Our community loves these everyday tips to help them achieve their goals. So, how can we reach our goals faster? We’re sharing our most-used practices as three tips!
Tip 1: Set SMART Rocks
SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant & Timely. It’s an established acronym that you can use to plan and achieve your goals. SMART goals were developed by George Doran, Arthur Miller, and James Cunningham in their 1981 article “There’s a S.M.A.R.T. way to write management goals and objectives.”
SMART goals use a specific set of criteria to help ensure that objectives are clearly defined and attainable within a certain timeframe. Studies have shown that in 90% of the cases, specific and relevant goals led to higher performance than easy goals, “do your best” goals or no goals.
Specific
- What are you trying to do?
- Who is going to be part of the team?
- Why are you trying to do this?
Measurable
- How will you measure what you’re doing?
- How will you assess your achievement?
Attainable
- Can you reach your goal with the tools that you have?
- If not, what do you need?
Relevant
- Can you actually meet the goals you’re setting?
- What do you need to change about your goal to make it more realistic?
Timely
- What is the timeline of your goal?
An example of a smart goal is: “I will obtain a job as a software engineer within three months after graduating with my Bachelor of Science.”
Tip 2: Put your Rocks into writing.
Make it real and tangible! Writing down goals means that you can visually see them. Once we are able to see something, it affects the way we act—fun fact: we are 42% more likely to achieve our goals if we write them down. Moreover, there are many other reasons why you want to write down your goals besides attaining them—for instance, a boost in motivation, improvement of focus, and reduction of stress levels.
Tip: positively frame your goal and use words like “will” instead of “would like to” and “might”. Then, create a to-do list to follow up with your goals in smaller steps. Our FAST Rock Planner is a great tool that helps to divide your goal into milestones. Similarly, post your goals in visible places to remind yourself of them every day.
Tip 3: Stick with it!
We are tempted to think setting goals is a means to an end. Instead, it’s an ongoing process. Create reminders and take the time to check in with yourself on your goal status.
Sometimes small changes can help you reach your bigger milestones:
- Create accountability. Talk to a colleague or a friend about your goals. Come up with a way to report your progress. Many people feel more accountable to others than to themselves. This helps to motivate you.
- Make it smaller. Break your achievements down into smaller chunks. Once you start moving in the right direction, it’s easier to keep the momentum. This makes it more likely that you will finish the tasks.
- Give yourself a day off. You don’t have to commit every day of the week. A non-goal day can be restorative and give you the energy to keep going. Define your break’s start and end times and hold yourself to these.