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Reasons Not to Set Goals

1. No forward thinking is required.

2. You will always be successful—no accountability, no disappointments.

3. Your week is already full. Maybe you'll set goals next week.

4. You have already reached your destination. Life has little more to offer.

5. It gives you a good reason to keep buying lottery tickets.

6. You can hang out with other aimless drifters. Like-minded people love company.

7. The 95% of North Americans who don't set goals can't be wrong. They may be mediocre or very average, but not wrong.

8. You'd rather live by other people's goals. It's easier if they set them.

9. No goals = no failure.

10. To-do lists work just fine for me.

Now, of course I am being silly, but these reasons to not set goals are scarier than you think. I certainly hope you didn't highlight any of them. Unfortunately, many people do buy into this mentality.

Goals offer a host of benefits and the one that impresses me the most is that goals provide a destination. How do you know where you are going in life if you don't have a destination? Most of us spend more time planning our weekend, holiday, or party than we do our own lives. We don't plan to fail, we fail to plan. You have probably heard or read these ideas many times before. That's because they are true. Once again the path of least resistance and the pain of regret prevails.

I recently visited my brother in Toronto and I noticed an advertisement in the apartment building elevator that I'm sure you will appreciate. The ad was posted by a financial services company and in bold print asked the question, "Where will you be in five years?" It then offered four choices: (a) Driving a new car? (b) On a vacation? (c) In a new home? (d) In this elevator? I cracked up. Not only was the ad amusing, it delivered a powerful message. Unfortunately, given that only 5% of us have written goals, financial or otherwise, I'm sure "d" is the answer in most cases.

How To Set SMART Goals

With an eye to simplicity, I offer the SMART approach to developing your goals. Don't let the apparent simplicity of the SMART theory prevent you from using it. It works. Just ask your mentor or anyone you know who is experiencing success. By the way, if you don't have a mentor, get one.

The SMART Approach:

• Specific (dates, numbers, times, etc.)

• Measurable (end result)

• Attainable (to me)

• Relevant (to me)

• Trackable (progress of goal)

All five criteria must be in place in order to achieve your goal. Don't be overzealous. Be realistic and set goals that are relevant to your environment and to your future. Don't be guided or influenced by the goals of other people such as family, friends, managers, or coworkers. The SMART approach to goal-setting provides a way to articulate what you need to accomplish and where you are going.

The following example illustrates the simplicity of a SMART goal: I will save $500 by December 20, starting June 1. This goal satisfies the SMART criteria, including when it starts. Note that I didn't state, "I want some extra cash for Christmas." I stated a very specific goal, a SMART goal. Now I have a destination. My next step is to set short-term goals to ensure I reach my destination of $500 by December 20.

Goal-setting is most effective when goals can be accomplished within a reasonable period of time. Many people associate goals with a large window of time, five to ten years into the future, but goals are not reserved for long-term thinking only. Long-term goals are only achieved by setting daily, weekly, or monthly short-term goals. Few people appreciate that goals can become a daily exercise. What's my goal for today? You must think of daily or weekly goals as stepping stones that eventually lead to your longer-term goals. Perhaps Charles Noble said it best, "You must have long-range goals to keep you from being frustrated by short-range failures." The feeling of accomplishment is highly rewarding. This feeling fuels your motivation to remain focused on your short-term goals, en route to your ultimate long-term goals. Without goals, we periodically experience accidental success. It's called a fluke. Consider a professional sports team. A hockey team doesn't win the Stanley Cup by winning one or two games. Victory stems from a series of wins during the season and post-season, one game at a time.

Valuable Benefits of Setting Goals

There are several important benefits of goal-setting. The process:

• sets a destination, daily or otherwise

• clarifies purpose

• motivates you to action

• delivers a sense of accomplishment

• provides a benchmark of success

• validates that you are successful

• builds self-esteem

• provides a clear commitment

The SMART process stimulates a clear commitment from you to achieve your personal and professional goals. Commitment casts aside self-imposed barriers such as procrastination, the virus I spoke of earlier.

Well, most people feel safer in a twin-engine plane. They figure if one engine quits, you have another one to keep you up. But consider this. It takes a lot more pilot skill to keep a twin-engine aircraft flying with one engine out. It's terribly unbalanced. It's especially tough in bad weather. Worse, if you have to make a forced landing in bad weather.

But pilot skill is only part of it. The real reason you may want to consider a single-engine airplane safer is this. If that engine quits, the pilot is totally committed to land that bird. There is no other option. Total attention, skill, and effort are concentrated on bringing it down as gently as possible. No distractions.

A twin-engine pilot, no matter how skilled, isn't applying all of that skill to the one critically important task. A twin-engine pilot's mind is going back and forth struggling with a dilemma. Should I keep it up? Should I bring it down?

I am sure many people drift through life like that. They never fully commit to a specific goal. They dabble in this and that, not doing anything very well. Don't simply try something, commit to it. Success requires unshakeable commitment: Commit your full attention, your energies, and your skills to fulfill your goals. If you only try something, it becomes a very trying experience. Be passionate, not merely interested. Don't be like the kamikaze pilot who flew 17 missions. Get focused.

I recently set a personal SMART goal to lose 15 pounds within 90 days. The goal kept me focused, kept me on course and ensured that I did what was necessary. Goals keep you focused regardless of whether you like the necessary activities. I didn't particularly cherish the thought of dining exclusively on cabbage soup and veggies, but those activities were necessary. The discomfort of discipline.

Dynamics of Motivation

To further stimulate you toward action, let me share some thoughts on motivation. Much has been written on the subject of motivation. Sales managers are always searching for the elusive magic formula to get their representatives fired up and motivated. But only you can motivate yourself, no one else can. Motivation must come from within. Your manager or spouse may be able to light a fire under you, but only you can light a fire within.

Motivation is understanding and appreciating the dynamic relationship between career goals and personal goals. Many people feel that our personal goals are the most important aspect of motivation. I challenge that. It is through the success of our career goals that we are able to pursue our personal goals. It's called a paycheck. How else, except for winning a lottery or receiving an inheritance, can we realize our personal goals? If we view our careers as a vehicle to achieve our personal goals, then we are motivated. If not, then we are saddled with the, "I have to go to work" attitude versus, "I choose to go to work." In terms of personal goals, I'm not suggesting money is our ultimate goal but money does allow us to pursue what makes us happy. Let's face it, money is important. In fact, I put it right up there with oxygen. (Another upside to money is it keeps the kids in touch.)

Life only rewards players, not spectators. There is no admission charge for players, but there is always a charge for spectators. The spectators of life pay a high price for their admission and don't even realize it. Life is not a spectator sport. If you are not motivated by your career, then get one where you are.

Motivation has two faces. We can be motivated away from something such as a bad job or bad manager (negative stress); or motivated toward something such as a promotion or a new career (positive stress). As Abraham Maslow theorized, we all live guided by a hierarchy of needs. Once lower-level needs such as food and shelter are satisfied, a person moves up to higher-level needs, such as esteem and friendship. However, Maslow also tells us that satisfied needs do not necessarily motivate us to move up to higher-level needs. We become content with what I call the FDH syndrome: fat, dumb, and happy. Satisfied needs do not motivate. We must take responsibility for ourselves and set SMART goals to stimulate motivation. Accomplishments and achievements are more satisfying than living with routine and monotony.

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