Hate SMART Goals? Try this instead…
It’s that time of year! The time that so many of us use to transform our lives. But how do we set goals that we actually want to achieve? That we don’t give up on?
in this post, I’m going to give you a test. a trick to help you do just that.
I’m also hosting a workshop tomorrow, January 4th, 2023, called “Achieve More with Less Burnout: Goal Setting for the New Year” where I include more of my best practices, but here, I’m giving you a taste of just that.
it’s called a transformation test.
A long time ago, I decided that I hated SMART goals. I might be the only one but I’ve never really liked them. I don’t like the “realistic” step, but more than that, I don’t think they answer all the most important questions when it comes to goal setting. So, I came up with what I call a transformation test.
Why? Because I think it has all of the most fundamental components for setting goals that actually have the potential to transform us. Not goals that we’ll give up when things go awry.
01. TIMELY.
The first step in the transformation test is that it needs to be timely. This is obviously similar to the SMART goals system because it remains absolutely fundamental that a goal is tied to a specific timeline and has a due date attached to it. Why? Because we need to have urgency attached to our goals otherwise we get lazy about them.
It’s actually a big reason why I recommend Quarterly goals, too. It helps to create that urgency. So, set a target deadline to light a fire under your butt…
02. Risky.
This is our first big deviation from the SMART goal system. Because I don’t like the “realistic” step. I get why they have it. We need to make sure we’re not setting ourselves up for failure by setting a goal that isn’t practical for us to achieve. But, here’s my opinion: most goals are actually practical, but the timelines we set for achieving those goals aren’t.
Do you want to compete in a triathalon? Awesome! You can. Do you want to do it in a month? Okay. Well, that’s probably not going to happen. But that doesn’t mean you should dumb down your goal to a 10K instead. Set the risky goal. Push yourself. But make sure your timeline (that timely piece from the last step) is practical.
Challenge yourself a bit too because, frankly, too easy isn’t motivating. It isn’t exciting. And you’re not going to want to show up to do it. How can we best do that? By setting 3 tiers of goals:
The Comfortable Goal. This is the goal that you know you can do. No problem. It’s easy. It’s within your comfort zone. This is the bare minimum goal that you’re aiming for, barring something catastrophic derailing you.
The Growth Goal. This one pushes you outside of your comfort zone. You know you’re going to have to challenge yourself. You know you’re going to have to push it a little, but it’s exciting and you want to do it!
The Intimidating Goal. This is the goal that it actually makes you a little uncomfortable to even articulate. The even speak words to. Because this one isn’t likely to happen, but it makes your entire soul vibrate with excitement. It’s one that really could only come together with insane effort and maybe a little luck. But it’s the big kahuna that you’re salivating over.
03. Actionable.
This is important and one of the big things that SMART goal setting forgets. Your goal has to be something that you have control over achieving. It’s got to be something that you can accomplish by the direct actions you take toward achieving it.
Like, as much as I want to say “take my business full-time”, that’s actually not an actionable goal. Even an income goal, in a lot of ways, isn’t an actionable goal because you can’t make your customers buy. But, what you are in control over is launching that product or that course. You are responsible for talking about it easily on your Instagram stories so people know about it and sharing about it in your newsletter each week. Those are actionable things you are in control of. And I think that’s important because our goals need to be things that are in our locus of control.
Those other things—take my business full-time or make $10K in a month? Those are outcomes. They’re not goals if you ask me. And those outcomes are things we can get so stuck on that we don’t celebrate all our other successes.
04. Non-negotiable.
This is the one that I find I neglect sometimes. I set a goal because I think I “should” or it “sounds good”, but my heart isn’t in it. This has to be a part of your goal-setting process. It has to be non-negotiable. Because if we’re going to be pouring our precious time into something, it can’t be a half-hearted commitment. It has to be something you truly want.
“Never half ass anything. Always use your full ass.”
05. Specific.
This is another one straight from the SMART goals playbook because this is important. We have to have clarity on exactly what our goals are (which—side note—also helps us get into flow) and that clarity comes from having specificity of precisely what our goal entails.
I’m talking pages written, miles run, etc. We need to know precisely when and if our goal is achieved, which will become important later too.
But it’s not just about our goals. It’s about the action steps we’re taking toward our goals. Those need to be specific too! We’re diving into this more in my BONUS training inside of the Anti-Burnout Collective Inner Circle this month, too, where I’m breaking down my goal-setting best practices and my exact systems and processes.
06. Forward-Focused.
I think this is another essential part of goals—and a big difference between coaching and therapy. Our goals need to be focused on improving our futures and not on changing our pasts.
Our pasts and the experiences of our past are simply data. They’re data for telling us what’s working and what’s not in our lives, from behaviors to mindsets and more. When we set goals, we can’t well on our pasts. We have to simply focus on what is in our control so that we can improve our futures. Dwelling in the past only keeps us stuck there. Learn from it. Let it inform your future. Then move on.
07. Ownership.
Another huge part of goal setting is our goals have to be something that we have ownership over. This ties back to our goal about it being “non-negotiable.” The non-negotiable piece is about the goal being something that we’re fully committed to.
This piece—ownership—is that gut check moment where we call ourselves out for chasing a goal that we don’t really want. For chasing a goal because we feel like we “should” or because someone in our lives wants us to. The goals we set for ourselves have to be goals that we own. And we can’t own something that someone else wants but we don’t.
So, if you’re caught up in “should”-ing, people-pleasing, and listening to what other people want for you more than what you want for yourself, it’s time for that gut-check moment where you call yourself out and make sure you’re owning the goals that you’re setting. And a way that we can have ownership is to make sure our goal is…
08. Relevant.
This one is so simple but so complicated all at the same time. If you’ve ever felt yourself get demotivated toward achieving your goal, it’s likely because you don’t have enough intrinsic motivation. What does that mean? The goal isn’t intrinsically valuable to you.
We can make our goals more intrinsically valuable by tying our goals to our why and our values. If your goals conflict with your why and your values, well, Houston! We have a problem!
09. Measurable.
Last but not least, we must ensure our goals are measurable. Why? So we can know how close (or far) we are from achieving it. I gamify my goals, which you can see a little bit of below.
I set up my Notion goal setting system with a Progress percentage, meaning as I tick things off my milestones and as I achieve and accomplish aspects of my goal, that progress bar ticks up. This is important psychologically for us because we need to know that our efforts aren’t in vain. That we’re making progress toward achieving the thing we’ve set out to achieve. That’s why it has to be measurable and, fortunately, the system that I have built into my Notion Digital planner and a soon-to-be-launched Goal Setting Template in Notion can turn any goal into one that we tick away and track our progress toward just like you see above!
so…screw smart goals!
There’s a better way that addresses some of what I believe to be the most important (and often neglected) things we need to think about when it comes to goal setting!
Happy New Year & Happy Goal Setting!
What do you think? Did it give you any ideas or things to try for yourself?
Drop a comment below!
