If a plan doesn’t work on paper, it has little change of working in reality. The SMART planning technique can help make the plans we make for our futures effective and help us meet our dreams head on. Without SMART goals our plans can lack direction and focus.
Here is how you can make your SMART plan?
Specific – Your plan should be clear and defined. A plan lacking focus is unhelpful and doomed to failure. Remember, a plan should be a series of steps to guide you to your ultimate goal.
Measurable – , Add detail to your plan, dates any costs and ways to check that you are on track at each stage of the plan. If your goal is simply defined as “To have more quality family time” how will you know when you have been successful? In one month’s time if you have more family time, or in 6 months time? Having ‘plan checkpoints’ will help you as you work towards your goal and help you to see your successes along the way.
Achievable – Be sure that you can actually ‘achieve’ the goals you set. If you set a goal that you have no hope of achieving, you will only demoralise yourself and erode your chances of success. Resist the urge to set goals which are too easily achieved. Any goal needs to have a sufficiently challenging aspect to it to drive us forward, otherwise we will have no sense of achievement if the goal means nothing to us.
Realistic – Goals should be relevant to the fulfilment of the overall goal. By keeping goals in synch with the overall goal, you will develop the focus you will need to reach your goal.
Timely – Your goals and indeed the steps you need to reach the ultimate goal must have ‘ plan checkpoints’. This means that you know when you can check your progress. Working to a deadline will give you a sense of urgency and increases your sense of achievement and you will reach your goal quicker.
If you apply the SMART way of working to your goals, success will surely be the result. If you would like to learn how to use other strategies to improve your life, then feel free to contact me or take a look at my website.
Paul Parkin – Online Counsellor
https://www.counsellors-online.co.uk
http://www.facebook.com/counsellorsonline
Professional Online Counsellor and Online Life Coach Paul Parkin
I am an experienced, professional online counsellor, with over 11 years experience working as a counsellor and life coach offering confidential, affordable counselling online to clients anywhere in the world. To book a 50 min session click here.
By living a simple life and working from home I have reduced my costs enabling me to reduce the session fees for clients, making counselling online more accessible to people seeking counselling online.
