Meny
FORSIDE ALT PĂ… ETT STED TIMEBESTILLING HYPNOSE FOR CREATORS MEDIA OM MEG KONTAKT SAMARBEIDSPARTNERE Logg inn

SMART Goals Not So Smart?

They Set You Up for Failure

By psychologist Sigurd Stubsjoen

"SMART" Goals

Did you know that 73% are not able to stick to their New Year’s Resolution? It’s likely that since you are reading this you’ve felt that sting. The sad thing is that this trend bleeds over into all other aspects of our lives. How can you ever get ahead in your job, be a better parent or spouse or even succeed at school? More self discipline and better goal setting tools like SMART goals are often promoted as the answer, but is that working for you? I am going to tell you why this does not work and what you can do about it.

SMART goals and Will-Power

I am sure you have at some time in your past learned about the concept of SMART goals. Let me give you two slightly different versions and I’ll include in the foot notes the sources in case you want to go more in depth. SMART is an acronym: S for specific, M for measurable, A for achievable, R for Relevant and T for Time-bound.  The acronym was created by George Doran in 1981 and he had a slightly different approach differing on: A for assignable and R for realistic. The statistics and our personal experience bares witness to the fact that SMART goals quite often fail us. But before I tell you why let’s look at Self-discipline.

Self-discipline can be defined as the ability to resist temptation in favor of achieving a longer term goal. 42% of adult in the US are obese, a testament to how poorly will power works when trying to control food consumption. When talking about addiction from nicotine and alcohol to illegal substances, trying to discipline one’s self is often a loosing battle. We can only conclude that trying to increase self-discipline is a loosing battle or is very hard for most people.

Is there an alternative to SMART goals and will power? The answer is yes. By understanding the limitations of SMART goals we can develop alternative goal setting strategies that incorporate intuition, understanding how to leverage emotions, how to deal with cognitive misconceptions, limiting beliefs, dealing with emotional blockage and effective measures to deal with issues of will-power.

 

Limitations of SMART goals

Focusing on the R in SMART wich stands for relevant or realistic this unwittingly reinforces one’s limiting beliefs about what you think is possible for you to achieve. Most people would not believe it is possible to build a million dollar business in 90 days starting with nothing. And yet, in the TV show Undercover Billionaire we see self made billionaires accomplish this. The fascinating aspect of this show is that the billionaires are able to identify a problem, find a solution, develop and leverage a network of people to help them build their million dollar venture. They do not limit themselves, as many people might do, “it’s impossible to build a business that is worth a million dollars in 90 days, I am not a people person -I could never develop a network, I hate selling, I am no good at negotiations, you have to have money to make money, money is the root of all evil….” These limitations may have nothing to do with lack of skill, because if a person lacks skill they can simply learn by trying, it is the mindset that prevents them from even trying to learn the skill. If they had the right mindset they would simply start and figure it out on the way.  And the billionaires never complain, they focus exclusively on solutions.

Integrity is all about values. SMART goals do not integrate one’s values. Thus when difficult situations arise you might flip/flop, engage in illegal or dubious moral behavior, or align yourself with people who have very different values then yourself.

Values are also connected to why you are working towards a specific goal. Understanding your why creates a deep sense of meaning and purpose. Meaning and purpose often transcend one’s own ego, and allows us to be motivated by deeper forces in our psyche, keeping us on track even in the face of temptation. 

 

Self sabotaging is not at all addressed from a SMART goal perspective or even when trying to build more self-discpline. I define self-sabotaging behavior as forces outside of our conscious control that compel one to act in ways that directly hinder or stop one from working persistently towards achieving a specific outcome or goal.

If the goal setting protocol that you follow does not address the significant role self-sabotaging behavior plays then most people will fail. However, if a person learns to address self-sabotaging behavior (including breaking out of limiting beliefs) then literally there is no limit as to what a determined individual can accomplish. 

In Stephen Covey’s seminal book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, one of the main principles he advocates is, Begin With the End in Mind. The idea is simple but powerful, through imagination you place yourself into the future as if you already have accomplished the goal. Einstein is know for saying, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Our imaginations need not be bound by what we think is possible, but instead we can push the boundaries. When we push the boundaries we often feel we are outside of our comfort zone. By being outside of our comfort zone we are forced to learn from our mistakes and develop new skills to cope with a new reality. 


Carol Dwek has done extensive research on being able to learn from mistakes and she calls this a growth mindset. By embracing a growth mindset, mistakes are viewed as a challenge to learn and thus the focus is shifted from feeling bad about a failure to feeling invigorated about the opportunity to learn something new. Sustained motivation over time requires this shift in consciousness in order to believe that reaching your goal is possible.

The Winning Strategy: A New Paradigm in Goal Achievement

What happens when you integrate the best practices underlying Growth mindset and Begin with the end in mind? An intuitive yet powerful goal-mindset that captures both one’s intuition, experience and knowledge base. The whole mind is integrated and focused on the goal. You learn quickly from your mistakes and you keep trying until you figure it out. 

By setting an ambitious goal it is natural that self doubt arises, “Can I truely accomplish this?” but this is the start of your transformation. You learn to turn self-doubt into confidence through adopting a growth mindset. You will discover that very ambitious goals, ones where you almost believe it is impossible for you to achieve will constantly challenge you to do a little more and push a little harder. In this way you break out of 

your self-imposed limitations and destroy negative beliefs about what you are capable of. 

However, a pitfall is daydreaming. Imagination is a powerful tool where one can escape from reality too. In order to avoid this we actively bridge the gap between Now and the Future you. Through a process I call Intuitve back casting, you step back in time to the most significant thing that happened just before you reached your goal. In this way you can identify all the milestones on your path. During this step you do not want to think logically, simply focus on the first thing that pops into your mind while stepping back in time. It is important to pull the positive energy of goal achievement clear back to the present time. In this way you maintain motivation and clarity of focus. 

The Winning Strategy also includes understanding and having the tools to deal with iissues like procrastination, estimating time incorrectly, and all self-sabotaging behavior. 

For those eager to explore beyond the introduction, I invite you to [click here] for a deeper dive into the Winning Strategy. Embark on this journey with me, and let's redefine the boundaries of who you are and what you can achieve.

Conclusion

In conclusion SMART goals fall short and self-discipline and will-power will not allow you to address underlying unconscious forces that sabotage one in goal persuit. Likewise the lack of emphasis on intuition and being confined by what is realistic prevents a person from realizing their full potential of what is possible. I teach a goal process that is call the Winning Strategy that address these problems and if you are interested you can sign up to be first in line when I release this program (scroll down).

Source of reference:
Â