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You’ve heard of S.M.A.R.T.E.R. Goals, right? They are
Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-Bound (if that’s even a word), Evaluate-able (definitely not a word) & Relevant.
For years, I heard people talking about the importance and the benefit of setting S.M.A.R.T.E.R. goals. On one level it seems logical and makes sense.
However, a few years ago I set out on a mission to work with and study people who take on, and achieve, massive challenges… daunting challenges. They do the things that most of us consider “impossible”. I wanted to know how they did it. I also wanted to know how I could learn from them and, more importantly, how to adopt their thinking to help us take on our own challenges.
One of the first things I noticed was that taking on an ‘impossible’ challenge is not “realistic”. Those who take on the ‘impossible’ often don’t have a fixed time-frame to work in. In many cases they’re taking on challenges that no-one has ever done before. They often have no idea when they’ll be successful or how long it might take. In some cases, they’re not even sure if it is “attainable”, but they’re going to give it a shot anyway.
Whilst listening to them, it struck me that they don’t start out by setting S.M.A.R.T.E.R. goals at all. In fact, I suspect that they probably set D.U.M.B.E.R. goals;
Daft, Unrealistic, Mental, Bonkers, Exciting, Ridiculous.
I suspect that some of the greatest achievements in history were the result of D.U.M.B.E.R. Goals.
I wonder if Walt Disney followed S.M.A.R.T.E.R. principles when he conceived of the idea to build the Disney World theme park. He decided to take a swamp, several miles outside of Orlando, and invested millions of dollars building a giant fairy-tale princess castle on it. Imagine the conversations that he must have had when he positioned the idea with his bank manager. Apparently, he was rejected 302 times when he attempted to secure a loan for Disney World. Does his idea appear S.M.A.R.T.? How many people would have described it as ‘attainable’, ‘realistic’ or even ‘relevant’?
The same could be asked about President Kennedy’s goal to put a man on the moon, or Martin Luther- King’s goal of equality for black Americans. But the mind-set doesn’t just apply to globally historic events. Which of our genuinely life-changing goals are S.M.A.R.T. and which are a little D.U.M.B.?
Just for interest, which one sounds more engaging to you? Which one is more likely to ignite your passion?
In writing “Could I Do That?”, I have also reflected on my own thought process whilst taking on a significant challenge. Interestingly, I found a pattern when I attempted a challenge that seemed ‘mammoth’ and ‘daunting’. Ironically it struck me that I was actually engaged in a form of ‘S.M.A.R.T.’ goal setting. I was breaking down my challenge into ‘specific’, ‘measurable’, ‘achievable’ and ‘realistic’ chunks. Maybe I had been too hasty in judging those S.M.A.R.T. goals after all. Perhaps there is a place for both the D.U.M.B.E.R. and the S.M.A.R.T.E.R. processes.
Is it possible for S.M.A.R.T.E.R. and D.U.M.B.E.R. goal setting to live happily together? Can we have ‘daft’. ‘bonkers’ and ‘unrealistic’ goals as well as ‘specific’, ‘measurable’ and ‘achievable’?
What if our ‘why’ was based on D.U.M.B.E.R. goals? What if we allowed our imagination to run wild, in the way that Walt Disney’s mind did when he conceived the idea for his fairy-tale princess castle in the middle of a swamp? If we let our mind run free, without the need for sensible, S.M.A.R.T. thinking, what would we dream up? How exciting would that be? Once we have our D.U.M.B.E.R. goals, we need to find a way to help us get there. Maybe this is where those S.M.A.R.T.E.R. goals could come in handy. Maybe they help us with the ‘how’.
Perhaps S.M.A.R.T.E.R. goals can help us to understand how achieve our dreams…
and
D.U.M.B.E.R. goals ensure we have dreams worth achieving.
As the clocked ticked from 11.59pm to midnight, the calendar changed and a New Year had begun. My wife and I were lying in bed looking out of the window across the moonlit fields. As parents of small children, it’s the kind of rock and roll lifestyle that we’ve become accustomed to. Amazingly, nothing happened. Across the country, fireworks were being launched, people were kissing each other and the mobile phone network was stretched to breaking point by a flood of texts. However, in the fields of North Yorkshire nothing happened. Nothing changed. Had it not been for the clock on the bedside table, we would not have known that a New Year had begun. I wondered whether the badgers, foxes and owls had even noticed.
The rock band, U2, wrote, “Nothing changes on New Year’s Day”.
What am I getting at?
You’ve probably read a host of articles, blogs and tweets all asking what 2017 will bring. They challenge you to make resolutions, set goals and make some profound changes because it’s the New Year. Call me an old sceptic, but what difference does the date make? Why should we make changes because it’s January now and not December? Did we commit to any life changing decisions just because April became May or September flipped into October?
I’ve seen many people set goals. To be honest, most of them do so because they think that they should have some. I suspect that they read somewhere that successful people set goals and write them down. They may even have heard a professional speaker or coach stand on stage and extol the virtues of having S.M.A.R.T. goals. So, if I want to be successful I guess I need to have some goals, right?
I’m not sure that is the best reason to set a goal.
One of the best athletes I ever worked with came up to me one day and said, “I don’t get this whole goal-setting thing. Goals should come to me, I shouldn’t have to find them. If I create a goal, it’s not real. My genuine goals are just there, I don’t need to set them”.
Perhaps this is the reason that New Year’s resolutions and ‘goals’ normally fade very quickly and inevitably fail. If something is genuinely important, it will be just as relevant on the 4th October or 21st May as it will on the 1st January.
So, what does the New Year give us?
I heard a Rabbi delivering his ‘Thought for the Day’ on the radio. He talked about the opportunity to reflect, which we have in the New Year. He suggested that rather than looking to set goals or make sweeping changes to our lives, we simply concentrate our commitment to those things that we want to change. Personally, I think that there is wisdom in this approach. However, it does beg another question. Why can’t we have this opportunity to reflect all the time? To put it another way, I would argue that we do have this opportunity all the time but we often forget that we have it.
In reality, we could have a New Year’s Day everyday… without the hangover.
