “living” and incorporating into their lives — they are instead
asking, “Show me something new! I want to learn something different”.
I once heard that success and achievement is the result of mastering the basics. So,
as you read on, ask yourself if you are truly applying these principles in your life!
Ready to learn about smart goals?
Smart goal setting means getting Specific!
What does this really mean to you? It means that you need to get really clear on
what you want. How are you supposed to achieve a dream, if you don’t even have a
dream? How are you supposed to be happy if you don’t know what makes you feel
good? Ok, this is pretty ‘big picture’ thinking so far. Let me give a few more concrete
examples so that you know what I’m really talking about.
Think about any big purchase that you’ve made in your past. Have you bought a
house, a car, a big screen television, or a computer? Before you went out to buy this
merchandise, what did you need to do first? You had to decide on exactly the type of
‘model’ that you wanted!Think about the people you know that are really into buying
cars. They are totally passionate about them, and they never stop talking, thinking or
looking at them online. How much total time do you think they spend thinking about
their goal? Some people spend hours every week browsing the models online,
finding quotes, and going to dealerships to view the different cars.“So what?”, you
are thinking… Well, the point here is, if a person will spend many, many hours on a
goal such as finding the right car to buy, then why shouldn’t a person spend this
much time and energy getting clear on what they want in the other areas of their life?
Does this make sense?
I can think of many times where I’ve spent hours and hours shopping simply for a
particular piece of clothing. For instance, jeans are always hard for me to find! I don’t
even want to think about how many hours I’ve spent on finding the right pair.
So, for me, it is motivating to ask myself, “Why wouldn’t I put the same amount of
time into writing smart goals that are specific and clear?
In order to motivate yourself on creating specific and smart goals, I suggest you
examine how much time you spend engaging in activities that really don’t give you a
great return on your investment of time.
For instance, I must spend 4 hours every week blowdrying my hair. Perhaps you
spend 6 hours watching reality television shows. Or, maybe you spend 3 hours every
week (or god forbid — even more!) cleaning your house, or gossiping on the phone to
people you don’t really care much about. If you are a student perhaps you spend 6
hours in a class every week that you don’t even care about.
. You get my point! simply examine where and what you spend time on that gives you
little in return. Then ask yourself — Why wouldn’t I spent time learning how to set and
achieve smart goals?Smart goal setting also requires that you think big!! For
instance, let’s say your goal is to increase your income to $100,000 per year. Now, if
that’s what you really want, that is fine, however, ask yourself if that truly is,
specifically what you really want!? Does $100,000 per year get you really motivated?
Just remember, it will take just as much energy to increase your income to $100,000
as it will to increase your income to $500,000 per year.Every goal, whether it be a
moderate size goal, or large goal requires time, energy and focus. So, if you are
going to work on achieving any goal, make it a goal that is big, and that really
inspires you!
Here is another example along this line. In building this website, I was told that it
takes just as much energy to build a bad website, as it takes to build a successful
website, so why not decide to create a goal that, for the same amount of energy will
give me a successful product?Another good analogy that hits on the point I’m trying
to make is — I often hear people complain about how their age prevents them from
going back to school.
“I’m 50 years old! If I go back to school now, I’m going to be 55 years old by the time
I complete my goal!” The alternative way this person needs to think is, “Regardless of what I do, the time is going to arrive when I turn 55 years old, so why not turn 55
years old WITH a degree as opposed to WITHOUT a degree?!”
My final point is — if you are using smart goal setting — you might as well do it right!
Be specific, and get really clear on what you want. Your smart goal itself should
motivate and inspire you. Forget the stupid advice given on smart goal setting that
you need to be realistic.The objective, goal or target itself does not need to be
realistic. I can’t stand when I hear this bad advice! Only your action steps need to be
broke down into realistic steps. But, in general, smart goal setting is about thinking
big and then having the guts to get specific and to choose an aim that is worth your
time and energy!
Smart Goal Setting always motivates you!!!
Part of writing smart goals, is also writing down what will motivate you to achieve
those goals! For instance, if your goal is to lose 10 pounds, then you must create a
list of all the positive benefits you will have if you do actually lose 10 pounds.
Do you do this on a regular basis? Have you ever taken the time to write out your list
of reasons? I’m guessing that about only 3% of the population does this! If you can
get in the habit of doing this, you will literally see yourself reaching higher and higher
levels of success.
When you watch an informercial/commercial, or the shopping channel — what do you
notice? They always talk about what’s in it for YOU! They have to highlight all the
benefits, all the positive consequences you will experience as a result of purchasing
their product!
Viewers may know that they should buy the exercise equipment being advertised,
but they won’t do it unless they have a bunch of reasons that motivate them into
using actually using that equipment.The second thing you need to motivate yourself,
is to make a list of the negative consequences or all of the pain you will experience if
you don’t achieve your goal! Just think, how awful will you feel if you don’t commit to
making this smart goal a reality?Remember, as Anthony Robbins has popularised,
people want to move toward pleasure, and move away from pain. So, the more you
understand the benefits of achieving your goal, and the negative consequences of
. not achieving your goal, — the more persistent and motivated you will be at achieving
your goal! Does that make sense?
This concept of self-motivation alone can work wonders. But it will only work if you
use it! Remember knowledge alone is not power — it is only potential power if you act
on that knowledge! If you only take one thing away from smart goal setting — let it be
this!
Smart Goal Setting means consistently taking action!
Smart goal setting is all about taking massive action. For some people, the word
‘action’ itself is overwhelming. People feel like it is a major task to take action, or to
carry out tasks. Well, there are many different ways to think about taking action. First
of all, taking action does not need to feel uncomfortable.
Taking action is all about forming the necessary habits, patterns of behaving and
thinking, routines, and systems that will set you up for success. The achievement of
every goal boils down to being able to commit to a few key habits on a consistent
basis. This is what leads to big accomplishments!
No matter what goals you are struggling with, ask yourself what activities you can
systematise or make automatic. What habits are easy for you to start forming in your
life, and easy for you to stick to? Remember, forming habits are like building
muscles. Over time, you strengthen your habits just as you strengthen your muscles,
and working toward your smart goal gets a lot easier!
If you are not getting closer to achieving the major goals in each area of your life,
then you should begin to examine what habits you have in place on a regular basis
that are moving you toward that goal. The answer is probably, none. Or your actions
are too inconsistent. Find a system that you can stick to!
Smart Goal Setting means realistic action steps
Remember how I said that creating a bunch of realistic goals is a bunch of B.S.?
Smart goal setting is all about thinking big! However, what makes smart goal setting
‘smart’, is that you have to come up with realistic action steps.
For instance, if your goal is to write a 500 page fiction novel, and you work a full-time
job and have children, then you are going to need a feasible plan of actions to attain
your goal, — an action plan that you can follow through with.
You need to ask yourself, “realistically, what am I willing to do each week to achieve
my goal?” If you work until 5pm each day, how much time in the evenings can you
spend writing? How many days a week can you do this?
Basically, you want to set yourself up for success, by ensuring that your actions can
be turned into solid, somewhat predictable routines, habits, systems or patterns of
behaving that you can actually stick to, and follow through with.
It is not the big goal that people find overwhelming. Instead, it is their plan of what
they have to do in order to achieve that result. Some people’s expectations of
themselves are so great that they never get started with an action plan to accomplish
their goals. This is so unfortunate.Remember, with each action you take, you learn
and accomplish more and more. You build momentum, and everything becomes
easier!
Smart Goal Setting puts a Time or Date on your Goal!
this sounds like such boring advice so much that I hate to repeat it. What might be
the value in putting a deadline on your smart goals?
First of all, it creates a sense of urgency. Secondly, it gives you a big picture for what
actions you need to start working on now, and how much time you need to invest in
those actions to make your goal a reality.If you want to be financially free in a year
from now, then, it helps to create a picture for what you’ll need to do in the mean
time. You might start to realise that you need to start saving 20% of your pay-check
now, as opposed to waiting two months from now.
You might realise that you need to take courses on options trading. You might
realise you’ll need to run a business part-time in addition to your regular job if you
have one. In summary then, it is important to use deadlines, to help you plan what
needs to be done during your days, weeks, and months.Here is some more
motivation for you to demonstrate this point. Remember when you were a student?
You were always given deadlines weren’t you? And was it effective? Did you usually
get the work done that needed to be done? You bet you did! Maybe it wasn’t quite
perfect, but it was good enough to move you on to your next grade or level of
education.So, if you participate in other people’s deadlines, and if you were
productive to meet other people’s goals, than why would you not give the same gift
to yourself? Why would you not hold yourself up to the same high standards?
There! Now you have some of the basics on smart goal setting. Remember, these
points are only a few of the main points. This is not meant to be a fully
comprehensive list of what you need to do in order to achieve your smart goals.
