By: Niamh Arthur

One of the most popular formulas for setting goals is SMART goals. Smart means:

S- Specific
M- Measurable
A- Achievable
R- Realistic
T- Timed

All these components are definitely an important part of creating a goal. And it would be harder to reach your goal if you were missing any one of them. But the formula is missing the most important components in any goal.

Emotion

You won't be motivated to work to achieve your goal if you aren't emotionally attached to it. Some people think that simply wanting a goal means an emotional attachment to it. Make as many SMART goals as you like, but if your heart doesn’t jump for joy when you read it back you haven’t done it right.

When you make a new goal always start with emotion. Focus not on what you think you should have, but your dreams of the future. What gets you really excited? What would drive you to start working toward it today? Obviously this can be anything, but it must be a desire to suits YOU. You can never share a goal of someone else's as you just wont have the right emotional connection to that goal. You have to be able to not only imagine it, but see yourself in possession of the goal and absolutely LOVE the idea of having it.

Right

It's not so obvious how this affects your chances of success, but the goal must feel Right to you. It has to be right for you, your family, and everyone in the world. People have a basic tendency towards good and contribution, and you are likely in this category if you have an interest in this type of article. You will never achieve a goal if you have to go against your values to succeed. You won’t let yourself.

The important aspect here is that this relies only on your view of what's right and wrong. What's right for someone else is not always right to you. So think about the goal as a whole, what you would have to do to achieve it and actually possessing it. What do you feel when you think about taking the actions to get the goal? If it makes you happy, driven, and elated then it is probably Right for you. If it's something you wish you could possess, but the idea of the journey makes you feel ill and bad about yourself, it's just not the right goal for you.

What you must do now is have a deep look inside at why you feel that way. Is it a limiting belief that you carry, such as “money is the root of all evil”, “there's not enough to go around”. Or is it something that would harm others or take away your self-respect. Obviously if it is the latter you must get a new goal, but generally it is the former. This doesn't mean you need a new goal, it just means that you need to address your limiting beliefs before you can move toward that goal. Don't attempt to reach the goal until you can gather evidence to support a belief that this goal is good for you and the world. If you can’t see this, get a different goal.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with SMART goals, but it's not smart to only use this formula as there is more to successfully reaching your goals. People are often left wondering what they did wrong, why they never could reach their "smart" goal. Generally it's because they didn't have an emotional attachment to the goal, or they sabotaged themselves as they didn't believe the goal was Right.

Therefore, rather than using SMART goals I suggest using SMARTER goals.

S- Specific
M- Measurable
A- Achievable
R- Realistic
T- Timed
E- Emotional
R- Right