Make Your Confidence Building Goals SMARTER
Small wins build your confidence
Without doubt, one of the best ways to increase your self-confidence and be successful in life, is to set goals then collect a succession of wins on the road to achieving them.
But, before you start to set your confidence building goals, you should read THIS POST. It’ll help you get clarity on why you really want it.
We all have dreams. Something we’d like to have, do, or be at some point in the future. When we set goals to achieve them, those dreams suddenly become a possibility. If we take the time to write an action plan, and give each step a deadline, they immediately become achievable.
The trick is to go about it in the right way. Identify the steps necessary to move us towards our goals, think about any resources, or training we may require along the way, then plan a way to make it happen.
You’ll find out how to do that in today’s post.
Know how to set ‘confidence building goals’ properly
You already set goals every day. Mostly they’re short term goals like, “I will get up for work at 7:30 tomorrow morning”, or “I must make an appointment with the Dentist next week”, etc.
So your ability to make and achieve goals is already thriving. But, like most people, it’s just the ‘important‘, confidence building goals that seem to be eluding you. This technique is going to help you change that!
The trouble with life changing goals, which includes confidence building goals, is they often seem to be too big. In the main, they’re pipe-dreams that you just can’t see yourself being able to achieve. What you need to learn, is how to make big dreams become small goals, and when we’ve finished, you’ll be an expert!
There are several things you’ll need to remember about setting achievable goals. We’ll deal with each of them in turn.
The strategy we’re going to use is called SMARTER goal setting.
SMARTER means…
S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Achievable
R – Realistic
T – Time dependent
E – Exciting
R – Recorded
Specific
– The confidence goals you set should be absolutely specific. For example, “By the end of August this year, I will be able to comfortably present the Company’s full financial report at our Annual General Meeting and enjoy the process.” A non-specific goal would be “This year I’ll be able to speak in public”
Measurable
– There must be a way of knowing, without doubt that you have achieved your goal. The first example above is measurable, if you present your report at the AGM and enjoy doing it, you’ve succeeded. In the second example however, it’s very vague…. speaking in public could be talking to a friend in the park, asking a stranger for directions to a new location, or hundreds of other scenarios.
Attainable
– The goals you set must be attainable. This will help you figure out how you can realize that goal and work towards it.It should be a bit of a stretch, so that you feel challenged, but defined well enough that you can actually achieve it. Ask yourself things like: Do I have the resources and capabilities to achieve the goal? If not, what am I missing? Have others done it successfully before?
Realistic
– Don’t set yourself confidence goals that will be too difficult to achieve within the timescale you’ve set yourself. It’s no good setting a goal that says “I will be earning 10 times my current income within 12 months, doing the same job, but much more efficiently” Chances are, unless you’re a bank robber, or con-artist, ‘it ain’t gonna happen!’
Also, do you believe that your chosen goal is achievable by you? Maybe you’ll need some extra training, or gain some more, or different experience, etc. Once you have all of the information your require, is it possible you could achieve it? This cuts out goals that are either too difficult to achieve, or are not physically possible and maybe you need to restructure your goal.
Time Sensitive
– You must add a date to your goals. Without a timescale, your goals are just dreams. Although the dates may change as you move through the necessary smaller steps on the road to achieving your goal. As you progress, you may come up against things that you weren’t expecting, a fork in the road may take you off-track for a while, or alternatively, you may find that some things were remarkably simpler than you expected.
Exciting
– As I said a few moments ago, the most successful goals are those that you’re passionate about achieving. Once you’ve decided on your goals, make the steps to achieve them exciting and if possible, fun! The human mind loves to do things that give you pleasure, so make it easy.
Recorded
– This final step is one of the most important in the process. Most people give up on their goals simply because they fail to focus on them often enough. How many times have you set a goal at New Years, only to realize three weeks later that you’re still doing the things you were supposed to be giving up? Failure to focus equals failure to achieve, so write it all down and keep copies where you’ll see them every day.
How the process works
So, the first step is to set your Major Goal. This is the thing that all of your positive actions will eventually lead you to, the place you want to be when all of your efforts have been realized.
Write it down, then compare what you’ve written to the SMARTER criteria.
Is it specific? In other words, does it explain exactly what the outcome of this goal is?
Is the result measurable? How will you know when you’ve achieved it?
Is it Attainable? Is this goal something that’s possible for you to achieve?
Is it realistic? It is something that you can achieve (even if you need more resources first), within the timescale you’ve set?
Is it time specific? Have you attached a deadline? Remember, without a deadline, it’s just a dream, not a target to achieve.
Is it exciting? Does the thought of fulfilling this goal excite you, or is it just something you’d like to achieve?
Record it. If it meets all of these criteria, then write it down somewhere you’ll see it every day.
Break the goal down into micro goals
Now you’re probably concerned about how you’re going to achieve this great feat? Well, no matter how difficult it seems to be at the moment, between us, we’re going to break it down and make it as simple as we can.
Underneath the goal, list the things that’ll need to be in place for you to achieve it.
Eg. If your major goal was to compete in a 10k charity run next year, then your list could include “I will run four times a week, starting at 15 minutes, then increasing the amount each time”, “I will carry out endurance training twice per week”, etc.
Take your time with this bit. The more things you can think of, the more structured your plan will be, so the less chance there’ll be that you’ll be caught wondering what to do next.
When there’s nothing else you can think of, check that they too are SMART and then add these smaller micro goals to your sheet.
Review
- Find your WHY
- Set your major goal and make sure it’s SMARTER, or at least SMART
- Set smaller Micro Goals, then check them for SMART.
- Write them all down and put it where you can see it everyday.
- Get started today!
That’s it for now. I hope this article was helpful. If you’d like to download a free printable worksheet to make your goal setting easier, you can find one in our free member community 🙂
Until next time, be brave.
