I’ve always been a goal-directed person. The other way to say it is I’ve always been a dreamer. I’ve dreamed many dreams and I’ve lived many of them. Although I’ve read much about how to achieve goals, I don’t believe that the successes I’ve had are because I’ve followed the advice of the goal gurus.
I achieved my goal of being a “real writer” despite the fact that I had no written goal to this effect. I did not review my goal daily nor did I break my goal down to determine what I needed to do in a year, a month, and a week to make my goal a reality. Apparently I just got lucky because conventional wisdom has it that those who fail to plan plan to fail.
Beyond SMART Goals
Creating traditional S.M.A.R.T. goals doesn’t hurt and I have used the method myself satisfactorily. However, I don’t believe that any of these tips or tricks is an automatic ticket to success. We know this intuitively, but don’t often reflect on it. Did Henry Ford give himself a Stuart Smalley pep talk every day as he sought to build a marketable automobile? Did he do a weekly review to determine his list of next actions? Doubt it. Can we imagine beloved movie character Rocky Balboa setting a S.M.A.R.T. goal after meeting with Tony Robbins to become heavyweight boxing champion of the world? I can’t. Yet they achieved their goals. How?
I believe that God empowers every successful person because Scripture says so. 1 Samuel 18:14 reads:
“In everything he did he had great success, because the LORD was with him.”
Much to the consternation of the goal gurus, God doesn’t require goal tracking software to achieve His purposes. In fact, God doesn’t even require us to be motivated to succeed. Philippians 2:13 tells us:
“for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”
As I review the goals I’ve achieved, I see God behind both the motivation and the process that brought results.
Do You Need a List for Your Most Important Goal?
Yesterday I emailed a list of goals for the week to my friend who is trying list-free task management with me. I told her that I wasn’t going to check the goal list until the week was over. As I pondered whether this was a wise approach, I realized that if I need to check my list because I can’t remember the goal , is it really a goal for me? If I’m so unmotivated that I have to be constantly reminded of my goal, what are the chances I’ll succeed? Did Henry Ford and Rocky Balboa need daily reminders of their goals? No. Their goal and their life were one.
That’s what I want , too–to have my life and my goal be one and to have God be the one motivating me onward. If you want a written goal to reflect on each day, try this one on for size:
Philippians 3:14 “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
Beautiful post Mel.
I have felt that writing things down can be beneficial for managing attention in areas where you really want to improve, but haven’t formed the habit. For instance, I have a list of friends that I would like to contact this week – it’s not that they’re not important to me, I love them all dearly, but for some reason my focus is so often on work that my friends don’t enter my mind for days or weeks at a time.
Then I remember the phrase “attention is like oxygen” and know deep down that I want to blow regularly on the flames of these relationships so they don’t become dying embers from not being fed with my attention.
So sometimes we do need a little nudge in areas where we don’t perform as we would like. I think the key though is that the reminder be just that – a reminder, not an admonition, something that we actually look forward to doing but just kind of forget about unless we have an external reminder.
The goals that have worked the best for me have always been linked to my core values – a higher good, not for the sake of ego etc., but something that fulfils a desire deep within me. To be kind to myself and others, to give myself the gift of financial freedom and security, to have peace of mind and to nurture my mind, body and spirit.
Those are goals that feel pretty good, but they are never “I got there, I’m finished goals”, they’re “ways of being”. I think that’s key, we are not “human doings”, we are “human beings.”
The other “problem” with SMART goals:
Specific – implies that there’s only one path to the goal – is that true?
Measurable – some of the best “goals” are not measurable, but a way of being – we’re not producing widgets when we’re being kind to our children
Attainable + Realistic – these are pretty much the same thing – and I think some of the most wonderful goals in history probably were never met – at least in that person’s lifetime (think Martin Luther King – and certainly weren’t timely)
Time-based/Tangible – sometimes goals (using the definition of objective) that have no time frame at all are the best. How many people that have followed an exercise or diet program that just focused on a specific time period ever kept exercising or kept the weight off? (Look at many former Biggest Loser contestants.) They would have been far better off with a way of being – ie. I would like to have a comfortable relationship with food.
I don’t know, sometimes I feel like with SMART goals, ordinary people who are disconnected from their passion are trying to artificially manufacture the state of being that passionate people are living in. But you can’t really manufacture something that isn’t THERE. Maybe their time would be better spent figuring out what really makes them go “WOW”!