For the past few years my family has had awesome home teachers. (Home teachers are the way the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints check up on each other and help out when and where they can through monthly visits and regular contact.) The past two New Years brought a really good lesson on making goals. It wasn't a lesson to put on any pressure of, "Hey, you can do more!" but was a clear message about what makes a good goal.
If you know me well then you know that I'm all for starting something important at any time of the year. New Year's Day is the time when lots of people decide to make resolutions and change their life in dramatic ways. These are usually really great ideas to lose weight, exercise, spend more time with family, etc. The problem that I see here is that people (and I've been guilty of this) make spur-of-the-moment goals and haven't really figured out what it's going to take to accomplish them. Long term success is what we're really shooting for so why not make it count? Short term effort shows itself in busy gyms and weight rooms in January that drop to typical levels in February. Diets don't work one month at a time. Neither does learning a new job skill or quitting a bad habit. (Ok, well, in some cases it might!)
Here's what I learned from my home teachers. It's pretty clever!
S.M.A.R.T.
The acronym stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound.
Specific means to be clear in what you want. Being unclear in your direction probably means you will be unclear in evaluating success or failure.
Measurable. Make it so you know if you accomplished the goal or not. "Eat less ice cream" sounds like a good idea for a healthier lifestyle, but if you don't put something quantitative on it you won't know if you ate less. And my guess is that you'll eat more just because you are thinking "ice cream" all the time. Maybe that's just me.
Attainable. Set a goal for something that you can reach. Some people say stretch for something difficult so you really work at it. That's fine. For myself, I recommend stretching a little at a time since I have my hand in so many things at once. If I set out to do something too lofty in lots of areas I'll just burn out. Just like the weight lifters who abandon the gym before February. I've done that a bunch of times.
Relevant. Do something that's important to you. Maybe you want to learn a new skill or improve one that you already know. Do you have a good reason for setting the goal? Good. Then go for it.
Time-bound. This the one that I forget. Have a time frame so that you can set a pace to sew all those quilts, finish that chain mail armor or write the last chapter in your novel. Does the end date have to be Dec 31? Nope. It can be Dec 25, July 15, April 6 or Jan 31. It could also be on your birthday, your anniversary or the summer solstice. I have a hard time working on a short term goal because there's a part of me that thinks I should keep working on important things. However, if I am S.M.A.R.T. then I'll have created an goal with an outline that improves me in some way and I should feel happy with the end result. It doesn't have to take 365 days to do that (or 366 days this year).
Another trap I get into is hanging onto old, outdated notions. The completion-ist part of me things I have to complete everything I think of starting. If I don't cut out the old, it only bogs me down. My to do list stagnates, gets lost under a pile of more recent to do lists and then gets tossed into the recycling bag once I clean off my desk and realize I don't have time for the old list.
That's no good.
I'm learning to cut my ties to those old things that actually hold me back from doing bigger and better (relevant) things. Life changes and so do priorities. Let go of old ideas and don't look back.
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