It’s that time of year again, folks. The month of January signals a fresh start, a chance to convince yourself that this is the year in which you’re going to make things happen. You’ve made one or two New Year’s resolutions (goals), and this time you’re definitely going to stick to them. But are you really?
I’ve never been a New Year’s resolution kind of gal just as I’ve never been a goal setter. I do things on impulse and so far, it’s worked out for me. This year, however, I thought I would try setting goals. With this in mind, I searched for information on best practices for setting goals.
My search results yielded an acronym, one acronym that rules all search results related to goal setting.
In the Land of Goal Setting where the Impossible lies. One Acronym to rule them all, One Acronym to find them, One Acronym to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.
See what I did there?
Almost every article and video about setting goals referenced SMART goals. The acronym stands for Specific, Measurable, Actionable/Achievable/Attainable (do we really need three adjectives?), Relevant/Relatable, and Time-bound/Time-based. One video added Evaluate and Reward at the end to make it SMARTER.
Breaking down this acronym was a goal in itself, and at times I thought, “Screw setting goals!” This feeling isn’t exclusive to me. Emmanuel Acho, a former linebacker for the Philadelphia Eagles, shared a similar sentiment on setting goals on Adam Grant’s podcast Rethinking. “I hate setting goals,” he says. “It makes me feel like I’m living in a box.” I concurred with a “hell yeah!” and a fervent nod as I made my way through Forest Park on my routine walk one Friday morning in late December.
As someone whose life’s purpose is all about avoiding feeling boxed in, I felt vindicated listening to Acho explain why he was against setting goals. He’s lived his life pursuing things in the moment, as have I, without thinking about the finish line. Why start something, anything, with the end in mind when it’s the journey that matters?
Acho makes the case for “setting goals for microscopic tasks for the macro picture” and staying away from setting life goals. Acho’s words provided the clarity I needed in determining what goals need planning and what goals do not.
Mindset
Let’s discuss the elephant in the room before moving on to mapping out your goals. Your mindset. I’m writing this on New Year’s Eve, and I’m sure there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people who are getting ready to make New Year’s goals for 2023 tonight.
The sad fact is that only 9% of people actually succeed in seeing their New Year’s goal(s) through to the end. The vast majority of people who set New Year’s goals quit by mid-January, a fact now celebrated as Quitter’s Day on the second Friday of the month.
While the blame is often placed on the vagueness of one’s goal, not writing it down, or not having a support system to hold one accountable (we need a support system now?), I, in my humble opinion, blame it on people not having the right mindset.
One of the key takeaways from Acho and Grant’s conversation is that no one should be setting goals to impress someone else. Amen! You’re doomed to fail, or, worse yet, you’re doomed to succeed at something you never liked or even wanted to do.
Before you put pen to paper, if you’re that serious about setting a goal(s), ask yourself if you’re setting a goal for yourself or for someone else. Goals are meant to be for your own personal or professional development, not to appease a parent, partner, or boss.
The next logical question: Are you willing to put in the time and effort to see your goal through to the end-ish? Like I said before, there’s no point in starting something with the end in mind when the journey is what’s most important, so don’t imagine the end of your goal at the start. The amount of time and effort you put in and the frequency with which you do this, the journey, will determine your success, however you define success.
Next, you need to figure out if your goal is a task or if it’s a life experience, with the former requiring a loose set of goals and the latter requiring an open, curious mind and the ability to adapt as you go a.k.a winging it.
Yes, you can wing it in life and still be successful. Even James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, admitted this in a recent YouTube interview with Peter Attia, MD, though he added that it’s better to create systems to maintain consistency and increase your chances at success.
Take a good introspective look at your goal before you do anything. Ask yourself: How much of what I want to achieve requires a plan? How much of it can be unplanned?
SMART Goals vs Winging It
Creating a SMART goal is advised for just about everything, and it’s touted as the best method to help you succeed in achieving your goals. While using this method has its benefits, I can’t help feeling boxed in by all the questions I have to answer for each word of the acronym.
Here’s how I really feel about SMART goals:
Specific: I know what I want.
Measurable: Why do I need to measure progress? I’ll know when I know.
Achievable: Yes, if I dedicate the time, put in enough effort, and maintain consistency.
Relevant: This should’ve been asked first.Time-based:Learning a skill is a never-ending endeavor. Why does it need an end?
Here’s how I should answer:
Specific: I want to improve my pronunciation, reading speed, and overall fluency in French.
Measurable: I can speak with a native French speaker via iTalki or Preply to receive external feedback.
Achievable: Yes, if I dedicate the time, put in enough effort, and maintain consistency.
Relevant: Yes. I’ve been learning French, on and off, for the past fifteen years.
Time-based: I’d like to see results by the beginning of summer. (I lied! I want to be fluent now, but I know that’s impossible.)
You should know exactly what you want to accomplish. If you don’t, take a step back until you figure it out.
Do you really have to measure your progress? One day you don’t know how to say, “Comment tu t’appelles?,” and then one day you will. How long it will take you to finally utter those words has more to do with how much time you put in than what steps you take.
The real answer to “Relevant” depends on two important questions that need to be asked first: Who are you doing this for? And are you willing to put in the time and effort to see this through? No matter what you want to accomplish this year or next, your goal(s) requires honesty and work.
Skills require the occasional tune up, so I’m not sure why anyone seeks an end to their endeavors. If you’re a language learner, language evolves and must be practiced to remain fluent. Technology is ever-evolving so even if you taught yourself how to code in today’s format, I’m sure there are steps you will need to take to stay on top of tomorrow’s innovations.
If you’re a die-hard goal setter, then by all means use this format to map out and complete all your goals that are tasks. I would caution you against completely taking the fun out of your goal. While the SMART method is a useful guide to help you achieve a task, it shouldn’t be applied to life experiences you want.
Your goal should bring some level of joy into your life, which is why I think I’ve been winging it when it comes to life experiences. It’s exciting to figure things out as you go. Structure is boring, restrictive, and it limits your ability to learn on the fly and adapt to unforeseen circumstances. This isn’t to say that I don’t do well in structured environments. I succeeded at following a very strict schedule during four weeks of flight attendant training, but my decision to become a Flight Attendant (a life experience) was made on impulse and the journey was completely unplanned.
Life doesn’t require goals, tasks do. Tasks are objectives, a function to be performed to acquire a skill. Life consists of “physical, mental, and spiritual experiences that constitute existence.” Life requires little bets, which allow you to discover new ideas and allow you to adapt as you go along. You can fully formulate a plan to tackle a task, but you can’t fully formulate a plan to tackle life.
Life is unpredictable and its unpredictability, if tackled with an open, curious mind, will provide you with valuable lessons that can be applied to different life scenarios. With this mindset, you won’t see life experiences as failures. If you apply the SMART method to life experiences, then you risk feeling like a failure because you failed to meet your goals or because you came up short.
What’s Next for You and Me?
Digging into this subject was an eye-opening experience because I learned the value in setting goals for tasks to ensure my success while keeping my spontaneous mindset intact for life experiences.
The SMART method is a useful guideline (keyword: guideline) for you and me to succeed at whatever task we want to accomplish, but it should not be used to plan out life experiences. It’s here where you (the reader) and I have to define what’s a task and what’s a life experience. I would put travel and career change in the category of life experiences, and I would move tasks into this category once an intermediate level of comprehension of that task or skill has been achieved.
Once that task or skill has been achieved, it becomes a part of your identity. Your identity is a part of your life experience, it’s not a task.
Self-improvement is an endeavor with no expiration date, so don’t concern yourself with the 9% of people who succeed in achieving their goals or the vast majority who give up. The journey is what matters most, and your journey should be defined by the time and effort you put in, not the end date.
J’ai lu votre message à mi-parcours d’une balade à vélo de 50 km. donc je suppose que je me fixe comme objectif de ne pas laisser l’hiver me gêner. plus tard
gréât lu Je me suis déjà engagé à apprendre cette langue. c’est un combat pour moi mais je reste avec.
I’ve always liked the idea of vision boards, and I guess you can always turn it into a SMART vision board. I think I’ve always been a winging it kind of person. I’ve also realized I’ve followed through on goals that I’ve set mid as opposed to the “I’ll start Monday” goals.
That’s awesome. I like the idea of having a vision board. I don’t the space for it. Perhaps, I can create a vision board wallpaper for my laptop.