1、A NEW METHOD FOR GOAL SETING Most people have heard of the SMART method of goal seting. This is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Atainable, Realistic and Timeline. It provides a basic formula on how to construct goals and how to go about achieving them. SMART is a useful tol however Ive never be
2、n overly fond of it. I fel it limits people in believing what they could achieve; people set so-caled “realistic” goals only to be disapointed. The goals they set are to easy to atain or are not very inspiring so they dont have the passion necessary to drive them forward. I believe you should set go
3、als that initialy may intimidate you. They should move you out of your comfort zone. They should stir up felings within you that ake you to lok at how you aproach life and how you view the world and yourself. Its ben said that if you continue to do what youve always done, youl continue to get what y
4、ouve got. So if you desire a diferent outcome you wil ned to do things diferently. Big goals by their very nature require you to do things diferently. Dreaming big stirs up passion within you so you can use this feling to make the necessary changes in yourself to achieve your goals. Now dont get me
5、wrong. Im not advocating wishful thinking here. Hoping to achieve something without changing yourself is wishing. Wanting to achieve a goal by opening yourself to the required changes is purposeful goal seting. In our “instant gratification” culture we seem to have forgoten that some goals wil take
6、a certain time to reach, especialy when it comes to health and fitness. Our body systems ned time to adapt to changes. Peter Druker, a top business guru, said, “People overestiate what they can accomplish in one year but underestimate what they can accomplish in five years.” It may take some time bu
7、t EVERYONE is capable of achieving their dreams if we alow ourselves to believe strongly enough and are open to taking the necessary steps. So dont be afraid of seting BIG goals for yourself. With this in mind, Ive come up with what I fel is a more passionate and dynamic method to goal seting. Ive c
8、aled it the INSPIRE Method and Il outline each of the steps below. INSPIRE Yourself to Reach Your Goals I Identify clearly what you want. A favourite quote of mine is “If you dont know where it is youre going, youl never get there.” People often dont achieve goals because they dont know hat they wan
9、t. One of the best ways to clearly identify what you want is to write it down. By the very act of writing down your goals you increase your chances of success. Did you know that only 3% of people actualy take the time to write out their goals? No wonder a vast majority of people “fail” to achieve su
10、ccess. They have no idea what success loks like for them! When writing out your goals focus on what you want in the positive. Lets use weight loss as an example. Dont say I want to lose five pounds, say I AM 140 lbs. For achieving a god level of fitness and health say I AM fit, healthy and powerful.
11、 Dont wory about the how yet, simply and clearly state what you want to achieve. N Nuture your desires. Use your emotions to align yourself with your goals. You can use various techniques to help you capture the energy of your emotions to propel you toward your goals. One technique is visualization.
12、 Spend a few minutes every day siting in a quite environment where you can picture your goal. Experience the feling of having reached your goal NOW. Be very vivid with your imagination; the more senses you can involve the beter. Sights, smels, sounds, touch use any or al of these senses to create a
13、real life image of your goal achieved. Using the example of weight loss again (this sems to be a popular goal for many people in January), picture what your body wil fel like at your desired weight. How il your clothes fit? How does it fel to have more energy? Or perhaps youve ben living with back p
14、ain or kne pain. How does it fel to not have the pain? How does it fel to move easily and without restriction? Harness these felings to drive you. Your body doesnt know the diference from an imagined event to a “real” event. Research on top athletes has shown they activate the same muscles in the sa
15、me paterns when visualizing as they do when they actualy perform their event. Using the power of your mind can set up the right physiology in your body to achieve your fitness goals. By believing first we wil then see the results. S Suport yourself. Ask anyone who has achieved anything and they wil
16、tel you they had help along the way. Whats the first thing award winers do at award shows? They pul out their thank you list of people who helped them achieve their goal. Sek friends, family, professionals, boks, and groups; whatever it is that can help you. This is one of the main reasons why peopl
17、e hire fitness coaches. We give them advice and suport to achieve their fitness and health goals. Marathon runers almost always train in groups. While the event is an individual sport, the group suport gets the runers through the weks and months of tough training they ned to finish a marathon. We al
18、 ned help and that help is always available if we alow our selves to receive it. P Plan. This is where you work on the “how”. Things like scheduling, what tols wel use, how often wel workout, deadline for your goal, etc. Using the example of a marathon, you pick a date for your race, you plan how of
19、ten and when youl run, what days youl do your long run, how youl structure your training period and so on. Another often used quote is “Failing to plan is planing to fail.” This is so true. Not planing is another key reason people fail to achieve goals. It is during this stage where you can break do
20、wn a big goal into bite-sized chunks and divide it into smaler goals. Olympic athletes spend four years preparing for an event. During those years they have qualifying events that push them forward to the ultimate event. Process goals are very important in the planing stage. What I mean by process g
21、oal is the purpose of the goal isnt dependent on the outcome but rather the focus is on the “doing”. Lets say your ultimate goal is to lose 40 lbs. This is an outcome goal, you know where or not youve succeeded by loking at the scale. Success is measured by the outcome. To achieve this goal you know
22、 you ned to watch what you eat and exercise. So you devise a plan where youl exercise four times a wek and eat at regular times each day. These are process goals. Success isnt determined by some outcome but rather by the actual “doing” the process of working out four ties per wek and eating balanced
23、 meals at regular intervals. I Initiate action. Youve set yourself a big goal, youve harnessed your emotions to drive you and youve come up with a plan. The next step is to take a step each day towards your goal. As the ancient Chinese proverb says, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a singl
24、e step.” Do not judge your actions; there are no big or smal steps. Only steps. What might seem like a “smal” step now could turn out to be huge later on. Some days the action might be to just rewrite your goals or to use your visualization technique to motivate yourself again. Lets go back to the w
25、eight loss example. Action could entail strenuous physical activity as in working out or it could be caling around to find a god fitness coach to help you design the most efective program for you. R Release your goal. Set your goal but do not hang onto to it to tightly. If we get to caught up on the
26、 goal it can become an anchor. I know this may sound confusing. Up to this point Ive ben teling you to focus on your goals, write them out, visualize them, get out of your comfort zone and now Im aparently teling you to forget them? Wel in a way, I am. Let me explain. Did you ever realy want somethi
27、ng, I mean realy, realy want soething but no mater how hard you tried you just couldnt get it? And were there times when you tried something you realy didnt care much about and you got it right away? What hapened? The pressure we put on ourselves to do something overwhelms us and undermines our succ
28、ess. You ned just the right amount of pressure to move you out of you comfort zone but not enough to break you. Sometimes the pressure of wanting is to much. Besides would you rather want to be fit or just to be fit? Often we ned only to alow ourselves to achieve our goal and then get out of our own
29、 way. A great resource for releasing goals is a bok caled The Sedona Method by Hale Dwoskin (Sedona Press). E Evaluate/evolve/enjoy. Check back periodicaly to see how youre doing. Are you doing al the process goals you ned to? Are you stil passionate about your goal? You may decide your goal isnt so
30、mething you realy wanted to pursue and chose a more apropriate goal. Or you may achieve it. Either way youl be hapier for it. Let me give you an example from y own life. I love runing and have competed in any races from 5k to over 60km. A few years ago I set myself the goal of runing a marathon. I d
31、id al the training and finished but I wasnt hapy with my result nor did I enjoy myself during the race or the trainig. Part of me wanted to do another marathon to improve on my time because I know my body is capable of it. So I set myself another goal of runing a faster marathon. I set my goal time,
32、 laid out y plan and then let go of the goal. The result? I havent run a marathon since my first one. And Im not disapointed in myself at al. You se I came to realize I just dont get much joy or hapiness runing on city strets for a long time. Id rather run twice as long on the mountain trails. Runin
33、g another marathon was a goal only for my ego. Im passionate about trail runing and have no problem with discipline when it coes to preparing for a race on the trails. So now I run in the city for shorter runs since its more convenient but al my long runs and races are on the trails. Remember, the p
34、oint of al this is to enjoy the ride. Working towards your goals should bring you hapiness and fulfilment. Sure there might be some dificult moments during the process but it should not fel like a prison term. Even if its tough work you should fel joy most of the time as you move towards your goal.
35、The more you do, the sooner you wil reach your goal. Make 207 a Breakthrough Year! Use the INSPIRE process to set and reach your goals in 207. Dont wait until January 1st, get a head start on the New Year and start today. Think about some things that youd truly like to achieve. Dont wory if you dont
36、 have it al figured out right now. If your goals scare you a litle, thats okay. Go through the steps and see what hapens. If you folow each of the steps and take the time to do them corectly Im certain youl be pleased with the results. Have a breakthrough year in 207! Curb Ivanic “Its a funy thing about life. If you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.“ Somerset Maugham
