Do you currently set goals for yourself?  Goal setting is a powerful tool to motivate you.  Goals give your life greater direction and purpose and when you achieve your goals this boosts your confidence and self belief to want to achieve more.  The personal growth from setting goals cannot be denied but how can you do this in a simple format that will give your goals more clarity and make them more achievable?

The answer is, to set your goals the SMART way.  The acronym stands for; Specific – Is your goals Specific? If you want to lose weight you need to be specific about how much.  You need to state how much weight you want to lose or what dress size you want to be.  If you want a promotion you need to be clear what position you are after and how you will get there. Measurable – Is your goal Measurable? If you are following your plan, how will you know you are getting there? If you want to drop a dress size then measuring this is easy but if for example, you want to lower your cholesterol then you need to set a date to have it retested. Appealing/Achievable – Is your goal Appealing? You need to list all of the positive benefits of reaching your goal and refer back to this list at least once a week.  You need to find your goal truly appealing in order to want to achieve it. Realistic/Relevant – Is your goal Realistic? Based on your current circumstances in your life is your goal realistic for you?  Just because you have watched someone else achieving a similar goal; their circumstances may be different as you may not have all of the information as to how they got to their goal.  The size of the goal has to be realistic based on your current commitments. Timed – Have you set a time frame to achieve your goal? A time frame needs to be applied to your goal based on the above answers.  So if you want to lose weight but you have barriers such as family birthdays coming up then instead of achieving weight loss at the safe rate of 1 kilo per week you may lower the goal to account for the barrier.  If you need particular skills, such as a degree or course in order to get to your goal then obtaining these needs to be factored into the time frame of your goal.

Goal setting the SMART way increases your chances of successful goal achievement because you are more in tune with the goal and more likely to stay on track.

Take Action Start with small goals and take action immediately, the longer you give yourself to think about it, you may just talk yourself out of it.  Use your achievement of the small goals to build your confidence and self belief.  These achievements will become what we call in Life Coaching your “convincer”.  If fear or doubt starts to creep in that you cannot succeed then look back at those small goals you have achieved and tell that little voice in your head telling doubting you to “Take a Hike!”