In goal setting, “your why,” refers to the relevance that the particular goal has in your life. Relevance is the R, in the SMART Goals method of goal setting. This part of setting a goal for yourself is crucial because it’s about ensuring that the goal is important to you. There’s little point in putting time and effort into a goal that truly doesn’t matter to you.
Goals should drive us forward towards something significant. Relevance of the goal you are setting should also align well with your other life plans. Decide the relevance of a goal by answering a few questions pertaining to the goal and your current life. Questions like:
Does this goal seem worthwhile? Is the tradeoff of time and effort worth the result?
Does it align well with my other efforts and goals? Are other aspects of your life driving forward in the same direction?
Is this the right time for this goal? Does this goal fit in with your personal goals? Does it make sense financially?
Am I the right person for this goal? Is this goal attainable? Do I have the skills and ability for success in the goal?
Coming up with answers to these questions will help you determine the goal’s relevance in your life. Some of these questions are not necessarily straightforward, black and white. You will need to dig deep to answer some of these questions to find the real “why” of your desired goal, to know if it’s relevant enough to move forward.
An example of a goal relevant to one’s life might be for someone whose goal is to be promoted in their field, to take available online courses, to gain knowledge and experience of their desired position. This plan is worthwhile because it provides professional experience. They offer the courses online, so you can take them at a time convenient for the subject. Online courses are affordable, so most likely they will make financial sense. The online courses will ultimately propel the subject forward, toward an even bigger goal, the eventual promotion.
Relevance of a goal is an important part of goal setting. Deciding if a goal is relevant helps you match your goals to the rest of your life, helps you know if the goal matters to you, and if the time is the right time to achieve the goal. Sometimes, one must truly examine themselves and their life to determine relevance of a desired goal.
How to Find Motivation to Achieve Your Goals
One of the biggest mistakes people make when seeking to achieve a goal is to wait for inspiration and motivation. Imagine if everyone on this planet waited for motivation to get work done. Productivity would drop to nothing, and our economy would collapse. Since productivity has improved over the years, it’s not likely that it has anything much to do with real motivation other than people doing the things they have to do in order to achieve a goal.
That goal may be set by them or their employer. It doesn’t matter who set it – it’s set, and someone is going to get it done. How sad that in some cases people fail at so many things simply by ignoring the fact that motivation isn’t really necessary; only doing is. They sit around waiting for inspiration to come wondering why everyone else is doing better than them, and they’re waiting for some spark of motivation that will never arrive. You can avoid this issue by realizing the truth.
Motivation Doesn’t Exist
You probably have heard of the myth of the starving artist who can’t paint, or the writer with writer’s block. It’s interesting that these creative professions have the same myth, like weight loss, that some secret motivation has to come to achieve success – some mysterious spark of inspiration that will get you off your bottom doing what you need to get done. However, nothing could be further from the truth.
Doing, Not Thinking, Gets Results
Time and again, the people who are truly successful in their own lifetimes, are not people who wait for a spark. They are people who get up out of bed every single day, rain or shine, and do things that lead to an end result of success. The successful painter paints every single day and if they hate marketing they hire someone to do that for them. The successful writer, writes; the successful doctor – doctors. If you want to be successful at something, do it. Live it. You will succeed.
Successful People Are Not Smarter Than You
Many people get blocked by thinking that someone is better than, smarter than, or any “than” than them. The truth is, successful people aren’t smarter. Take a look at the most famous actresses that you know. Without exception they are simply people who do their craft every single day, and more times than not they are simply being themselves in front of the camera. They are doing it, not thinking about doing it, and not dreaming of doing it. They go to auditions, get rejected, and then get up the next day and do it again.
Envision Success
Some people think vison boards are a bunch of hocus pocus but the truth is, being able to truly visualize yourself experiencing success will go far in helping you actually create success in your life. There are people who are good at seeing it in their mind and believing it, but others need more. Try making a vision board to see your dream down on paper so that you can then decide how to make your S.M.A.R.T. goals.
Follow a Schedule
It can’t be stated enough. Doers do. Successful people do. A “to do” list isn’t going to cut it; you’re going to need to make a schedule and stick to it. If you want to write a 10,000 word eBook to sell to your target audience, you need to start at the end point, then work your way back to today making a schedule that is realistic and that you really can follow to get the work done when you said you wanted it done. Then let nothing stop you.
Experience Success
Set some smaller goals so that you can feel what success is like. If you’ve never once stuck to anything, you can’t know what success feels like and you have nothing to push you forward. People who experience success like to experience it again, and the more success you experience, the more you’re going to realize that you can. It’s self-fulfilling.
Repeat Everything
Finally, keep doing it over and over again. With anything you want to achieve, set the goal, track your success and do something every single day toward achieving that goal. Again and again. It’s really that simple.
Motivation is a figment of the imagination, and not something that most people have. Most people get up in the morning by hitting the snooze button a few times, and most people do not feel especially happy about doing certain things. What they feel happy about is the end result, the deliverable. Place your focus there and you will not need any motivation because you will be successful.