To be honest, people don't know how to set goals. Even when we really dream about something, we rarely get what we want. If you found yourself failing on your New Year's resolutions until February, you need to learn what setting SMART goals.
First, don't blame yourself if something doesn't work out. In schools, we are taught to read, write, count, but no one tells us how to actually achieve what we want. There are no books on how to set smart goals.
Second, stop focusing on willpower alone. There are other ways to make dreams come true. For example, we conditionally divide goals into ill-defined and well-defined. Let's say we want to improve our health:
“You need to clean up” is a terrible goal;
“I want to lose 5 pounds” is an unsuccessful goal;
“I want to eat right a few days a week, go to the gym three times a week for half an hour” is a good goal.
Note that in the beginning we set easy goals: it will be easy to eat right for just three days and exercise for an hour and a half a week. This will help prepare you for victory. The next step is to prepare the site for the new activity. Set aside 1 hour a week to shop and buy a gym uniform. SMART goal setting methodology it works in much the same way: we focus on the specificity of the tasks, their ability to perform.
SMART Goal Setting Principles
SMART is an acronym. It decrypts like this:
S - specific
M is measurable
A - achievable
R - correspondent
T - time oriented
Consider another example of goal setting. This time, we want to get richer:
“I would like to resolve financial issues” is a very ill-defined goal;
“I want to save 360,000 reais this year” is still bad;
“My savings account needs to be replenished every month with 36,000 reais from each salary” is an excellent goal.
No more “I want to go to the gym every day” or “I want to travel more”. They will never come true because:
- They are unspecific: it is unclear what they mean. When, where, for how many days, how do you want to travel?
- They are unrealistic: how do you want to “get rich” this year? For some, getting rich means increasing your salary by 10,000 reais, for others it means earning several million dollars. What do you know how, you know, are you ready to do to achieve the goal? Are you ready to work tirelessly? most of the time not
- They are based on willpower, not a system. Willpower is not infinite – you need to calculate the amount of effort expended if you want motivation to last for a long time.
If you were looking for a cure for vague and impossible goals, then SMART goal setting system will suit you perfectly.
That is all! Develop financial thinking with Ilya Sitnov. Subscribe to our newsletter here and on Yandex.Zen so you don't miss out on useful materials.
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