According to research, only 8% of people always achieve their goals and targets. Their secret lies within the ability to articulate clearly what they want.
The target that is formulated and voiced correctly is the first step towards achieving it.
To become one of the lucky 8% who succeed in life, use the SMART TECHNIQUE, which helps to formulate a Target correctly, put it into words and make it precise, understandable and achievable.
– SPECIFIC. The target should be clear and specific. You need to be aware of the clear result. One Target — one result. Otherwise, how do you know what you need to do at all? Instead of “work out”, you need to specify “start running in the morning” or “buy a gym membership”.
– MEASURABLE The target must have a certain result. You can use figures (statistics) or your own criteria to understand that the Target has been achieved. To understand where the measure of success is, instead of “lose weight” formulate your goal like this: “lose 5 kg”.
– ACHIEVABLE. If the Target seems unachievable, then the probability to achieve it is reduced to zero. Don’t raise the bar too high. You may be limited in time, resources, investments, experience — all this will hinder you from reaching your Targets. Set Targets based on your strength. Find out which ways will help you get closer to what you want. Let’s take the example with weigh loss again. The achievable Target will sound like “lose 5 kg in a month”, and not “lose 5 kg in a week”.
– TIMEBOUND. Set a deadline. If you exceed it, it will indicate that you haven’t achieved the Target. If you do not set yourself the goal to learn English to the B1 level in a year, or lose weight by one size in a month, then you can go to the Target endlessly with no success.
A clearly formulated Target, which is achievable, measurable, and relevant, coupled with restrictions and clear deadlines stimulate us, keep us in good shape and do not let us relax. Otherwise, our Targets would remain our Dreams forever.