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SMART goals aren't for everyone...
Episode 206th January 2023 • Simplicity Specialist Podcast with Jonathan Stewart • Jonathan Stewart, Simplicity Specialist
00:00:00 00:03:23

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Setting SMART goals at the start of a new year can be a powerful way to achieve your goals, but it can also lead to feelings of failure if you find your goals no longer fit your current reality.

In this episode I talk about my problem with SMART Goals, and what to think about instead 😉

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Transcripts

Jonathan Stewart:

It's the beginning of the year as I'm recording this

Jonathan Stewart:

episode, I can already see people talking about their goal setting and using the

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delightfully overused, smart goal acronym.

Jonathan Stewart:

And it is driving me nuts.

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For those who haven't been privvy to the joys of smart goals.

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It's an acronym that stands for specific measurable, attainable,

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relevant, and time bound.

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Now the idea behind smart goals is that they provide a framework for

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creating goals that are designed to be clear, achievable, and

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measurable, which is believed to increase the likelihood of success.

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However, something that I've found over the years of trying to build

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my business and all the things.

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It feels incredibly inflexible.

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It rarely allows for the kind of a flexibility there's often

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needed in a business setting.

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For example, if the environment in which a business operates on a day-to-day

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basis changes, which is basically all of the time clients come in, clients

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come out your family need more time.

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There's so many different variables, the goals that were previously set.

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Using that smart framework.

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Don't really fit the reality of the environment that you're actually in

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right now this means either one you've failed the goal, which if you have

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any form of desire to achieve things perfectionism it can just cause you to

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be really uncomfortable with the idea of setting goals and feel like you're

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doing something wrong which annoys me.

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For example during the year, that time for got so many of my clients have plans

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that just stopped immediately due to Mr.

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COVID.

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Flexibility is the name of the game for so many business owners especially

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if your brain is moving at a million miles an hour, most of the time,

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like it is for me and many of the people that I love to work with.

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one of the key focuses of smart goals is a narrow focus with specificity.

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Now.

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While it is important to have goals that give you a direction

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to move in things change.

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The assumption that's made with this framework and way of working is that

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everyone knows what they want to achieve in six months, time or three months

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or however long the goal is for, well, I don't know about you, but in my

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business, I want that flexibility to ensure that my processes and systems

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and the way that I work is adaptable.

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We are bombarded by hundreds of things, telling us how to work.

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And as it is the month of January, as I'm recording this, everyone's telling

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us how we can be more productive and organized and be better because

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what you're doing is not enough.

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But sometimes when trying to implement.

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Productivity advice.

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We miss the thing, let's start at all.

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Instead of starting from some generalized productivity advice.

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Start from you.

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Don't want to go it alone.

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Reach out to me at simplicity.

Jonathan Stewart:

Dash specialist.com.

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