Dreams vs Goals
Goals often fail for two main reasons:
- They are not properly developed and designed: the goal is too vague or imprecise there, meaning there are no actions related to the goal (e.g. “eat healthier” or “buy a new phone”).
- There is a lack of genuine commitment to attaining the goals. The goals are not relevant to us or they do not have a meaningful reason behind them.
Most people believe they have goals, but more often they are really only dreams and wishes.
Dreams are imaginary pictures of what we desire, while goals are based on real actions that can help us achieve that picture. We need dreams to visualize our Best life and to know what is meaningful to us so we can get motivated to make changes and take action, but we also need realistic goals and objectives that help us progress on achieving our dreams.
Creating SMART Goals
The S.M.A.R.T goal-setting technique brings structure to setting sound goals, using criteria to improve the chances of accomplishing the goal. Your goals and objectives have a better chance of succeeding by applying this technique.
Did you know? (put text in a dialogue bubble)
S.M.A.R.T goal setting is a proven methodology introduced in 1981 by George T. Doran.
| S | Specific | Include details in your goals so that you are clear about what you are trying to attain. It is not good enough to say “I want to be healthy” or “I want to be rich”. You need to clearly visualize what our dream looks like, feels like, tastes like. Questions you can ask yourself to determine this are: “What exactly do I want to achieve?”, “How?”, “Where?”, “With whom?”. |
| M | Measurable | Define what evidence will prove that you are making progress or that you have achieved your goal. Break your goal down into concrete and measurable elements and/or numbers.Ask yourself questions like “how much?” or “how many?” |
| A | Achievable | Set goals that are challenging but that you can accomplish. We want to stretch to attain our goals, so nothing too small, but we should also be realistic as to not set ourselves up for certain failure. Dreaming big is important. There is a saying from Brain Littrell, “if you shoot for the moon, even if you miss you’ll land among the stars”. Keeping that in mind, it’s still important that you set achievable goals. Asking yourself: “how can the goal be achieved?” can give a sense of how achievable and challenging the goal is to you. |
| R | Relevant | Ask yourself why you want to reach this goal? What’s your reason behind the goal? Is this goal in alignment with your Best Life? Does it align with your personal core values? Will it move you closer to our “10”? |
| T | Time-Sensitive | Give yourself a deadline that motivates you and forces you to take action. Make sure the date is a realistic deadline, not too long or too short in order to not derail our goal and lose momentum.Unless our dreams have a due date, they will remain a dream. This is the biggest difference between a dream and a goal. Ask yourself different “when?” questions. |
*Design the chart to look more like this:
SMART VS Non SMART Goals
| Non SMART Goal | SMART Goal |
| I will exercise everyday. | S – I want to be stronger and get more physical exercise by going to the gym. M- The goal is to go to the gym for 1 hour, 4 days a week. A- I have attended the gym before so I am going to buy a membership to motivate myself. R- I want to achieve this goal because I was happy and felt strong going to the gym a year ago. T- By the end of this year I will strive to have attended the gym 150 times. |
Action Task:
Create a SMART Goal for each one of the 5 areas.
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