About goals

    Goal. We often mention this word. Or talking about purposeful people. Or talk about the means without mentioning the goal. Let's see what the purpose is. A goal is what needs to be achieved. I use such a simple definition for myself. However, deceptive simplicity requires answering a few questions. First, you need to clearly determine whose purpose it is: yours personally, the company where you work, some kind of group of people, or maybe humanity?

    Let's start with personal goals. The next thing to determine is what we want to achieve. One sentence. But how to give the correct definition? The recipe is that when the goal is achieved, you can definitely understand it. In other words, the goal must be measurable. For example: "I want to get rich." Good definition? Not. Now you think a million dollars is wealth. When you have it, you will probably consider yourself an average-income person, but not a rich man. “I want a million dollars” - great. In your pocket a million - the goal is achieved.

    However, it’s very important to say frankly to yourself - “yes, hell, this is exactly what I want!”If this is not so, neither movement towards the goal nor its achievement will bring satisfaction. This is another principle. You must accept and share this goal.

    The next important concept is the term. If we do not decide that we want to have a million dollars in 1, 3 or 5 years, we will constantly postpone our steps to this goal. When we clearly understand when we have a deadline, we look for options, we work. But I do not recommend setting too distant goals - it may turn out that you are no longer interested in them. Month, year, five - maximum.

    The goal must be achievable. This is no less important than the previous ones. Set real goals. Reaching them you get a promotion. Unrealistic goals will drive you into anguish faster than another deadline.

    Experienced readers, of course, have already understood that the foregoing is a free and somewhat abridged interpretation of the principle of SMART goals. This mnemonic abbreviation allows you to quickly audit the target in five parameters: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound.

    Personal experience



    Unfortunately, I didn’t have the mind to get to the above on my own, but a few years ago a business coach told me about SMART. This was the starting point of a whole chain of changes in their own lives, which led first to success in work and career, then to leaving the company, creating your own business and investing.

    Deeply imbued with the concept of SMART goals, he once decided to discuss with his wife our goals for next year. It took us all the New Year holidays. We discussed the second child, the new car, the house in the suburbs, and our own business. And the only thing that we both shared and accepted was a million rubles. A million rubles of free money in a year.

    We could not agree in advance what we would spend on it, but decided that it would be nice to have it, and there it was already decided. A year later, we achieved this, and this money allowed me to leave my hired work and open my first business after a while. But this is a completely different story.

    Good and bad goals



    I recently told this story to an old comrade, and a dispute arose about how money cannot be the goal. And I suspect then I didn’t have enough eloquence to convey my thought to the interlocutor. But really - in many sources, money is referred to as an unsuccessful or frankly bad goal. Moreover, I could not recall the objective arguments against money. My personal experience tells me the opposite - the goal is very clear, you can always set an achievable amount and this goal will really bring you benefit or at least some pleasure.

    If you are now thinking about how cool it would be to create your own business, and you need to take the right first step, think about how to start with money. In any case, they will come in handy. And such a step will be clear and understandable.

    If you look further, I am inclined to believe that the goal does not require evidence and explanation at all. If you like this goal and you are going to achieve it, you should not listen to anyone. And be prepared that many skeptics will clearly explain to you why you should not do this. Well, if you choose the path to the goal - move. This is your goal, and you decide. Even if you are going to fly to the moon or die on Mars.
    However
    PS. This applies only to personal goals, of course. If you decide to share your goal with someone else (wife, friends, company, state) - all these people should share it as well as you. Convincing all of these people can be extremely difficult. Therefore, think twice whether it is worthwhile to devote them all to this, or whether you can somehow be attracted to your side. However, group goals are already beyond the scope of this article.

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