By Chris Beane
Have you ever been so close to achieving your goals only to fall short at the last minute and feel like a failure? Of course, and if your goal setting system does not allow for adaptability or take life into account, you may feel like a failure. That is far from the truth. Let’s get one thing out of the way first. I am a firm believer in having goals to help you achieve more in life. What I am saying is that our current way of thinking about goals and how to achieve them is outdated. S.M.A.R.T. Goals were fine for the time. However, we know so much more now. I think we need to implement lessons we have learned since this framework was introduced. Please allow me to first detail what S.M.A.R.T Goals are before I calmly dismantle that way of thinking for you.
S - Specific
M - Measurable
A - Attainable
R - Relative
T - Time Specific
This goal setting method has been around for a while and for the time it was wonderful. However, we have learned so much since it was introduced. Many of us have used this method in the past, and most still use this as the standard method for thinking about our goals. This seems all well and good right? Well, not quite. This framework is more a way to think about milestones, not actual goals. This system has some flaws. Setting goals that don't push your comfort zone means aiming for what's already within reach. This won't foster personal growth or take you beyond your current limits. Not to mention if you fall just short of reaching your goal, YOU’RE NOT A FAILURE. You're definitely better off than if you hadn't pursued your goal at all, right? But when looked at through the eyes of this system you failed, all because you strived to reach something that was beyond your grasp.
Let’s get to one of my major complaints with this method. How does this system actually help to propel you toward achieving your goal? James Clear mentions this idea in his book, Atomic Habits. At a sporting event, do you think both teams have the goal to win the game? Yes, of course. But only one team can actually win. It doesn’t matter what is on that team’s or coach’s vision board. It all comes down to the system that was put in place for the team to put the work in to win the game. You see, simply having goals does little to nothing for you if you are not working on achieving them. You need some sort of system to put into action to actually put the work in. You cannot simply have a goal, then manifest its completion. If you could, you wouldn’t be reading this. Goals are magic. But only in the sense that they provide a roadmap to a destination, not in magically manifesting for you with little to no work involved. I am sorry to be the one to tell you, your goals are not a set and forget type of action. If you want to achieve them, you will need to put the work in.
Onto the next hurdle, if you actually have goals, are they yours or someone else’s goals? I have found that most people have goals but very few people have goals that are their own. Most people have goals that are societal goals or a desire for things that people tell them they want or their parents tell them that they want. But what about you? Yes, you. The person reading this. You need to have the final say in your goals. They need to be your own, not goals placed on you by someone else. As we go about developing your goals, try to keep outside pressures out of your goal list. We need to set goals that do not confine who we are or more importantly, who we want to become. You set your GPS to where you want to go, and your goals will tell you how to get there, and how to become that person you have always dreamed you could be.
Stop me if you have heard this before. ”Put your goal list somewhere that you will see it everyday.” As “they” say. Let me prove that wrong to you. You see, “they” mean well, but “they” didn’t really think that through. Let me ask you a question. Do you have pictures hanging in your house? Yes, of course you do. You’re not a crazy person, right? Of those pictures you have hanging on the walls of your home, how often do you stop and actually look at them? Little to no time is spent on that, right? Once they are hung up, they just become a part of the wall. You don’t think about them unless you want them hung somewhere else. Now why is that? Well, it is because once that picture gets hung up, we get used to seeing it after about a week, then we don’t see it anymore. With that in mind, hanging your goals somewhere you will see them everyday sounds good in theory but I hope you can see why that does not actually work. We need to have our goals in one specific location. Somewhere we go to specifically look at and review our goals.
Another defect in this goal setting method is that it does not account for life. Life is not a smooth, straight road. Life is a mostly uphill battle. With pits, trap doors, booby traps, spikes, unexpected turns, and all kinds of locked doors. Oh, and you have to navigate this maze blindfolded. This can be challenging putting in so much work on a goal only to be set off track due to some outside obstacle and fall short of reaching your goal in the allotted time. This can make you feel like a failure. I believe your goals need to, at least, attempt to account for some of the happenings of life. We not only need a roadmap to the destination, we need a way to find our path for when we get lost.
I believe a goal setting framework needs to account for at least some of these downfalls, and the S.M.A.R.T. Goal setting framework does not account for these. S.M.A.R.T. Goals did a fine job for their time. However, it is now time to incorporate some of the key lessons learned since they were introduced. With no clear system to implement, no way to ensure these goals are actually yours, and no way to actually review your process, it is time for a change. That is why we need some new framework to best help us reach our goals. Are you ready to change your way of thinking about goals? Stay tuned for upcoming insights on enhancing your goal-setting framework.
Made with Bullet