When SMART is stupid

Hands up if this sums up you and your progress toward goals – set it, forget it, remember too late to get it!:

If you are anything like me in the past, you have been through this several times, often having set many goals at once, with a vague belief that setting clear, structured and sensible goals means you will achieve them easily.

Err nope.

I’m sure you are familiar with the SMART acronym used in goal setting (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, timed) and while I don’t disagree that it can be handy when you have tight deadlines or just need to get something done in conjunction with other people, it can also be inflexible and overwhelming, particularly if you have more than one goal in mind.  Plus, the original creator of SMART said that just because a goal is worthwhile doesn’t mean it is measurable – and I’d add that just because a goal is specific and measurable, doesn’t make it worthwhile.  So maybe it’s time to get a little ‘SMART casual’ about what we want to achieve.

So, what do I suggest?

Forget SMART, focus on FATE!  I’ve come up with a new approach which I call FATES.  There is nothing revolutionary about it so I don’t see it going viral, but I find it more user-friendly and practical, so it may help you achieve more than you believed you could.

Why FATES? We so often tend to leave things up to fate, so let’s actually make fate work for us instead.

So, how does this work, Sarah? I hear you ask.  Well, get comfortable and I’ll tell you.

One of the biggest mistakes I see people make is that they set lots of goals. In fact, when it comes to goal setting, they are a bit of an expert – it’s the actual goal getting that is the problem!  This is because having lots of goals create lots of pressure, which leads to overwhelm, and just as goal setting becomes a habit (this is the month./year I will finally succeed in XXX), so does goal failing.  And here is where my FATES approach differs.

First, you probably need to ditch most of your current goals, and I don’t mean that you get rid of all your tasks, deadlines, or projects, just that you see them for what they are – tasks, deadlines, and projects – not goals. They are ‘have to do’ things, not want to do ones, but we often set them as goals to get them done.  Big mistake.  Huge (love that film) as it creates a goal-oriented to-do list and creates more, you’ve guessed it, overwhelm.  It also distracts from what we really want to achieve.  So, let’s schedule our tasks etc into our time management plan (coming next month!) and focus on what we want to achieve in life.

In fact, let’s go a step further and ditch the word goal, and replace it with outcome or desire for now.  Doesn’t ‘this is what I desire’ sound better than ‘this is my goal’?

This brings us to FATES.  As I said, it’s not revolutionary, but it may just take the pressure off you so you can work on progressing not procrastinating!

• F is for focus – you need to focus on one or two outcomes at most at any one time. More than that and overwhelm and pressure builds up and takes the focus away replacing it with fear.  These can be business-related or personal, but you need to choose only one or two outcomes to focus on or you will get distracted and ditch them.
• A is for appetite – you have to have a strong appetite or desire for the outcome. The more you desire it, the harder you will work towards it and that means digging deep to find out what you really, really want. Not those ought, should, need, must goals or outcomes, the ones you WANT in your gut!
• T is for timeframe – yes, we do need a timeframe, or we just won’t get started or keep going because ‘there’s plenty of time’. Be honest, do you work better when you have a deadline?  Me too, so while we do need timeframes, they just need to be a little bit more flexible than 25^th September at exactly 9 am!
• E is for everyday – too often the goals we set, whether business or personal, have no relevance to our everyday life. If the outcome won’t enhance or improve your life in any way, the passion or desire to achieve it is reduced and it gets side-lined.  When you can see and feel the progress towards your big dream every day, it creates motivation (more on motivation in a couple of weeks) which keeps you going.
• S is for steps – whatever your desired outcome, whether it is large or small, you need to create the steps to get there. And that is where most people fail, and why the basis of my approach is simple steps!

Now, overall, any desired outcome needs to be realistic, I am never going to grow 3 inches taller so there is no point in even thinking about being 5’9” as it’s just not achievable.  However, I can focus on my posture which will create the illusion of tallness!

So, there you have it, my FATES approach to creating outcomes and improving your life.  If you want to know more, I will delve into each aspect over the next few blogs, so bookmark this page, follow me on social media (@fabnewlous) and get ready to change your life.

Next week I will be looking at why breaking your big outcomes into daily steps is more likely to lead to progress than having a big target for 6 months!