We are in the second quarter of this year. If you are a goal setter you may have set aside time to review your results for quarter one. Maybe like me you have discovered that although you did the hard work of setting your goals for this year, you are yet to make progress on some of those goals.

As a goal setter, you may have encountered the SMART goal setting process. This progress began in the 1980\’s by a Management Consultant called George T. Doran. For those who may not be familiar with this acronym it stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Bound.

Why SMART goals are good

The main advantage of setting SMART goals is such goals provide one with a framework that guarantees focus and action. These two factors are very crucial if you want to see results in the goals you set.

In my Goal Setting Sheet which comes with a complimentary coaching session, I encourage my clients to focus on 3 – 5 goals at a time. This ensures that they avoid overwhelm and have clarity as well as clear time frames when they want to achieve the goals they have set. However, inspite of all the good intentions from time to time goal setters find that although they have a clear plan of action, they tend to fail to find the push they need to move the needle in their goals.

For example in my case, one of my goals this year is in the area of professional growth. I want to grow as a Leadership and Productivity Coach. I also want to rekindle my passion for quilting. So my action points for this goal are to read 2-3 books each month and to start small quilting projects. Although I have made progress on reading some books, I am yet to take out my sewing machine and start a quilt.

As I reviewed my first quarter results, I wondered why I was not moving the needle on the quilting goal. It was after I read the post by Coach Louise Keller explaining why we must include motivation in our goal setting process that the light bulb came on.

Motivation

The definition I got from google for motivation is \”a reason or reasons for acting or behaving in a particular manner\”. Another defined it as \”energizing, directing and sustaining employee efforts\”.

From these two definitions, it appears safe to conclude that an individual or a team that is motivated about a goal or a task is usually energized and excited about working on the goal or undertaking the task. This in effect means that one needs to have a reason (motivation) that will cause excitement about following through on what they say they will do. What comes to mind is Simon Sinek\’s book Start With Why. You can listen to his TedX talk on this subject HERE.

In my workbook Create and Visualize Your Future, I make a case for Christine Kane\’s Be, Do, Have Model for effective goal setting. Beginning from the Do level means you have a clear reason why you are setting a particular goal. You can check out the workbook HERE.

Let us get back to my goal of resuming quilting after 8 years. I now have the answer to why I do not have the excitement to try out all the projects I have pinned on my Pinterest board. You see, I did not dig deep to discover what motivated me to come up with that goal.

Maybe like me, you too have been wondering why some of the goals you set for this year are yet to begin bearing fruit. I encourage you to go back to the drawing board and find what motivated you to set that particular goal. Perhaps you are a leader of a team and you are scratching your head about how to get the team to deliver the results you crave. May I suggest that you make time to help your team understand why you want them to get those results. If you do this, I guarantee that you and me will have better progress on our goals when this quarter ends.

Finally, 

As a Coach with the John Maxwell Team, I have the skills and tools to help you move the needle with your goals. You can set up a complimentary session and let us see how I can serve you. Otherwise in the words of Coach Louise \”your super targeted SMART goal will continue to sit on the shelf and gather dust unless you attach strong aligned intrinsic motivation to it\”.