Be SMART

Setting Goals that matter

There are techniques that are somewhat popular for establishing realistic goals.   One of the techniques follows the acronym call SMART.   SMART goals have five components (as you could guess).

S, Specific, the goal must be well defined, not large.

M, Measurable, how are you going to measure the results/outcome.

A, Actionable, can it be done

R, Relevant, does it make sense to do.

T, Timely, a specific date/time in which the goal will be completed.

 

This is just a process to nudge your thinking a bit so that realizable goals can be achieved.   One of the big items on the list is “measurable” what are you going to do to make sure you are making adequate progress towards the goal.   The axiom “you can’t manage what you don’t measure” holds true.   Part of goal setting is managing the progress or lack of progress that is being made.

Many people start the New Year off with some resolutions, I RESOLVE to do X before the end of the year.   What happens is that X might be too big to accomplish, or it might not be measurable, or actionable (too many other things get in the way of getting the goal accomplished), the goal was relevant and the timeframe wasn’t realistic.

One of the best ways for success is to start small and get easy and early victories.   Set the goal so that it is attainable (which is sometimes used for the letter A in SMART).   Why start with a huge goal when what you really need are small successes (people are encouraged by making progress).   Celebrate the small successes with rewards that are meaningful (and hopefully ones that don’t compromise the initial goal).

Work hard, work steady, work consistently, and work with courage.

The goal is yours!

For the better

What you focus on expands.

That is if you are thinking positive thoughts you will grow towards those positive thoughts and if you are thinking about things that go wrong you will necessarily bring yourself towards things that are negative as a consequence.

What do you think about most?   Do you think that you can?   Do you think you have amazing abilities, courageous character, magnificent manner, superior strengths, or honorable humility?

What is the predominant creative force in your life?   Do you use your creative force?

When we choose to be creative we choose something far grander than we imagine.  Robert Fritz writes, “Moreover, the entire quality of your life changes dramatically, from tragedy, drudgery, pain, tolerance, struggle, sameness, and boredom so often characteristic of life in the reactive responsive orientation to the excitement and adventure characteristic of life in the orientation of the creative.” (The Path of Least Resistance)

Fritz again writes, “When you examine reality with a preconceived idea of what you will find, you particularly notice those facts that reinforce your concept.”   This goes back to the idea what you focus on expands.  The confirmation bias that you hold causes you to look for things that affirm your ideas or bias.   Suddenly everything you see acts in synchronization with your ideas and beliefs – the world is in alignment with your beliefs right or wrong.   If you are thinking creatively – expanding your capacity to better yourself or the world, what you are focusing on will expand for the better.  

What do your focus on?   Creative forces or something else?

start living today

“It takes courage to look at yourself and accept your imperfections. It takes courage to love yourself anyway. It takes courage to go beyond merely trying to survive your life and start trying to actually enjoy it.”  Seth Godin  “The Tribes Casebook”  http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/files/CurrentTribesCasebook.pdf

 

It takes courage to change.  It takes courage to want to be better than you are today.  It takes courage to live.

 

When do you want to start living?

 

 

 

What would make today remarkable?

What would make today a remarkable day?   Imagine if you could make today a remarkable day what would it be like?    Would that be enough for you?

Now, imagine if you made someone else’s day remarkable?   “The deepest need in human nature is the craving to be appreciated”, is what Williams James wrote.   If that is so, what could you do to make someones day remarkable?

All it would take would be to say a word of thanks, a word of encouragement, or in some cases a word to apologize and mend a fractured relationship.  All acts of kindness take courage, the courage to act and the courage to appreciate and acknowledge someone else.

Imagine if it was you that made someones day remarkable.   What would that be like?

Courage …

Alan Cohen wrote,

“It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.”

What do you think?

Power in change?   Do you have the courage to become something new?   By new it is not a physical change but a transformational change of looking at issues and problems in a new way.   To see the same problem in a different way may give you the strength to remove the problem.

Courage to change?

your hope

Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, “If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving; you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all.”

“No situation, however wretched it seems, but has some sort of comfort attending it” Goldsmith

There is hope. What is yours?

Explorer

It is easy to be brave from a safe distance.
Aesop

“As long as we are persistent in our pursuit of our deepest destiny, we will continue to grow. We cannot choose the day or time when we will fully bloom. It happens in its own time.” — Denis Waitley

“To make a man happy, fill his hands with work, his heart with affection, his mind with purpose, his memory with useful knowledge, his future with hope, and his stomach with food.” — Frederick E. Crane

On February 28, 1803, President Thomas Jefferson received the permission to send Lewis and Clark on a mission of discovery. Their goal was to explore uncharted territories, to learn about the West and to find the passage to the Northwest. Beyond the Mississippi was a mystery, it was the unknown land, it was where Indians lived and perhaps the Wooly Mammoth.

Lewis and Clark had to have great courage to face the obstacles that would challenge their expedition.

Our lives are like that Lewis and Clark expedition. We want to discover, we want to experience, and we want to live fully. Imagine the courage it took to face each day not knowing what you would see around the next bend in the Missouri River. Would you face sickness, weather, or the environment as each day progressed. Lewis and Clark experienced the wild; they lived in it and were challenged by it.

What are the necessary attributes to explore?

Courage

Destiny – Destination

Openness to change

Curiosity

Endurance

Vision

Transparency

Encouragement/Encourager

Are these the same attributes we need in the world we live in today? What makes those attributes important? How do those attributes inform you? How do you define those attributes? What other attributes does one need to perform in today’s world?

Smile brightly

Paul Loeb wrote this about Rosa Parks journey “suggests that change is the product of deliberate, incremental action, whereby we join together to try to shape a better world. Sometimes our struggles will fail, as did many earlier efforts of Parks, her peers, and her predecessors. Other times they may bear modest fruits. And at times they will trigger a miraculous outpouring of courage and heart – as happened with Park’s arrest and all that followed. For only when we act despite all our uncertainties and doubts do we have the chance to change.” From the real Rosa Parks, http://paulloeb.org/articles/rosaparks.htm

It takes courage to change. It takes a willingness to step out where you have never stepped before. The reminder is “what is the worst that could happen?” The worst thing that would happen is we would learn something. Even when the results are not what we expected that doesn’t mean that there was a failure, all it means is that the learning we gained was different than we predicted. We must take risks and change. We grow when we take risks and we grow when we change our thoughts, our actions and our opinions.

Take the time to change. Be rewarded by the experience. Smile brightly – smile brightly.

It does take courage – to change

“Courage is simply the willingness to be afraid and act anyway.”

Robert Anthony

Think about the courage it takes to try something new. Have you said, “I’m going to do it”, and then have failed to take that first step. What stopped you? Was it the lack of courage to make the leap?

Often we are stuck in the patterns of the past. We have tried something that involved risk and failed. That failure is like a tattoo that reminds us over and over again that we failed. Others may remind us that we failed once or twice perhaps more and that it is of no use to chase our dreams.

It is the stories we tell ourselves that holds us back. We repeat over and over and over again that we aren’t up to the challenge and as a result we step back from the edge. When we do that a bit of joy is taken from us. That is the price we pay for not taking that step, a bit of joy is drained from us.

The first thing to do is to rewrite the script that plays over and over in your mind that you can’t possibly realize your dreams. It is possible to realize your dreams. The plans and the methods may have to change to reach that goal and that is where coaching can play a part. A coach helps you see potentials that may have not been visible to you. It is an approach called “a new way”. Sounds so simple, “a new way”, but that is the key to the next level. The old way won’t do it, it hasn’t in the past and replaying that script again and again won’t change the outcome.

What will you do today to start doing things in “a new way”?