Why You Shouldn’t Reach For The Stars

The A in SMART Goals stands for attainable. When you set goals, you should make sure they are attainable – your goals should be within reach for you. Although the goals you set should take you out of your comfort zone and excite you, your goals should stay within reach. If a goal is impossible to achieve, your efforts are wasted. It is unproductive to spend time and energy on a goal that can never be achieved. You will lose motivation and want to give up if you are unable to achieve success or celebrate milestones along the way. Instead, set a goal that you can achieve. This way, you’ll stay focused and motivated and have a chance at greater success. Make sure that your goal is not only unattainable but that it is also worded in a way that allows you to take responsibility for your goal. You should phrase your goals in such a way that you have control over the outcome. No one other than yourself should be the subject of your goal.

You should formulate achievable goals with success in mind. For example, let’s say you believe that you would benefit professionally if you read more books that relate to your business. So your goal might be, “I will read a business-related book for 20 minutes every night before I go to bed, with a goal of reading one business book a month for six months.” This goal is achievable because what you are asking of yourself is reasonable and doable. Also, the goal involves only one person, yourself, following through to ensure success.

Another way to realize achievable goals is to set stage goals. Staging goals are small objectives that you can set for yourself along the way to achieving your goal. For example, in the example above, a stage goal might be to check in once a week. Reviewing your own accountability is a great way to stay on track. When you’ve met your weekly goal, in this case reading your business book for 20 minutes every night, you’ll know you’ve made progress toward your goal. As we already know, tracking or measuring your progress contributes to a higher success rate. Keep your goals challenging, but achievable, and you will be well on your way to reaching your goals.