Are you sure a good goal has to be specific, measurable, etc? In this article, you will find out which goals really work in daily practice.
"Successful people are ordinary people with successful habits."
Bryan Tracy.
End of holidays: time of "new beginnings" for many of us and above all a period of new goals. In the previous article we saw how it takes a healthy dose of aggression to reach an ambitious goal.
Today I leave the floor to Alexander Reif of StrategieVincenti.net, who will tell us about an important distinction that must be made when it comes to objectives and which are the objectives that give the best results. Go Alex: please, treat them well! ;-)
Do you really need SMART goals?
Have you ever set yourself a goal like this: "I want to lose 5 kg in 60 days!" ? (adapt the number of kg and days to your specific case and read on). The question is: did you then reach it? If you answered YES', congratulations, bravo! (but the questions for you are not finished yet ;-))
Did you then manage to maintain that weight? Because this is the real goal: to reach a new level e keep it or even continue to improve it.
If you answered DO NOT or you have not been able to maintain the results achieved, then you have wondered what went wrong?
Still, I'm sure you've applied GetPersonalGrowth's advice by avoiding the 5 junk techniques like the plague and focusing only on the 5 effective techniques to achieve a goal… right ?!
I'll tell you a little trick that personal development gurus almost never share (they repeat to you to the point of boredom to define a SMART goal: Specific, Measurable, leading to Action, Achievable and Timeable), it is actually much more "smart. ”Distinguish these 2 types of target:
Let's see in detail these 2 types of objectives.
RESULT objectives
A result objective is aimed at achieving a certain result (taking up the example above: losing 5 kg of weight), it has the advantage that - at times - it can be more motivating, but it often happens that when the goal is to return - sooner or later - to the initial condition (in the example we are carrying out, it means regaining weight).
PROCESS objectives
A process objective, on the other hand, aims at acquiring and installing a process, i.e. installing ahabit!
The nice thing about process goals is that you can get started pianissimo (for example, do only 10 minutes of physical activity a day). The goal therefore is not to lose 5 kg, but to do Everyday only 10 minutes of physical activity.
Do you think it is easier to lose 5 kg or to do just 10 minutes of physical activity every day?
At a guess, I would say that our brain labels the second activity "simpler".
And you know where the power of the process objectives? Once you get used to it, even for a very short activity (such as doing physical activity only for 10 minutes), this means that you have managed to take action and have organized yourself to carve out a small time frame every day. for you, without family, work or anything else interfering with this commitment you have made with yourself.
This also means that you have found a place to carry out your business, you have what you need at your disposal (for example tracksuit and sneakers): in short, your goal has a “physicality”, it is becoming concrete right from the start. At this point, increasing the length of your daily appointment from 10 minutes to 12 minutes is really easy to achieve. Just as it will spend 15-20 or even 30 minutes a day! ;-)
The power of habits
Can you see the extent of the change in this approach? Process goals have the ability to shift your focus from the future to the present: the moment you are fulfilling your daily habit you are actually achieving your goal.
If you did 30 minutes of physical activity every day, your body would resume oxygenating, your joints would begin to regain elasticity, your muscles to tone up, your mood to improve, your mental clarity to expand, your self-esteem to increase. and when you have lost the famous 5 kg we were talking about before, it is very unlikely that you will suddenly break your habit: at this point the 5 kg lost will be just a natural consequence of a daily habit that is your real goal.
It's a bit like brushing your teeth: you don't sit there thinking about it or weighing the pros and cons. You simply do it automatically and in the end, without even realizing it, you find yourself a white smile. In short, you've put your goals on autopilot.
