SMART goals are great! But in the excitement of the New Year, especially when it comes to personal development goals or “resolutions” we often overestimate the “A” – setting goals that may in fact not be as achievable as we think they are. I’m all for stretch targets, and at the same time, I encourage clients to “be real” about goal-setting. What we’re looking for is the “sweet spot”. This is place where we’re adequately challenged and pushed out of our comfort zone so we grow and learn, but not pushed to the place that we become so overwhelmed that we lose motivation and give up.
One of the ways we can help ourselves find that sweet spot is to break big goals down – chunking them into manageable steps – even baby steps. This is a simple yet critical thing we can do to help ourselves maintain momentum when the going gets tough and actually make it to the finish line. I’m putting this and other “Practices of Perseverance” – a workshop I’m sharing with teams to kickstart the year, get motivated and stay on track with goals – to work in my own business planning process for 2021.