For our third installment in our Making Your Goal(s) SMART series, we’ll spend some time on T - Timebound.
Setting a time to complete your goal is powerful. Through establishing a Completion Date, you strongly encourage yourself to take action. You may have wanted to learn to play guitar for ten years. When you actually set the Completion Date of one year, you may find yourself taking steps to make it a reality: scheduling lessons, setting aside time each day/week, etc.
As you choose your Completion Date, it’s important to evaluate various aspects of the timeframe. Last week we talked about the R - Realistic. We want to stay in that mindset while thinking about the temporal aspects of our goal. For example, can you really become fluent in a foreign language in a month? There may be a language prodigy somewhere in the world that can, but for most of us, learning a new language with even a decent level of proficiency takes time. And a lot of practice!
What you can do is create smaller milestones so you know you are making progress. For our foreign language example, perhaps at twelve weeks you want to be able to understand 30% of a news article in that new language or be able to instantly translate 1000 words in that language.
Breaking the goal down into smaller goals accomplishes several things. First, this approach helps you build a plan as you start considering the necessary steps to get there. How do you get somewhere if you have no idea even where north is? You are now creating a map!
Second, once you start thinking about these mini-goals, you move into a mindset that unlocks some creativity and resourcefulness. You may all of the sudden realize you have a friend who accomplished a similar feat that would be willing to share some tips and lessons learned.
And third, sketching out milestones will keep you motivated as you begin a journey as it helps you cognitively realize your progress towards a bigger goal. No one goes from couch potato to marathoner in a month. But couch potato to a 5K in six weeks? Check!
This wraps up our SMART goal overview. Many of our clients find this framework extremely useful. We hope you feel this series has provided some valuable resources to help you turn your goals into reality. Stay tuned for our next series...
Julie Muhsmann
Through her ability to listen and connect intuitively on a deep level, Julie guides clients to acknowledge and honor their own personal strengths to (re)discover their own unique spark and achieve their goals, both personal and professional. She is a certified Spiritual Life Coach and MBA currently living in Dallas, Texas with her husband and two rescued Labradors, Candy and Boom. Shine Bright!
John Harrington
John dedicates his life to helping others deepen their connection with the Sacred in the world, nature, and within oneself. He is a Certified Spiritual Life Coach, Coach Trainer, NLP Practitioner, and Authorized Guide to John of God in Brazil. John currently lives in Boulder, Colorado with his fiancée,Cristina, and their wire hair terrier,Angel, who was found on the streets of Brazil.