Goals 101 & Smart Goals
“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”
-Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Goals are very important in therapy… and in life. They are integral to the process of change and transformation. A big component of counseling is having a person (therapist) to witness goal setting with a client, help shine a flashlight on where a client feels goals need to be set and then assist in creating/assessing plans to meet those goals.
G- Grow yourself
O- One step at a time
A- Accept any small changes as progress
L- Learn what helps, doesn’t help as you shift
S- Show yourself some praise when you meet your goal!
Usually it’s best to first look at the ‘big picture’ of what you want in your life. What’s the larger road map? The overall path you want to be on? The ‘airplane view’ of where you are and want to be? “What am I hoping to be or accomplish in my life? What do I want my relationships to look like? What kind of person do I want to be in this world? Where do I hope to go in my job/career? How do I want to treat others? Or look at the world?”. These are big values questions and can help to guide in making smaller, more specific goals.
After getting somewhat settled on the bigger picture values and goals, it’s time to start finding ways to intentionally set shorter term goals. ‘With intention’ means you are getting serious and more specific with your goal setting - you are starting to problem solve barriers and committing to intentions or steps toward your goals.
Why set goals in a more intentional, shorter term way?
-Helps to motivate us in reaching our larger identified goals.
-Gives us clarification on where we want to go, what/how we want to achieve our larger goals.
-Creates a road map for getting there.
-Makes us accountable along the way and also shows us where we’re making progress - or where we need to shift.
-Short term goals are awesome to see accomplished!
And now it’s time to truly commit and knock out some doable, realistic and ‘right now’ goals. Below are a few beginning guidelines to use… they are essentially the same - just one being more detailed than the other.
“3 S’s” in Goal Making- Short, Simple, Specific
SHORT - minimize words when naming your goal as you’ll be more likely to remember often and recall.
SIMPLE - there should really be only one verb or action word per goal to not over-complicate and to make it easy to see progress.
SPECIFIC - limit yourself to small details … using language that’s too broad can make goals feel unattainable and too hard to reach.
(also STEPS! … your goal should usually be able to be broken down into even smaller easier steps)
‘SMART GOALS’ setting
Once you’ve been able to narrow down a shorter term goal, it’s time to refine it down to action based small steps. SMART goals help us build that action plan in a manageable, accountable way.
SMART goal setting can be used in all areas of life - personal, work, relationships, fitness, etc. The steps are detailed below. After using the 3S’s above to name a goal… insert that goal here and complete the steps. I’ve provided a printable version or you can use this as a prompt for your journal. Writing the goal / details down helps imprint them in your brain!
A few additional tips on sticking with your goals:
-Don’t try to make too many SMART goals at one time.
-If you miss a step or part of your plan doesn’t work out… tomorrow is a new day. See what you might need to adjust, release shame, reduce any overthinking that shows up and try again.
-If you feel comfortable, share your goal with a trusted person in your life. Talking over goals helps you organize your thoughts, build insight on why the goal is important and gives accountability.
To Note…
Sometimes we also need to reassess and shift goals as needed with life changes - recognize that life does tend to throw us curve balls here and there.
Change can feel challenging (sometimes impossible) and is often a difficult process - but it can be done. It might often not look exactly like what we thought in the beginning, but we can see that we’ve tried, can keep trying … and we can also look back to where we started from with awareness that we are moving and shifting - rising from the past and renewing.
Best, Jenn
*The information presented in this blog is intended for general knowledge and use only. It should not take the place of medical, clinical advice or licensed therapy. To find a licensed practitioner in your area, the Psychology Today Directory is an excellent resource.