Unleash Your Potential #11 - Achieving Goals
- Douglas McCall
- Jul 6, 2024
- 3 min read
Douglas: Welcome to the Unleash Your Potential Blog, what question can I answer for you today?
VisionGuide: What steps can I take to achieve my goals?
Douglas: I am so glad you asked. This is a question that gets asked frequently. It tells me that many people struggle with making their goals actionable. The first thing I suggest is that you look at the goal. What is keeping you from achieving your goals?
There are a variety of things that can stand in the way. You may have seen the concept of the SMART goals floating around the internet. I suggest that instead of having SMART goals, you need to be SMARTR about goal setting:
Specific – Lack of specificity makes it difficult to plan for success. I can have a goal to “make a lot of money” but if I don’t know how much that is, how will I know when I have achieved it? How will I know if I am on the right track?
Measurable – Oftentimes, we set goals that cannot be measured. For example, you may have a goal to “be happier.” While this is a great goal, how would you measure it? What does “happier” look like? If you can’t measure it, chances are the goal is too broad. In this case, you would need to define what happiness looks like.
Attainable – Another challenge occurs when we set a goal we simply can’t achieve. I can set a goal that I want to be a State Trooper (state law enforcement), but since many of these organizations have an age cap, which I am over, it is not likely an attainable goal for me. While we try to tell our children you can be anything you want to be, some goals are not attainable and without recognizing these limitations, we can set ourselves up for disappointment.
Relevant – When we set goals that don’t match up with our long-term goals and our beliefs, we may subconsciously sabotage our efforts. I may set a goal that I want to be a life coach, however, if I don’t believe in the value/effectiveness of life coaching, I may keep myself from taking the steps needed to meet that goal.
Time-bound – This is a common problem with goal setting. We have a goal that meets all the other criteria, but we forget to put a clock on it. I am someone who functions better with deadlines. I always have. When something has no time limit, I will rarely get it done. Just be careful that when you set the time limit, you don’t make the goal unattainable. You can have a time limit that challenges you, just not one that makes it impossible.
Resources – One could argue that this falls under attainable but I think it is important to consider the resources you will need to achieve your goal. If you have a goal of making $X investing, you will need some resources to begin that process. You will need financial resources to invest, the knowledge of investing, etc. It is important to consider this carefully during the goal-setting process.
Once you have set a SMARTR goal, the task is to break the goal into a realistic action plan. What are the steps that will lead you to the goal? Set time limits that will allow you to achieve the goal in the time frame you planned.
The reality is that achieving goals is all about good planning. If you spend the time in the beginning thinking through and planning the goal, you set yourself up for success. Once you have begun working through the steps, regularly re-evaluate the goal to make sure you are still on track. And, as I have said in other posts, don’t try to do everything all at once. If you have a lot of SMARTR goals, you may stretch your resources too thin. As I have learned from being a restaurant server, trying to carry everything sometimes ends in you successfully carrying nothing.
I hope my answer sheds some light on your question. If you want to dig into this concept further, I encourage you to reach out and set up a conversation. In the meantime, check back tomorrow for the next question in the Unleash Your Potential Series!
Be Well!
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