Afternoon, everyone!
So let's talk about goal setting. Who has set up a bunch of new years' resolution? Who has failed at keeping to it? I think it's safe to say most of us use the new year to improve ourselves in some way but often times it just doesn't work. I was taught a wonderful method of creating goals in therapy that has really helped with achieving my goals. According to the Chartered Management Institute, the technique was introduced by Peter Druker and G.T. Doran and has been praised for its effectiveness. So what is it? The SMART follows the form of an acrostic poem in which each letter of the word 'SMART' spells out a word that you should keep in mind when creating a goal.
Specific: when creating a goal, you have to very specific on exactly what you are seeking to achieve. Let's use running a marathon for example. Simply writing 'run a marathon' is not going to help you visualise exactly what you are seeking to do. It doesn't specify what marathon or the length of the marathon. Instead, writing 'run the Brighton marathon' will make it that bit more realistic.
Measurable: you have to think about how to measure your progress. This could be having particular time constraints on your practice runs or be having targets to run a particular number of miles within an x amount of weeks. Setting yourself up for a trajectory upwards with targets in the interim will help you progress and keep you accountable.
Achievable: don't set yourself up for failure. If your physical activity is incredible low, having a goal such as 'run a marathon' can be daunting and appear unachievable so set smaller targets in the middle. Attempt to run smaller distances and work upwards rather than trying to skip all the interim steps to get to the peak. Make your goal something that can be foreseeable and doable in the future. Of course, the point of a goal is to improve yourself so there will be some aspect of a challenge but make sure it's something healthy and something that is not impossible.
Realistic: again don't set yourself up for failure. Here, you have to consider your lifestyle and your time and the resources that are available to you. Say you work every single weekday 9 am to 7 pm. You have the remaining time within those days to work out and practice your running. Imagine you also work a physically draining job. It will be impossible for you to work out during the weekdays without exhausting yourself. So think about the changes you can make within your life to accommodate this new goal. If you can't work out during weekdays, you could always work out during the weekend. Think about all the constraints that are put into your life and think of how you can best overcome them or change your goals to fit into your life. It is a tight line to walk but as you progress you will make changes to your goals to fit better and be more productive.
Time-bound: make sure your goal doesn't simply last forever. Make it so that you have a deadline. It can be as strict or flexible as you'd like. A deadline will keep you accountable to making steps towards getting to your goal. It will keep you on track and also help you change things to improve your progress.
You can also jot down steps or people you could see to keep yourself moving forward. It's useful to have a method or technique you can follow to keep yourself on track. It will make your journey a lot easier.
Hope this method helps you out. I will see you all in my next post!
Sincerely Sinthu
So let's talk about goal setting. Who has set up a bunch of new years' resolution? Who has failed at keeping to it? I think it's safe to say most of us use the new year to improve ourselves in some way but often times it just doesn't work. I was taught a wonderful method of creating goals in therapy that has really helped with achieving my goals. According to the Chartered Management Institute, the technique was introduced by Peter Druker and G.T. Doran and has been praised for its effectiveness. So what is it? The SMART follows the form of an acrostic poem in which each letter of the word 'SMART' spells out a word that you should keep in mind when creating a goal.
Specific: when creating a goal, you have to very specific on exactly what you are seeking to achieve. Let's use running a marathon for example. Simply writing 'run a marathon' is not going to help you visualise exactly what you are seeking to do. It doesn't specify what marathon or the length of the marathon. Instead, writing 'run the Brighton marathon' will make it that bit more realistic.
Measurable: you have to think about how to measure your progress. This could be having particular time constraints on your practice runs or be having targets to run a particular number of miles within an x amount of weeks. Setting yourself up for a trajectory upwards with targets in the interim will help you progress and keep you accountable.
Achievable: don't set yourself up for failure. If your physical activity is incredible low, having a goal such as 'run a marathon' can be daunting and appear unachievable so set smaller targets in the middle. Attempt to run smaller distances and work upwards rather than trying to skip all the interim steps to get to the peak. Make your goal something that can be foreseeable and doable in the future. Of course, the point of a goal is to improve yourself so there will be some aspect of a challenge but make sure it's something healthy and something that is not impossible.
Realistic: again don't set yourself up for failure. Here, you have to consider your lifestyle and your time and the resources that are available to you. Say you work every single weekday 9 am to 7 pm. You have the remaining time within those days to work out and practice your running. Imagine you also work a physically draining job. It will be impossible for you to work out during the weekdays without exhausting yourself. So think about the changes you can make within your life to accommodate this new goal. If you can't work out during weekdays, you could always work out during the weekend. Think about all the constraints that are put into your life and think of how you can best overcome them or change your goals to fit into your life. It is a tight line to walk but as you progress you will make changes to your goals to fit better and be more productive.
Time-bound: make sure your goal doesn't simply last forever. Make it so that you have a deadline. It can be as strict or flexible as you'd like. A deadline will keep you accountable to making steps towards getting to your goal. It will keep you on track and also help you change things to improve your progress.
You can also jot down steps or people you could see to keep yourself moving forward. It's useful to have a method or technique you can follow to keep yourself on track. It will make your journey a lot easier.
Hope this method helps you out. I will see you all in my next post!
Sincerely Sinthu
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