Goals 

SMART Goals… a new twist on tradition  

It is generally accepted that the SMART acronym was first written down in November 1981 in Spokane, Washington. George T. Doran, a consultant and former Director of Corporate Planning for Washington Water Power Company published a paper titled “There’s a S.M.A.R.T. Way to Write Management’s Goals and Objectives”

Doran’s original definition tied in five criteria:

Specific:target a specific area for improvement.

Measurable: quantify, or at least suggest, an indicator of progress.

Assignable: specify who will do it.

Realistic: state what results can realistically be achieved given available resources.

Time–related: specify when the result can be achieved.

Here is the new twist to add to Doran’s original list.

• Special – Make your goals special, compelling, and while your at it make them BIG. As we grow to adulthood we often forget how to dream.  Plan some free time and just dream about what you want in your life.  Take a long drive, or a long walk, or just turn off all the noise and give yourself permission to dream.  It all starts there. Don’t put limits on your dreams with time and money and outside relationships, just dream with no qualifications or judgments.

• Mandatory – Mom always said, “Don’t burn your bridges.” Well, Mom didn’t know anything about goals. Burn your bridges and don’t give yourself and option to fail.  Trap yourself into success with no turning back.  Make it happen! When you don’t have any other option success is the only outcome!

• Awesome – Imagine how you will feel when you accomplish your goal(s). Use the power of visualization.  When you visualize the desired outcome you are actually placing groves in your brain and your thought patterns.  This repetitive action cause your subconscious to drive your behavior.  Napoleon Hill wrote about this in his classic, “Think and Grow Rich”.  He goes on to write: “Faith is the ‘eternal elixir’ which gives life, power, and action to the impulse of thought!”

• Regular – Check and review your goals on a regular basis. Daily is recommended. Find some kind of visual representation from a magazine, a picture or somewhere and keep it where you can see it every day! This will stimulate your Reticular Activator. We’ll talk about this in detail in Part IV of this series. In short, by keeping a visual representation of your goal in sight will attract the necessary means to achieve it.  Whatever you think about most will manifest itself into reality!

• Total – Total commitment is necessary!  Commitment is defined by time, money and effort.  All three must be present to achieve your dreams and goals.   Commitment is doing whatever it takes no matter what as long as it’s moral and ethical.  Making the decision to commit is the first step.

If you’d like more info, contact me.

#GoodSelling

-Rocky