Smart goals from the heart

Be S. M. A. R. T and passionate

As we head into Wimbledon, I want to revisit a previous post that examines a basic human instinct to set goals and strive after something we want.

• We set small goals every day as to-do lists.
• More complex goals require greater planning, thought and actions.
• Some goals are so ambitious that they might take years to accomplish and become an accumulation of several small steps and goals.
• It is the size and enormity of large goals that can lead to an accumulation of small goals that can overwhelm us, especially if we cannot convert on some of them.

Here is my latest podcast how to prepare for Wimbledon. Its starts with setting goals from the heart:

This is where resilience and perseverance become key attributes of your goals from the heart. 

Do you: 

- overwhelm yourself  with too many goals?

- goals that are too big and actually demotivate you?

- goals that deep down you know will never be achieved in the time-span allocated?

- goals that you would like to achieve but are actually more of a good idea?

Setting goals:

“The Mindset College programme includes little gems such as “teaching yourself to trust yourself” and part of this process is to set “Goals from the Heart”. 

Here is a free download: a booklet for setting your daily goals. This booklet is part of the Setting Goals Module in the Mindset College Programme.

Download the pdf : 

Day Planner

Listen to your gut to achieve the goal

Essentially, this means listening to your ‘gut instinct” and setting an achievable goal which is a stretch but not necessarily the logical next step. Often, the realistic goal is to merge what has already been achieved rather than overwhelming yourself with a logical next step for which you are not ready. Sometimes, we need to imbed what we have achieved and get comfortable with the success before challenging ourselves with more discomfort. Often taking a breath and merging is faster than trying to keep moving forward because maybe the platform to go after the next goal is more solid and can better handle the stress. This differs from setting a goal that is expected or just sounds good. 

Sometimes consolidation is a better and more valid goal. 

 Write to yourself to measure the success of the goal

Another helpful way of setting goals is to write a letter to yourself dated a year from starting a goal where you state exactly what you have achieved in the year. Write it in the past tense, like you have already achieved what you set out to do. 

This serves two functions -

• seeing yourself having already done what you said you would do and serves as a continual motivation during the year
• if you read it daily or at the very least weekly.

Separate the goals and be specific

It is equally important to separate shorter-term goals from a dream or vision. Having a clear picture of your dream is important because that will provide the motivation for doing the work to get there, but a dream or vision must be seen as a destination that mostly requires many goals along the way.

The dream is usually so far ahead in the future that it is best to choose it and then forget about it and focus on each step needed until you are close enough to see the summit until it becomes the next natural target. Constant focus on the peak at the start can lead to daydreaming and a belief that it is easy to achieve, not too far away, which, in turn, can encourage delusion. 

“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.” Richard Feynman (Nobel prize-winning physicist) 

Full concentration provides relevance

Another factor is that each goal will require full concentration. Allowing the mind to wander too far into the future will affect the quality of the work needed to take place in the present to accomplish each small step forward. Although this is another huge subject on its own, dealt with in module one of the Mindset College Programme, it is helpful if early on there is perspective and acknowledgement that achieving a dream is not a destination.

Once realised, life will go on and new targets will need to be set, or the deflation of finally achieving a dream will be significant, especially if it has been a long-term life ambition. 

“Dreaming about being an actress is more exciting than being one.” 

Marilyn Monroe 

Time Bound

Time is a ‘motivator’, not a goal. Rarely will we achieve goals on exactly the day or time we set.

Setting a time to achieve a goal motivates us, but things go wrong and the aim is attaining the goal, not when we achieve it, and so often a challenging goal takes longer than we want or think it will take.

We are offering you the chance to take advantage of setting yourself up for a really positive year. 

Happy goal setting from the heart!

Written by

David Sammel