Goal Setting: Why SMART Goals Don’t Work
Is this the year where you finally go after MORE in your career? If so, you're going to need to get smarter about your goal setting. (Hint: it’s not about “SMART” goals.)
In this video, I share:
Why new years resolutions—and even technically “SMART” goals—fail to get you where you want to go in your career
How to create better, POWERFUL career goals that you can't not achieve
The most important step in goal-setting that most people skip right over
Welcome to the new year, where resolutions and good intentions come to die. Today we’re talking about goal-setting.
But not in the traditional, boring, mechanical sense.
I want to talk about how to create better, more powerful goals that are actually going to help you create meaningful change in your career.
So let's talk about why SMART goals don’t work, why most goals fail, and how to set better career goals that are going to help you get where you want to go THIS YEAR.
Why Most Goals Fail
You already know resolutions don't work. But did you know that a lot of good-on-paper goals don't work either?
I bet you can rattle off all the components of the "SMART" goal acronym.
Unfortunately, I see SO MANY goals that follow all the rules but FAIL to get people the meaningful career change they’re seeking.
I see two main reasons for why SMART goals don’t work:
1. Your goal isn't connected to your Big Vision
There's that kind of “So what?” factor. You look at the goal on paper and you're like, “Why am I doing this again?”
It’s not that inspiring, it doesn't feel good to execute, and you’re not sure where it’s even taking you, so it's much harder for you to take action.
You need a vision that excites you so that you can’t not take action.
2. Your goal isn’t easily incorporated into your day to day
Something might technically be actionable and exciting, but if it's not integratable into your day-to-day in a way that you can take recurring action, it just kind of stays separate as an extracurricular that never truly gets the attention and energy it deserves.
Taking GOOD Career Goals to GREAT
Let’s talk about how to make good goals great.
A great goal is going to be connected to the FEELING of that big, bold vision.
There's going to be a clear, “Alright, I see where this goal is taking me, and I like where it's going.”
It's also going to be clearly actionable in a way that feels good to execute; you're actually excited to take action on it.
How do we do this?
Let’s walk through a series of questions.
Get out your goals if you've already created them. Or if you haven't, great, you can do this as you're creating your goals.
As you look at each goal, ask yourself:
What do I expect to be different once I achieve this goal?
How do I expect to feel once I complete this goal?
How do I want to feel as I’m completing this goal?
What’s the bigger objective behind this goal?
You want to make sure the busy work and “should do” goals don’t make their way into your planning.
Example of an okay goal:
“I'm gonna reach out to five new people on LinkedIn each week.”
It's fine. It passes the SMART goal test.
But how is it connected to the vision? What are you actually hoping to achieve? If you do this for five weeks in a row or every week this year, where's that actually taking you?
Depending on how your day is currently set up, it might be also hard to consistently take that action in a way that's sustainable.
The real goal that’s probably sitting behind that is something like, “I want to create a community of people outside of my current organization where I can speak freely and feel like I belong. I want to surround myself with people I LIKE that share my values.”
Or “I want to create a team around me, where I can just pick up the phone and get the support I need whenever I need it.”
Do you feel that significant energetic shift between, “I'm gonna do five LinkedIn connections” and “I’m gonna create a COMMUNITY?!”
When you understand what's really behind the goal, reaching out to five people each week on LinkedIn might still be an action that you take, but it's an action taken in service of a much more powerful purpose.
You’re also likely to find a lot of other actions in your current day to day to build community that might be easier to execute and more energizing to carry out.
Suddenly you’re looking everywhere for your people in your current day to day—at your local coffee place, in your dance class, maybe you’re fired up enough to start your own group and the people come to YOU.
The Most Critical Goal Setting Step
The step most people miss when they do their goal setting is having a big, beautiful vision they’re really excited about.
It’s probably the most important step of goal setting, and most people skip right over it. They just get right into the obvious tactical stuff.
Visioning is so important because if we don’t do it, it’s SO easy to set goals that keep us playing small and making incremental changes.
Because we're setting those goals from a very limited view of what we can see now as opposed to really zooming out and thinking about, “What is it that I truly want?”
SMART Goals Don’t Work
Sure, make your goals specific, measurable, achievable, and time bound. (“Realistic” is a trap, which you can read more about here: The Case Against Realistic Goals.)
I invite you to think about your goals in terms of 3 components:
1. Your big, beautiful vision
2. The goals that provide a bridge from where you are now to that big, beautiful vision
3. Invidudal actions and baby steps you can take that actually support the progress that you're making on those goals
All three of those things fit together; it's a virtuous circle.
It’s how you end up with a vision that's not like, “Oh this sounds good in theory, but how the heck am I going to do it? It's just make-believe.”
Or taking a bunch of actions where you just feel like you're spinning your wheels and working really hard and doing a lot of things without getting anywhere.
What goal setting questions do you have? What are your goals for this year? Where have you noticed that SMART goals don’t work? Share in the comments below.
Ready to step into a career of growth, fulfillment, and purpose?
Download my free roadmap that lays out the 4 steps to a purposeful career
READY TO SET POWERFUL CAREER GOALS AND NEED HELP GETTING STARTED?
Check out my FREE goal-setting workshop. All you need is 20 minutes!
ARE YOU READY TO BE A SUCCESS STORY THIS YEAR?
🎯Check out my 1-on-1 coaching program
🤝Join my 6-week group coaching course, “Design a Career You Love”
🔔 Subscribe to my Youtube channel for more career and leadership tips
Author Bio:
Before becoming a coach, Caroline worked in management consulting and financial services. She's made it her mission to help people grow, contribute, and get wherever they want to go.
She’s also a tennis fanatic, aspiring Minimalist, FIRE (Financial Independence and Retire Early) enthusiast, and Aloha Spirit seeker 🤙. She loves to share stories from her unconventional life and career focused on freedom, creativity, fun, health, family, and community. If she can do it, you can, too.
The life and career you want is possible once you have the roadmap. Take the first step by getting your free guide: 4 Steps To Take Back Your Life and Design a Career With Purpose.
