Here we are, moments away from #2021! I would like to assume that you have spent some time reflecting on this past year and deciding on new goals and intentions for the next 365 days. As cliché as it may sound about new year resolutions, I have increasingly grown more appreciative of the process and begun to focus on manifesting them with greater intent. However the process it has been for you, I hope you will discard and let go of everything that you know is holding you back, that which no longer serves you. The general rule of thumb to guide myself every year at time like now (31-Dec) when I look back the past years would always be detachment, and attunement for the next one, on moment-by-moment basis. What ideally encapsulates these two are gratitude and forgiveness and last but not least, by embracing faith every step of the way. The model looks something like this:
For many years, as part of the annual performance evaluation and personal development planning at work, I have gotten accustomed to using S.M.A.R.T. principle to setting new (career) goals for myself. In part, I have followed that approach out of mere obligation and for professional reasons only, if anything else. When it comes to new year resolutions, they came through as my ultimate 'wish list' or write-it-and-forget-about it list, at best. More recently, as also shared here, I have been reminded that goals without a deadline are mere directions. Words can really play with our way of thinking, can't they? It got me thinking for a bit, although it has been there embedded in the S.M.A.R.T. principle all along!
While S.M.A.R.T. principle is efficient and effective (provided we follow through with it), I have learned this year to also add two more components to it which makes it even S.M.A.R.T.-E.R. and more importantly, sustainable. To understand this better, let's do a quick recap on them and I would like to invite you to take heed on the last two addendums as I truly believe that only when we prioritize these that our S.M.A.R.T. goals will realize with much more satisfaction and sometimes, in a shorter timeframe.
SPECIFIC - I call this "down to the details". For example, a goal that sounds like "I want to lose weight" or "I want to get a better job" are too generic to work on. They have to be adjusted to sounding more like: "To lose x kg" and "To get the x role at Company y, with annual salary starting at z". Our goals must provide us with clarity.
MEASURABLE: There must be a way that you can measure your progress over time. Remember, progress means happiness! Applying the same examples above, on weight loss, it can mean to hire a fitness coach or track your food consumption; on finding a new job, it would be to seek relevant contacts and new CV write-ups. This concerns way to track how you are doing along the way based on the actions taken. This is where I see most fitting to apply the chunking method where you break each goal down to its baby steps and that which introduces some ease to executing them.
ATTAINABLE: Be realistic! For examples (albeit extreme, but you get the point), trying to lose 20kg in a week is brutally crazy, or applying for a role of Director with only 2 years of work experience is nuts and signing yourself up for ridicule. So, your goals must make sense and somewhat achievable to set yourself up for success. You will understand why.
RELEVANT: This criterium looks at the context that your specific goal applies to - for instance, your goal as an individual, a business owner, a spouse, an employee, a manager, a parent, a group member or a (global) citizen).
TIME-BOUND: To repeat the aforementioned, goals without deadline are mere directions! Do not mistaken directions for goals. Ask yourself 'by when?' for each specific goal you have, focus and take massive actions to making them happen. This would mean, for instance, 'to lose x kg by 30-June' and 'to land the next ideal job by 31-August'. This way, they become clearer and not sure if it is for you as it is for me, I can feel the higher drive and motivation at this point. Without this, we tend to spiral into procrastination loop.
ENERGIZING or EMOTION: Finally I have arrived at one of my main points huh :). Many of us tend to do this new year resolution ritual thing, revelling in the year-end momentum, without much intent. In other words, goals are good to have, and we will do it, if we ever find time for it. The reason for this almost always has to do with our motivation and the good news is, we have control over it from the get-go. By crafting goals that energize us, by no doubts uplifiting and from where we will find even the tiniest sparks of joy doing - this way, it defines our enthusiasm which will keep us going. Executing on goals that you dread just by the thought of it, is sure-fire mood-killers and downright unproductive. Simply put, don't do it if it does not bring any fun in the course of you doing it! Otherwise, tweak them until they do. Be kind and gentle with yourself. One other reminder here would be that, success without joy is not fulfillment.
REVIEW: You see, our goals are not exactly set to stone and we hold the key to adjusting them as we see fit, embodying all criteria of S.M.A.R.T.E.R. principle. By adjusting, it means to be flexible with them and evaluate whether the goals will need more refined executable steps or actions, be dropped due to changes in circumstances hence no longer relevant and new ones be adopted as a result. Very often we start with some high-level ideas while doing a braindump and later encounter challenges to turn these ideas into actions of fulfillment. What usually follows is that we abandon them to gather dust. We are the only chokeholds of all possibilities and once we understand this, the sky is the limit.
In these final moments of 2020, don't fret even if you have not thought about any goals. Start from where you are. For many, it has been an odd and different year, to say the least, let us find the silver lining in the cloud and be grateful that we are still alive. That said, we have every chance to making things better by taking what we have learned, and thrive even more in 2021. Despite what an intense year it has been riding the uncertainties, I hope that we can have a stellar start to a brand new chapter and embrace everything that is yet to come, in great vigor and faith. Let's do this!
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU AND YOUR LOVED ONES, see you in #2021!
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