HOW TO SET GOALS USING A SIMPLE FORMULAR

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Only 3 percent of adults have goals and plans written down and its this 3 percent that earn more than all the other 97 percent put together. No wonder only 3 percent of the world population belong to the class of the rich very rich. Goals serve as a direction and a track to run towards.

When we program a goal in our minds, it is what will direct your mind and will lead you to where you are going. It does not matter if you do not have an idea how you will get there, but just simply having a goal it leads you there. A goal acts like a treasure map. It leads you to a specific direction of desire.

A man cannot just wake up one morning, enter his car and start driving. He must have a destination prepared in his mind. A man without a destination will arrive no where. So also in life, we must have a destination in mind if we want to achieve much.

During my undergraduate days, I attended a student seminar run by an international student organization called AIESEC where I got to learn about SMART goals. SMART means:
S= Specific
M= Measurable
A= Attainable
R= Realistic
T= Time or Timeline

SPECIFIC means that we must be precise about what we want and know exactly what you want. Define what you want. Once you know what your expected outcome is it makes you focused.
MEASURABLE means that you must define the quantity and quality of what you want to achieve. You tell your self how much of what you want.
ATTAINABLE means that you must ensure that whatever goal you want can be achieved by a person. You must be able to see yourself reaching your goal.
REALISTIC means that your goal must be something real and not just fictional. That is to say a right thinking person can conceive what you want to achieve. It must be sensible.
TIME means that you must set a definite date to achieve your goal. Setting up a timeline on your goal has a way of spurring you to action.

During the practical session in that seminar, we were asked to draw up our SMART goals. We did one for the organization and another for our personal selves. That particular year, I achieved more in my career than ever before because I was more focused. The organization where I belonged achieved much that year also.
Ever since, I have practiced using SMART goals in everything I want to do. I know that my goal has to be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and I needed to set a time by which I will achieve that goal.

Another things we should know is that your goals should be written down. Writing down your goals has a psychological effect on you and has a way of stimulating the impossible to become possible. When you write down your goals and place it somewhere you can see it everyday, it acts as a constant reminder to you that you need to do something. It also stimulates your subconscious mind to get you going. Some people have said they wrote down goals and kept the written goals somewhere hidden, the discovered after a year that more than half of their goals were already achieved. This simple technique works for your new year resolutions. Write down your goals as if money wasn’t an option.

Take  your time to set SMART Goals. Write it down and constantly review it to see how far you have gone.

‘To become someone that you have never been before, you must do something that you have never done before’.