Be S.M.A.R.T. and Crush Your 2020 Goals!
You know that feeling you get when you reach your goals – Yeah, that the one! You’re ecstatic ready to take on the world – you can do anything you put your mind to!
Goal setting is a positive, powerful practice when it ignites enthusiasm and provides clear direction.
So why don’t most people succeed in achieving their goals?
When practiced poorly, goal planning has a severe disadvantage which could undermine your success. Poor goal planning makes human beings cynical, wastes time and fosters confusion about where to concentrate your actions and energy.
The following are 5 Reasons why many businesses fail to reach their goals and solutions how you can avoid these pitfalls when your work S.M.A.R.T.
No.1 — Loss of Focus
It’s hard to stay laser-focused for an elongated period of time. Even for people that are highly driven to succeed, losing focus is commonplace. There are all sorts of interruptions in life that can aid in a loss of focus. Clearly, problems can and do arise often.
No.2 — Absence of Strong-Enough Reasons
You have to have a commitment and strong enough reasons for wanting to achieve goals. It has to go deeper than “I want a bigger house” or more money. A goal has to be deep-rooted enough into who you are – something that compels you to see it through.
No.3 Lack of Planning
You have to create a plan toward achieving your goals. But you can’t just set it and forget it. You have to work on that Plan every single day be deciding “What will I do to tackle my most important tasks for the day? How will I manage my time effectively so that I don’t get distracted?
No.4 — The Inability to Act
Progress is stifled by procrastination. The longer we wait to act, the harder it is to break the cycle of inaction. We need to push past the obstacles we face to overcome procrastination.
How? There is a simple exercise – It’s called the 15-minute rule. Set a timer on your phone for 15 minutes and commit to doing the one task that you’ve been putting off for exactly that amount of time. Why only 15 minutes? Once the 15 minutes are up, you’ll keep going. But even if you don’t, you just broke the cycle of inaction. It’s that initial inability to act that tends to hold us back. All you have to do is break that pattern.
No.5 — Bad Habits that Hold us Back
Habits comprise 45% of human behavior. Habits help to automate the mundane tasks, but can also significantly hold us back from achieving our dreams.
So, we need to find ways to overcome bad habits and instill good ones. To do this start slowly and implement the S.M.A.R.T. Goals Strategy.
S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Attainable/Achievable
R – Relevant
T – Timely
Specific – State what you’ll do. Use action words.
Measurable – Provide a way to evaluate. Use metrics or data targets
Attainable/ Achievable – Within your scope, skillset. It’s possible to accomplish
Relevant – Makes sense with your business or job function. Improves the business in some way.
Time-Based – State when you’ll get it done. Be specific on the date or time frame.
S.M.A.R.T. EXAMPLE:
Specific: I’ll increase website traffic through consistent blogging.
Measurable: I will install Google Analytics and monitor traffic each month.
Attainable: Each week (on the same day of the week and at the same time of day), I’ll publish a new blog post about my industry using relevant keywords.
Relevant: New, quality content on my website each week will make me more visible to search engines.
Time-based: I’ll see a 30% increase in traffic within 12 months.
Now, it’s your turn. Choose 1-3 Goals that you want to achieve within the first 3 months of 2020, write them down and apply the S.M.A.R.T. Goal formula. But stay the course and don’t get distracted. Then let us know how you do.
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Before you set 2020 Goals, First Determine Your Brand Identity
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