The Sunday Mail
GOALS are the seeds of greatness.
Faith feeds on specific stimulating goals. Wherever goals and log frames are talked about there is always a mention of “SMART” goal setting.
The goals must be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound. I like that mnemonic (aiding or designed to aid the memory) and I have also used it on a number of occasions in my workshops.
However, today, I would like to share another SMART mnemonic device that I have created that you can use to anchor yourself in your pursuit of your greatness. Summon all the help you can get to move towards your goals. Challenge your limits. Do not park where fate left you. You need to be smart.
To be great in your chosen arena, set SMART goals. These are: Stimulating, Meaningful, Activating, Responsible and Tenacious Goals.
Goals must give you a positive “push.” They have to have a felt meaning for you. You can only validate the goals with responsible action.
Goals are a journey that require you to be tenacious. Do not give up and do not fear. Do not lose heart or be discouraged. Keep your focus and never lose sight of your end game.
Stimulating
It is not enough to just express wishes and clever intentions. Go beyond that. Crystallise your goals for them to have meaning. It is not enough to set some new year or birthday resolutions. Those are important and necessary but not sufficient. Crystallise your goals and reduce them to paper. Unless your goals are written down, they technically do not exist.
Never forget that the shortest pencil is always better than the longest memory. It is not enough to just have a sense of where you kind-of-sort-of-want-to-go.
It is true that no one can have all the details of the future and many things do change. It is better for change to find you pursuing a worthy goal, than finding you lost. Mere change will not give you direction. Look within and give shape to the desire and passion within you. Your greatness is always in you in seed form. Set some goals that are stimulating and that you can turn into your magnificent obsession.
A goal is a dream that is owned, crystallised and has a deadline.
The test of quality for any goal is its stimulating power. If the goal gets you into action, makes you uncomfortable, then that is a worthy goal. Most motivation problems are symptoms of sterile goals. If your goals do not inspire you, set new ones. Merely having a laundry list of intentions that are not crystallised and have no launching power is a time waster.
Greatness does not come through mere wishing. Dreams without a personal meaning are mere flying birds of fantasy. You have to put your goal into focus and then pursue it until it is begging for mercy.
Meaningful
Your goals must have meaning to you. Do not worry if your goals do not impress me, they must impress you first. You are not living to impress people or racing to break unnecessary records. You have a life to live and you are passing this way but once. Let the goals you pursue be meaningful to your life, contexts and world view.
Define your context and relate your goals to your values. When your goals are aligned to your value, you access internal resources that you never knew you had. Values are the things that are most important to you. If your goals do not line up with your values, you will have internal conflicts and dissonance. Without a pulsating internal drive, you will not give your all in pursuit of your greatness.
What will you miss out on if you do not achieve that goal that you are pursuing? If you can relate your goal to a felt need in your life, that goal will be a precious treasure to you. A goal backed by a felt need is a burning torch. If there is nothing that you will not miss out on if you did not achieve your goal, toss the goal away.
You want a goal with magnetism and pull. When you have a burning desire within, you are unstoppable. Circumstances may delay you, people may not give you opportunity but you are unstoppable. How much does someone need to pay you in order to abandon your goal? If your goal does not have personal meaning to you, you are reduced to joining the pedestrian pursuit of a dollar.
Action
Very little changes by merely being talked about. Action is what translates intentions into reality. Activate your goals and the dynamo of resolute action. Translate your goals from being mere statements and tomes into action. Take action and keep on taking action until you get to your goals. Do not be afraid of taking small steps, just be afraid of standing still. Until you take action, you are a mere philosopher. Action puts results on the table.
Stop threatening that you will move and action, and take action. Move, act and do something. Do not freeze or be mobilised by adversity. It is when you do something that you learn. You learn fastest when you are in actions. When you do nothing except talk, you are an empty gong.
Activate your goals. Move from excuses to delivery. Move your goals from being intentions into tangible actions, then trophies of achievement. While others are talking — work. While others are criticising — act. While others are waiting for perfect circumstances — launch. Do not sit still, take radical and unrelenting action.
Do not substitute taking action by mere talk and incessant complaining. Look out for every excuse to support your goals. Dump every excuse for not pursuing your goals. Move into the action gear because that is where it all gets exciting. You learn more when you are doing than when you are an idle observer in life.
Refuse to be a passenger in life.
Responsibility
Take responsibility and you will explore new possibilities. It is up to you to start taking action. The ball is in your court. You are on the tee box of life, address the ball. Grace will meet you as you take the strides of faith.
No one will come and take action on your behalf unless you have lost the other half of your brain. You are not a chancer in life.
You are a doer, do more and listen more. You are the main actor in the movie of your life. You are not a powerless victim of your past and present circumstances. Take responsibility, choose to count and be hard to ignore. You make a difference and your strides of today send tremors into eternity.
Tenacity
The path to greatness is not a paved and straight road. It has detours, obstacles and dangers. Whatever you face, face up to it. Do not give up and do not lose heart. The temptation for you to quit will ring loud, but do not quit. When the pace is slow, that does not mean that the journey has ended.
Sometimes the darkest hour is the one before dawn. Wait patiently for dawn if you have to. No storm lasts forever. It is when you are hardest hit that you must not quit.
It is when the going gets really tough that you must be inspired to think creatively. Entrepreneurial imagination will spur you forward. Your spirit is stronger than your challenges.
Running is not the only available option. Keep holding on, daybreak is coming. Go for greatness, be smart!
Milton Kamwendo is an international transformational and inspirational speaker, author and coach. He is a strategy, innovation, team-building and leadership facilitator. Feedback: [email protected], Twitter @MiltonKamwendo and WhatsApp +263772422634
