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 😉

Episode Link: https://simplicityspecialist.captivate.fm/episode/smart-goals-arent-for-everyone-

Share with Others: Listen to Simplicity Specialist Podcast with Jonathan Stewart

Want More of Me in Your Ear?

If you're enjoying this conversation, you can find me elsewhere!

Let's Email: I send weekly emails that talk more about the topics from the podcast, as well as building a business that fits you.

See What I'm Up To: See what I'm up to on various platforms!

The PKM Podcast: Where my co-host and I go a little deeper on psychology, learning, and discussing our opinions on the Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) & productivity space.

Simplicity Hub: Get access to free and paid resources to help you bring more simplicity in bitesized pieces.

A Note On Transcriptions - In the interest of simplicity, I'm using Descript* to make podcast publishing as easy as possible. This means that sometimes the transcript won't match what I'm saying and sometimes it'll be hilariously different (tag me on Twitter telling me the funniest transcription you've found).

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

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

delightfully overused, smart goal acronym.

And it is driving me nuts.

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

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

relevant, and time bound.

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

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

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

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

my business and all the things.

It feels incredibly inflexible.

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

needed in a business setting.

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

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

come out your family need more time.

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

Using that smart framework.

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

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

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

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

doing something wrong which annoys me.

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

that just stopped immediately due to Mr.

COVID.

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

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

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

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

Now.

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

to move in things change.

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

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

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

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

and the way that I work is adaptable.

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

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

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

what you're doing is not enough.

But sometimes when trying to implement.

Productivity advice.

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

Instead of starting from some generalized productivity advice.

Start from you.

Don't want to go it alone.

Reach out to me at simplicity.

Dash specialist.com.