What I use to help create these targets is what I call
SMARTS targets SMARTS stands for:
Simple, Sensory and Specific
Measurable and Meaningful
As If Now
Realistic
Time Framed
Smiley Factor
Some more about what these all mean:
"S": Simple is exactly that. Simple. Do not
make it too complicated, or long and drawn out. Most
people should be able to understand what it is. If it
is a goal around some specific field, most of your colleagues
should be able to understand your target.
"S": Sensory involves all of your senses.
You use your sense of vision. You hear things in this
picture and movie. You smell things in your movie of
your target. You feel things, both with your hands and
with your emotions. In your picture, you have the internal
voice in your head that you always have. You put all
of these different senses into your picture, as well
as the most important one, the inner knowing of your
heart brain. Make sure to get that in the picture or
movie as well.
"S": Specific. This is best illustrated with
an example. I have moved many times in my life. Every
time I moved, I created a list of what I want. And every
time there was a fireplace on that list. The first time,
I was looking at a place that had everything I wanted
but a fireplace. I mentioned this to the landlord and
she laughed. She took me into the unfinished basement,
and there was a plastic fireplace in the basement. I
learned from this, and when I was looking for the next
place I put a real fireplace on my list. I found a place
that had everything except a fireplace. I said this
to the landlord and he said that there was a fireplace.
It was just boarded up behind the wall. The next place
I moved into, I put a real working fireplace on the
list of what I wanted. I found a place with a real working
fireplace this time, but the landlord would not let
me use it. So finally I put on my list "a real
working fireplace I can use." And the next time,
I got it. You need to be specific.
"M": Measurable. There must be some specific
way in which you measure the results, a quantifiable
way that you know the goal is achieved.
"M": Meaningful. The target, the goal must
be meaningful to you. It must be something you want
and desire. If it means nothing to you, there will be
no reason to keep going for it. It does not work to
have it be something that someone else wants for you.
"A": As If Now. Write your movie in the present
tense, as if you are describing a situation that is
happening now. Tomorrow never comes. It is like the
sign "Free money tomorrow." You come back
the next day and the sign still says, "Free money
tomorrow." Tomorrow never comes. If you write your
goals in the future, the future never comes.
"R": Realistic. Your target must be believable
to you. If you do not think you can attain it, chances
are you probably will not attain it. Now, this means
two things. One, if you have a faulty belief system
about what you can and cannot do and you want to change
it, you might want to try my CDs. Two, "realistic"
is different for everyone. For some, making a million
dollars in one year is totally attainable. For others,
it is not. Make sure your target is realistic to you.
"T": Time Framed. Put a definite date on
your target. Put the date as if today is the date, and
write your goal with that date now. This is similar
to As If Now, but with an actual date or time frame.
"S": Smiley Factor. Make sure that you are
smiling and happy in the picture, that your goal includes
your being happy. Here is an example of why: You have
a goal to be in Italy within five years, but no smiley
factor. You get some rare cancer that the only know
treatment for is in Italy, and you have to fly there
to get your cancer treated. This is not what you want.
Make sure you do not have negatives in your goals.
It is not good to say something like "no more pain,"
because remember, what you focus on is what you get.
So if you are focusing on "no pain", "pain"
is actually what you are focusing on. If you don't want
this or that, you have to put it in your target as a
positive. Like if the pain were gone, what would be
there? You might be feeling great, or have free movement
in your neck or whatever. Just make sure you put all
the things you don't want in terms of what you would
have when they were gone, so you can focus on what you
want, because that is what you will get.
Interested in getting the most out of your life?
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