Happy New Year! It’s that time to reflect, assess & set yourself that New Year resolution goal to strive towards! Here we touch on being SMART with your personal target setting for the New Year ahead in order to maximise your potential for success and achievement.
In the past, I would traditionally set myself up to fail over New Year resolutions. So much so, that at one point I stopped setting them altogether.
However, now a Dad and a little bit older and wiser, I have taken accountability over personal targets and for the past three New Years, I have set myself SMART personal goals each New Year; which in turn have benefited both my family and I.
From using a New Year resolution to drive me towards completing a qualification – to using this as motivation to embrace daily exercise and living a healthier lifestyle, I have learnt to enjoy setting myself little personal goals, to aid self improvement and personal development.
When setting my resolutions over the last few years I use the SMART acronym and apply this in my own way. You may be familiar with this as a form of goal setting at work or within the world of business.
For the rest of this article, I will share how I apply this in my personal Goal Setting each new year.
When setting your goals this year, why not consider the following to make your targets more achievable:
Specific
Be specific!
What is it you actually want to achieve or work towards?
Break your target down.
Rather than stop drinking alcohol altogether and go cold Turkey for example, turn it into a daily target or array of weekly goals,
e.g) I will not drink today. I will minimise my intake this week. I will have two units on a Friday. I will research/ seek professional help this week etc.
Set yourself an overall aim.
Then break that down into manageable steps to make this target more realistic.
Measurable / Manageable
How can you measure your achievement?
Set regular deadlines or target dates to monitor your development and to aid progression to the next goal or ‘step’ towards your ultimate aim.
Make your targets realistic by breaking your overall goal into manageable steps.
Like training for a marathon, build up to your overall goal to make it more…
Achievable
Make your resolution achievable. After all, you wouldn’t apply to study a Masters degree, without doing the foundation years of hard study first right!
I find setting small manageable goals or ‘steps’, that build towards achieving my ultimate goal, always help with this and maintains I stay on a path of accomplishment rather than failing at an unrealistic and over ambitious target.
Relevant / Realistic
Make your resolution relevant to you and your lifestyle. Make it realistic.
If you haven’t done exercise for years for example, don’t set right off the bat, that your going to hit the gym five times a week, if your lifestyle or workload already set yourself up for failure.
Do 10 minutes daily exercise to begin with and one visit to the gym per week! Sounds more achievable right! Once you master this, you can then progress accordingly.
Obviously everyone’s lifestyles and personal targets vary.
By initially breaking down your goal to make each step more realistic to achieve, the more confidence you will gain, the more your self esteem will continue to rise and you’ll be setting yourself upon a path of continuous success with little personal wins, all while working towards the ‘bigger’ overall goal!
Time
Do set yourself little deadlines to work towards to aid monitor & measure your progress.
I find breaking down my targets into daily/ weekly goals, really works for me personally.
Regularly review what worked from week to week and assess how you will manage your time on a weekly basis to implement your resolutions.
Finally, take the time to reflect and take accountability for your goals while talking about this to your partner or a friend. This will maintain you take responsibility for your goal, while also having someone to support you throughout your challenge and have someone whom you can share your successes with.
This will ultimately also aid you to stay on target with your aspirations.
Conclusion
Don’t be afraid to set yourself goals.
Use goals to drive you, to overcome challenges and to grow.
Lead by example and inspire your children by setting and accomplishing regular targets.
Be smart with your target setting and rather than being too overly optimistic or unrealistic from the offset, set yourself up to win by setting manageable and realistic goals – so you can achieve and progress.
Now go smash your New Year!
Enjoy the successes & both the mental and physical benefits that self achievement, personal growth and personal fulfilment can bring.
Happy 2022 One & All: Go get it!
#KeepInspiring
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