Who invented the Winter Olympics? What a crazy concept! A bunch of people turn up on a snow covered mountain, strap various pieces of equipment to their bodies and then proceed to hurtle down the side of the mountain, often with no way to stop. And because that’s not interesting enough, they usually throw in some sharp corners, a series of flag poles or a giant jump or two. I suppose the clever ones stick to the flat ice rink. Yes, I love the Winter Olympics!
The Winter Olympics are all about skill, courage and achievement. Athletes have trained for 4, 8, 12 or more years to perform often for just a few crucial seconds in an event. And when the event is over, we often see the raw emotion poured out – whether there was success or not. After years of training, did the athlete achieve their “dream�
And by dream of course we mean goal. We are goal driven creatures. Really I mean that. Stop and think about it. Without goals we drift, we wander from idea to idea, interest to interest and never muster enough dedication to finalise anything. Goals give us a way to focus, to channel our energy, our time, our resources and convert them into achievement. Goals make us amazing creatures. Creatures that have changed the world! The Winter Olymics oozes goals.
So what makes a good goal? Goals need to be SMART. SMART is a mnemonic that stands for:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Relevant
- Time bound
Whenever you set a goal, you should make sure it hits each of those points. Or put another way, if you set a goal that fails to meet even one of the SMART characteristics, then that goal is going to cause you trouble!
Today, let’s look at setting Specific goals.
Specific – be precise not vague. What is it that you want to achieve?
For example, the goals like “to run a business that is a leader in it’s fieldâ€, “to get fit†or “to prove that our country has superior space exploration technology†are not very specific which means that they will be hard to achieve without breaking them down. They are more “visions†which in turn need to be broken down into specific goals.
Goals like “to feature on xyz innovation TV show for our work in the field of blahâ€, “to be able to run 5kms in half an hour†or “to put a man on the moon and return him safely before the end of the decade†are much more specific.
Over the next few posts I’m going go into detail on each of the other SMART attributes.
What are some goals that you’re working towards at the moment? Are they specific?
