It’s that time of year again when you (and everyone else) start making ill-fated resolutions to lose weight, get better at guitar, and finally learn to speak Spanish.
I’ll spare you the suspense: you will all fail.
Well, that’s not fair. It’s possible that one out of every five thousand of you will still be going to the gym and avoiding carbs come March.
But the smart money is on you failing.
Most folks have goals that are ambiguous, unmeasurable, unrealistic, and open-ended.
“2014 is the year I get serious about guitar!”
Bullshit, I say. That’s a bunch of wishy-washy crap that’ll be forgotten by spring time, then resurrected just in time for a 2015 resolution.
So what should you do? Give up on sick guitar skills, visible abs, and striking up a conversation with an attractive native Spanish speaker?
No, there’s a better way.
SMART Goals
If you’ve worked in a corporate setting (or hung around the self-improvement crowd), it’s likely that you already know about SMART goals.
That is, goals that are:
- Specific
- Measureable
- Attainable
- Relevant &
- Time-Bound
SMART Goals Are Also BS
That’s right, even when using the much-vaunted SMART goals, you will still fail. While they’re certainly better than most, you need to move the finish line to TODAY.
It’s all too easy to see the bullet points above and say, “yes, I want to lose 25 pounds (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant) by summer (time-bound).”
But the problem with this is that even when you’re down ten pounds, you still haven’t met your 25 pound goal. Even if you eventually hit your goal, you will have spent 99% of the time until that day being a failure.
And if it’s difficult to imagine how you’ll get from where you are to where you’d like to be, your motivation will fail you long before you arrive at the destination.
Win Today
SMART goals are only useful when you apply them to something you can do today.
- I will take 10,000 steps today
- I will skip the carbs at dinner today
- I will practice something difficult today
- I will Skype call my Chilean friend (and speak only Spanish) today
- I will translate one page of this Spanish language book today
Aim Low, Get High
Forget about 10k hours of deliberate practice, how many pounds until you’re skinny, or wherever it is you’d like to be eventually.
What are you doing towards that goal TODAY?
What action are you taking (or not taking)? Score a daily victory, congratulate yourself and then relax. The results will take care of themselves.
Changing Your Life Requires Changing Your Life
You can only change things today. Cultivate better habits.
Want to be in better shape? Pass on the bread & french fries at the next meal. Walk around the block on your break.
Want to be a better guitarist? Forget about 10k hours of deep practice. Show up today and put in a few minutes of effort on something just outside of your grasp.
Want to speak a new language? Find someone who speaks it and have a painfully awkward conversation with the 10 words you currently know.
Tomorrow? Do it again. Changing your life requires changing your life. Being skinny is not an event––it’s a lifestyle. Being a Guitar Badass isn’t a diploma––it’s a way of living. There will never come a day when you will have “learned Spanish”––there’s no final exam.
Move the finish line to today. Win today. Do it again tomorrow.
Further reading: Scott Adams says losers have goals, winners have systems. James Clear says you should have identity-based habits. I put an answer on Quora that says you should have process-based goals and not result-focused goals. All three are variations on the same theme I wrote about here, and definitely worth your time.
