Mental Health s r e tt Ma
Making SMART goals for success in 2021 By Derran Heney
“A goal without a plan is just a wish” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, 1943. It’s that time of year again, when we start to think about how we imagine a new year to be. Oftentimes the New Year’s resolutions we make start off well intentioned, but tend to fall by the wayside as the months progress. Motivation often starts at an all-time high and then frustratingly settles to that neutral point we were at before we made the goals. So how come some people are able to easily achieve their goal, keeping their motivation balanced? Research has shown that successful people tend to have certain habits that ensure their success. Their progress is possibly best described by the old saying; ‘slow and steady wins the race’ – meaning to make smaller, more achievable goals, and review them regularly. By setting these goals, motivation is kept at an even level and reached more easily. This is better than
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doing a nose dive and feeling defeated because of setting a goal too high, too big or too unrealistically.
“Oftentimes the New Year’s resolutions we make start off well intentioned, but tend to fall by the wayside as the months progress.” It is good to recognise and remember that reaching our goals is a progressive task, and to work out a method of keeping motivation high through the long haul. For more tips on habits of successful people, view video https://youtu.be/MCjJ2-fhYcU Making a list of what we achieved through 2020 is a good place to start. This acknowledges the changes that we have made and helps
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to pinpoint goals that are still requiring our attention. Making our goals SMART is part of the plan for success. I will explain what the SMART acronym, created by George Doran (1981), stands for. S is Specific M is Measurable A is Achievable R is Relevant T is Time bound Let’s look at each of these a little more. Specific Being specific is about drilling down and being specific with the detail about what you want to achieve (the end goal) and how. It’s good to be able to