How to set a SMART goal…
Goal setting is a crucial skill that all alpha mentality individuals need to master if they want to be successful.
In my beta past-life, I never used to understand how to set effective SMART goals.
And guess what?
I never accomplished anything truly worthwhile for myself back then.
This all changed, however, when I started embracing the alpha mentality—and when I started learning to set SMART goals for myself.
The truth of the matter is that goal setting is crucial to the process of achieving success.
Not only do you need to learn how to set SMART goals for yourself if you want to succeed as an alpha in this life, but you also need to learn how to write down those goals the proper way—to set yourself up to succeed at the things that really matter.
The whole point of the alpha mentality is to take our power back from the chaos, so that we can intentionally create the destiny of our dreams.
(If you want to learn more about this alpha-mentality business, download my free ebook: An Introduction To The Alpha Mentality: The Evolutionary Key To Succeeding At Dating, Relationships, Business, Fitness, And Everything Else That Matters. It’ll explain everything you need to know to get a basic understanding of what this means.)
And to be honest, this business of ‘achieving alpha success’ all starts with effective goal setting.
So in this post, you’re going to learn the 5 crucial steps required to begin the process of learning how to set a SMART goal and achieve it—like a true alpha champion.
Let’s dive into it.
How To Set Smart Goals – In 5 Simple Steps
1. Make The Goal Specific
It’s important that you make your goal as specific as possible.
The more specific you can make it, the better equipped you’ll be to achieve it.
A lot of people like to leave their goals vague—but this really comes from a mentality of fear.
When you keep your goals vague, you achieve ‘false protection’ for yourself from the prospect of failure because vague goals have vague marker posts.
If I say that my goal is to lose weight—that’s a very vague and fleeting marker post.
Whereas if I say that my goal is to lose 15 pounds, that’s a lot more specific.
We want to be specific with our goals.
So write down a specific goal for yourself.
Get as specific as you can get.
The more specific you make it, the better.
2. Make The Goal Measurable
If you can’t measure the progress of a goal and/or if you can’t measure whether or not you’re even making progress on a goal—then it’s time to go back to the drawing board and choose different criteria for the goal altogether.
For example:
When I first started my blog, I set a goal that said:
“I want to get 100 organic clicks per day.”
But guess what?
This goal, while measurable to a certain extent, wasn’t actually measurable in terms of measuring how much work I was supposed to do to achieve the goal on a daily basis.
When I looked at the results for who clicked on my blog, these weren’t measurable based on my behavior. They were measurable based on other people’s behavior.
See, there’s a point where I don’t really have direct control over how many clicks I get.
What I can control, however, is stuff like:
- How many blog posts I create
- How good of a job I do in creating each post
- How much effort I put into each and every paragraph
- Whether or not I do keyword research
- Whether or not I share the blogs I write on social media
See, part of making a goal measurable is to base it on criteria that you can measure not only in output, but also in raw effort.
This is a very creative process.
So a better way to achieve my ‘desire’ to get 100 clicks per day would be to set a goal that says:
“I’m going to publish 1 high quality, well-researched, keyword-optimized blog post every day, 7 days a week, for 1 entire year.”
See, you have to find a way to set the goal so that you can actually measure the work that will be required to (most likely) get you the results you want.
If you try to set your goal based on criteria that you can’t accurately measure, and/or that you can’t control with your own effort, guess what?
It’s time to go back to the drawing board and re-work the goal so that it’s based on measurable criteria.
This is really important—because if a goal isn’t measurable, you’re literally not going to know exactly what needs to be done to achieve it.
That’s a big problem, and it will fuck with your motivation, output, and results.
Now, if you’re not sure that your measurable, controllable action plan is going to equal the results you want… that’s a different problem.
In these cases, you just need to make the best plan you can and have faith that your process will be successful.
If it doesn’t work, you go back to the drawing board and analyze, adapt, and pivot to figure out what might be going wrong. Then, attack it again.
3. Make The Goal Achievable
If you set a big, ambitious goal that requires too much effort to be realistic—guess what?
You’re going to set yourself up to fail.
- I love big goals.
- I love ambitious goals.
- I love it when people push themselves to the point where they’re investing maximum effort in their ideal future.
However, what I don’t like to see is when people set goals that are so big that they automatically set themselves up for failure.
I used to do this when I was younger and less experienced, when I first started setting goals for myself.
- It sucks.
- It makes you feel bad, and it undermines your progress.
Don’t be an overachiever.
Be realistic.
Set realistic goals that you can sustain in the long term.
Don’t crush yourself under the weight of your goals.
Goals should empower you to make progress at a sustainable rate.
They shouldn’t overwhelm you, make your day feel impossible, or destroy your motivation.
If your goal isn’t achievable on a long-term sustainable basis, then guess what it’s time for?
It’s time to go back to the fucking drawing board and rework it so that you feel good about the effort the goal will require every single day.
This is incredibly important.
4. Make The Goal Relevant
If your goal isn’t relevant to your future plans and the future you desire for yourself in life, then you’re not going to care about it.
And guess what?
When you don’t care about a goal, you neglect it.
Then, you suffer from a lack of confidence—because you know you’re not putting in the work and effort to achieve the goals you set.
And guess what this does?
This fucks with your whole self-empowerment dynamic.
So instead of setting goals that aren’t relevant to your future plan, figure out what your purpose is.
Figure out what your long-term goals are.
Think about what you want for your future.
Then, set goals that will help you to get there.
This will help you to stay motivated—but it will also help you to stop suffering from a lack of purpose and direction in your life.
If your goals aren’t helping you to achieve your long-term vision, go back to the drawing board and rework them.
If you don’t know what you want your life to look like in the future, and/or you don’t have a vision or a direction for your life…
Go. Back. To. The. Drawing. Board…
Figure out your purpose…
And make some kind of a goddamn plan for your future…
So that you can equip yourself to set relevant goals that will actually help you to achieve the things you want in life.
Don’t get paralyzed by lack of purpose.
This is a sure indicator of lingering beta mentality, and it will cause you nothing but chaos, destruction, and sorrow in life.
You don’t want that for yourself.
You want a life of power and success.
And in order to achieve these things, you must decide on a purpose and start your alpha journey.
5. Make The Goal Time-Bound
Every good goal will have a deadline.
If your goal doesn’t have a deadline, go back to the drawing board and give it one.
If your goal is to lose 15 pounds, guess what?
If there’s no deadline, there’s no power in that goal.
You might lose 15 pounds over the next 40 years…
Or, you may gain 50 pounds, and then lose 65 pounds, and then gain back 55 of it!
And that would technically qualify as a success for a goal with zero deadline—even though it actually wouldn’t be a success.
Why?
Because the ‘success’ wouldn’t be true to the original spirit of the goal.
In order for a goal to feel important and feel like a priority to you, it must have a deadline.
So every goal you set must have a deadline.
Saying “I’m going to lose 15 pounds,” is a lot different than saying “I’m going to lose 15 pounds within the next 3 months.”
That changes the whole game—and to be honest, you’re going to need a deadline so that you can understand the parameters of the goal and understand how to make plans that will empower you to achieve it in a sustainable fashion.
So put a fucking deadline on it, like a real alpha—and conquer it.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, this post has helped to give you some no-nonsense, no-bullshit information on how to set a SMART goal that you can actually achieve.
The alpha mentality demands that we take our power back from the chaos and create the destiny we truly desire for ourselves.
No more weak beta nonsense. No more excuses.
It’s time to start creating the destiny of our dreams.
And if we want to do that, we need to set SMART goals that will help us to create the future that we desire.
We have to do it.
We have to put in the effort.
But effort alone isn’t going to be enough.
It’s in your best interest to make a detailed plan so that you can give yourself your best odds for success.
When you make a SMART plan, and then you apply effort the proper way, guess what happens?
You fucking win because it changes the whole fucking game.
This will help you to achieve the things you really want in life, while helping you to eliminate wasted energy and effort.
Making a plan is really the first step on the alpha path to success.
So get out there and get it done.
That’s all I’ve got for this one.
Go with grace my friends, and never give up your power.
This is Joshua K. Sigafus, signing off.