Eynar Oxartum

Work on my Secret Goal
The smartest goals 7 months ago

This is actually about goals, in general, not just about this goal.

Thinking about “goal-design” (smart goals and so, where SMART usually stands for S-pecific, M-easurable, A-chievable, R-ealistic and T-ime framed), I was checking what people say in internet about this (until some days ago I didn’t know they could be known with a backronym as “smart” goals). I have found that some people include E-xciting and R-ewarding to make “smarter” goals. And many more versions, of course.

Thinking about a new definition that suits more my point of view, I found the following: A-chievable is close to R-ealistic, and E-xciting is close to R-ewarding, so using just one of each and including three more ingredients (an interesting goal shouldn’t be too easy, should be split into smaller goals and should be reprogrammable, as everything should be reprogrammable, because life is always changing), I have got what I call “smartest” goals:

  • Specific
  • Measurable
  • Achievable (= Realistic = Not too difficult)
  • Reprogrammable (= Transformable)
  • Time framed (= With deadline)
  • Exciting (= Motivating = Rewarding = Interesting)
  • Split into smaller goals
  • Tough (= Not too easy = Challenging)

Which of course is not new (as I have seen again in internet after thinking I created something new), but at least it suits my philosophy about how goals should be. Of course everybody has to find his/her own philosophy (different people’s mind works in a different way), so I’m not saying I’m the smartest guy here. For somebody else it might be different.

Jun 04, 01:42AM PDT | 8 cheers


Comments:

simpler21

Hey

Really interesting I like it “SMARTEST”. I use a 90 day framework to create goals and monitor it every 2 weeks or so. It keeps me focussed.

I gues the thing with goal setting is that people who are goal-oriented are usually more fulfilled than those that aren’t.

HOWEVER!! I am coming to the realisation, that setting and achieving goals isn’t enough. Lots of goal-oriented people will stay very busy through their lives but still somehow avoid happiness.

I think something needs to happen prior to goal setting. I don’t have a letter that fits into SMARTEST very well. But V for values is important for me.

We need to understand what we stand for and what our core values are and align our goals accordingly. I’m still working on mine. But I feel my goals will have the power to change, modify the course of my life if they are aligned with who I really am.

Good luck!! Stay in touch!

Aug 13, 05:00AM PDT | Thread | Respond to this 2 cheers

(This comment was deleted.)

Aug 13, 05:36AM PDT

CJ is feeling a bit run down

Totally Agree

If your goals are not inline with your values, you may reach your goals but not create the life you want. One of the secrets to a fulfilling life is to make you’re your values are in alignment with your goals.

Aug 13, 05:36AM PDT | Respond to this 1 cheer

Eynar Oxartum

very interesting

Thanks for your interesting comment. I was thinking a lot about it.

Of course, values are critical. I actually didn’t speak about them here, as I don’t see it related to “goal design”, but to something previous and more important (kind of “goal selection”, if you want to use the same language).

I was thinking more about how should we “design” any goal (already selected) so we can make ourselves enthusiastic about it and find the energy to reach it.

For example, if you want to “learn to play piano”, that is only the seed (which is better than nothing), but as a goal is not enough to say “I want to learn to play piano”, because just with that your mind has not the “raw material” to start working.

But if you say “I want to prepare a Piano concert about Chopin’s Opus 40 for my friends on New Year’s Eve”, your mind will start working on that and you will reach your seed goal about “learning to play piano” in an easier and much more interesting way (at least, much more interesting than taking piano lessons for a couple of months and leave it after losing the motivation).

So, I was thinking about how to grow a tree from a seed, but the reason you should plant an apple tree instead of an oak (or learning to play piano instead of buying a new car)... that is something much deeper, and I don’t think we can do it with a “recipe”, as there is only one person who can know what can make us happy: ourselves.

Aug 14, 12:29AM PDT | Thread | Respond to this 3 cheers

simpler21

True true!

That’s right.

So taking your piano example. By wrapping an achievable and timebound objective around it, it becomes more real and that can increase the external motivation to do it.

But I’m thinking – what about the internal motiviation? i.e where within my “goal design” (nice phrase, that), is the reason for doing that thing.

So when it comes to your example.
Playing the concerto by new years eve. Why do I want to do it right?

I guess there could be many benefits to playing. Some might be
“to help me relax. open up my creative side. Be able to read music better. To motivate me to play more or perhaps start to learn to experiment and write more music”

If one of my values was to entertain others. I might get more out of my goal if I added for “40 of my friends”...So you’re right. The goal design must be related to higher level goal selection.

For that reason for every goal, I write a corresponding 2 line benefit statement that reminds me why the hell I’m doing it in the first place. If I can’t think of a good benefit statement, I revise the goal.

I used to be really goal-oriented. I’ve lost my discipline a little and need to re-create my next 90 day goal framework.

Do you use some sort of template to write your goals down? I have one. Be happy to share it with you if you’re interested?

Aug 15, 08:50PM PDT | Thread | Respond to this 3 cheers

Eynar Oxartum

I see your point

You are right. Motivation is everything. And the problem is that sometimes we forget the original motivation, the reason to do something, which is actually the most important thing.

Some people believe there exists something called willpower, and they use the lack of it as an excuse (“I have not enough willpower to do that”). But I don’t think there exists such a thing. I think only exists motivation, which by the way is something we can control and grow.

When I thought about SMARTEST I considered this, and that’s why I used Exciting (= Motivating = Rewarding = Interesting), as I wanted to use M for “measurable”. But it doesn’t give the same impression. Should we speak about SMMARTEST? Hm…

Aug 18, 09:57AM PDT | Respond to this


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