Back to: Make SMART Goals
Good goals are SMART
S: Specific
M: Measurable
A: Achievable
R: Relevant
T: Time-bound
Head over to this website: Mind Tools-SMART Goals. Watch the video and read through the lesson. (then come back here! don’t get lost!)
Setting goals is extremely hard for me. As someone with ADHD, I have the often experienced “Time Blindness” I recognize that future is going to happen, but I don’t FEEL that it is. Everything exists NOW. So the short of what I do is grab onto the “loudest” idea, and get to work on that. The lesson here isn’t so much about the end result of your goal, but the practice of goal setting and discipline that it takes to get there.
Another great way to do this is to set smaller goals (Thank you Ros!) We all have times where we take things a day at a time. For some of us, this is our daily reality. We don’t know what we’ll be capable of from one day to the next. So setting a goal for tomorrow, or the morning of, is still no small feat. And it gets our feet moving. There’s a saying in the ADHD community (a disabling neurodivergent condition famed for motivation difficulties) “Start small”.
You don’t have to set a goal to save the world. To be honest, that’s not what most of us are capable of. And if you are, you’re probably out doing that already rather than sitting here reading me ramble. So we should be setting goals for ourselves. If you’re in a hard point in your life, setting the goal of “I will do the dishes” instead of “I will clean the kitchen” is a great starting point. If you can’t manage it today, maybe it can be your goal tomorrow. And that’s ok. If you CAN, then great!! you did it! And often, when we feel accomplished about something, that jolt of serotonin might have our eyes turning to the counter top next to us. And on we go!
We don’t get better without doing. And that often means we make mistakes. You can see this strongly in Art and Sports, no one creates a true-to-life full color portrait the first time they pick up a pen. Ballet dancers don’t automatically know the forms and dances as soon as they put on their shoes. Swimmers don’t head to the Olympics before they’ve even been in a pool.
So while I want you to take your goal seriously, there’s no shame in failing to reach it. If you need to change your goal or end it all-together, that’s fine too. Life is about readjusting as you go along! We’ll take a look at what to do with failure next, but for now-
Write your understanding of this method of making goals, and set your own! They could be on lessons in the IP, health goals, giving yourself time to rest, or for school or work! Report on them each moment/day/week/month (depending on your time-bound portion) to keep it active in your mind (if reasonable of course!)
Please add your answers to your TIP Journal located in the forums, and don’t forget to cite any material you used in your lesson!