Have you ever thought about how people you admire turn their dreams into reality?
You have goals too (not just wishes) that you have been thinking of achieving – to study abroad, to travel the world, to buy some beautiful shoes, to make 5 new and trusted friends or to have more money in your bank account.
As you sleep, wake up and go around your daily activities, you find yourself thinking and visualizing (imagining) how to achieve those goals.
Why then do most goals end in our imaginative world? What if there is a way you could turn all those visuals into a reality too?
Let me introduce you to a power tool, called “S.M.A.R.T.E.R. Goals” This is going to comes in handy in your life mission going forward.
Life was just happening to me too and then I stumbled on and learned about S.M.A.R.T.E.R. Goals. Now, I want to share with you how is possible to achieve your goals through ACTION and DETAILED planning.
Have no idea of S.M.A.R.T.E.R Goals? That’s fine. Let’s dive into it.
S – Specific
Assuming you say that one of your goals is to learn a new skill, do you feel that’s a goal? It sounds like a goal, yet it’s tough to tell exactly what new skill you are talking about.
You may want to explore these questions,
-What skill exactly do you want to learn?
-Why do you want to learn that new skill (give specific reasons)? Is it to increase your income by 5 times the current one or for career advancement in the next 3 years?
-What are the steps I would take to achieve this (make it specific)? Will you take 3 online courses or sign up with a mentor/coach/academy to learn the skill?
-What value would this add to life in general (again, be specific about this)?
Answers to these questions would give a clear view of what you want to do, why you want to do it and the steps to achieve it.
M – Measurable.
No matter what you want to achieve you have to make sure that you can measure your progress so that at the end of day or week you can tell if you are heading in the right direction.
Will you be able to share your exact progress in 1 week, 4 week and 6 months? How will you measure the progress? What will be the metrics?
A – Attainable.
You have to know if what you want to achieve is possible at your present state.
For instance, you want to be the best-paid actor in the entertainment industry in your country within the next 1 month, and you have never acted before, this may be impossible but you can start by learning acting.
Stating your goals and putting in timelines that is reasonable you can push yourself towards, will make you feel good and easier to REWARD yourself (isn’t of feeling guilty) as it is achievable, you will be happy and gain CONFIDENCE to do more.
R – Relevant.
One thing you have to keep in mind while setting your goals is to reflect on how useful it is to the PRESENT you. Does your specific goal upgrade you or does it correlate either directly or indirectly to something in your future?
Thinking about your career, academic and business and reflecting on the value it adds to people can be of great help.
T- Time – bound.
Personally, I like setting weekly goals for a month. Let’s say I want to write 5 posts on my Facebook account for this week, I would create that week’s goal in a way that to mean that I will write 1 post within every 24 hours for the next 5 days.
I set a deadline and time schedule for myself to get this task done, so that procrastination does not set in.
E – Evaluative.
At the end of each day, week or month, you will have to look at your goals closely and the strategies you used whether it happened has planned or not.
Look closely at the details. If you are not running a check on your progress, how do you know if you are moving forward, staying stagnant or running backwards?
Ensure you set your goals in a way that can be evaluated easily and coherently.
R – Revisable.
After your evaluation, you would want to change the strategies that didn’t work or be more clearer in what you want. At the end of the day, settle for what works best for you but NEVER give up on your goals.
There you go! So, what are you waiting for? Get started on your goals and be fearless in achieving them. All you need now is ACTION to move from the DREAMING stage to the FULFILMENT stage where your dreams can turn into reality.
You can be more than you ever imagine, get started with S.M.A.R.T.E.R goals TODAY!
Prikkle Academy…inspiring community builders.
Written by Peace Timothy (Prikkle Academy Participant)
