Break out of the SMART trap

If you’ve logged any time in the corporate world at all, you’ll know exactly what I mean when I ask if your goals are SMART. 

SMART goals are Specific Measurable Achievable Relevant and Time-bound.

That’s a snoozefest of a sentence, right?

When we set goals, we often fall into the SMART trap. That is, giving top billing to making sure our goals meet this criteria. Is it bad for our goals to be SMART? Of course not – all of those measuring sticks provide a helpful structure for success.

Here’s the trap: if our focus is on picking goals that can be easily inserted into this structure, we might be thinking too small. Or too ordinary. We might be tethering ourselves to the same-old same-old goals we’ve already committed to in previous years. Goals we may not have actually achieved or that didn’t boost us as we thought they would.

My big quibble with SMART goals? There’s no emotion.

Nowhere in the SMART lexicon is any criteria for our goals to be fun, incredible, life-altering or thrilling. Nowhere is there any indication that these are goals we actually want to achieve and make us gladly run down the Path of Hard Work to reach the Finish Line of Glory.

I propose a new yardstick:

SMART + Happiness-Making = SHMART

Let’s add an emotional component to goal-setting. Why? Because the feedback I get from clients who participate in my goal-setting programs tell me that connecting a goal to an emotion is a game-changer. Adding in emotion connects us deeply to that goal, because we can feel it, not just use it in a sentence. When we feel the emotion, we know why we want to accomplish this goal (or why we don’t, which allows us to let go of this one and select a new, better one). Once we’re connected with the why that comes from within us, there’s really no stopping us from nailing it.

Plus SHMART is really fun to say.

The next time you plan out goals, add in Happiness-Making and see just what impact it has.