SET GOALS Reach at!
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ROOKS B E L Y SK WORD
WHY SET GOALS? Goal setting before you embark on any kind of project is imperative if you’re going to succeed. Often in the excitement and focus of getting started, people set themselves up to fail. Without a clear goal, you’ll never know when you reach your destination or how far you’ve come along the way.
Let’s look at an example of someone trying to lose fat weight. Specific would be setting a clear finish line of losing 2 stone of fat. To make it measurable they would need to take body fat measurements. Ensuring it’s achievable can sometimes mean changing the initial “specific” goal, for instance it could be adjusted to 1.5 stone of fat loss. Result-based again links in with having set a specific target and ensuring progress is measured. Time-framed will require a set date to aim for, which is again realistic or it could be an event such as a holiday or wedding.
IT'S NOT JUST ABOUT THE GOAL THOUGH Ultimately the determining factor when it comes to your success or failure is why you want to achieve your goal and how badly. Even the most determined people will be less likely to succeed in achieving their goal if they’re trying to do it for the wrong reasons or it doesn’t mean that much to them.
HOW DO I SET A CLEAR GOAL?
In order to make sure your goal is the right one, imagine you’re explaining it to a child and ask yourself one question. Why? Why do you want to achieve your goal? Why that goal? Why now? Why not before? Why will it make a difference to you? If you struggle with answering any of these questions, it’s probably time to reassess what you want.
One of the most popular ways to set goals is to use the SMART acronym of which there are many slight variations. Smart often stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Result-based, Time-framed.
Once you’ve got this picture, your motivation will be obvious. This is a key part of a technique called motivational interviewing and it’ll serve you well when times get hard on the way to your goal.
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Empower magazine
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December 2017