Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve discussed the Witchiness of setting New Year’s Resolutions in five areas:  Physical, Financial, Social/Emotional, Mental, and Spiritual.  In closing, I’d like to talk a little bit about the skill of goal-setting.

In my years working with non-profit agencies and in various levels of administration and management, I have seen so many people who didn’t seem to know how to set a goal in a way it could be achieved.  More often than not, I’ve seen goals that were too vague or too lofty, or that just couldn’t be measured in a way to know if progress was being made.  I assure you, there are few things more frustrating than setting a goal and not knowing how or if or how fast you’re getting there.

One technique I learned in a management seminar is called SMART goals.  This acronym breaks down into five goal “checkpoints”.  For the purposes of demonstration, let’s say weight loss was your goal for the year.  Here’s how the SMART technique works:

S is for SPECIFIC.  A good goal is a specific goal.  Saying that you want to lose a lot of weight this year isn’t specific.  How much is a lot?  10 pounds?  75 pounds?  What might be a lot for you might not be a lot for someone else.  So let’s get really specific.  Let’s say you want to lose 60 pounds.  That is a definite number.  Anyone asking could understand what 60 pounds means.

M is for MEASURABLE.  A good goal can be measured.  Your goal of losing 60 pounds is something you can measure each week by stepping on the scale.  If your goal was to lose inches, you could measure that, too.  Measurability is your way of seeing your progress and knowing if you have, in the end, achieved your goal.

A is for ATTAINABLE.  A good goal can actually be reached.  If you’d said you wanted to lose 200 pounds, that would not be very attainable.  Saying you wanted your boobs to shrink would probably only happen with a trip to the plastic surgeon — attainable, yes, but not…

R is for REASONABLE.  A good goal makes sense.  Let’s say you wanted to lose 60 pounds… in six weeks.  The 60 pounds part is certainly attainable, but in six weeks?!  That’s not good for you or your body.  You might want to lose 60 pounds by Valentine’s Day, but it’s not really fair to your system.

T is for TIME-LIMITED.  A good goal has an expiration date.  In my opinion, this is where most New Year’s Resolutions fail.  People don’t set themselves a time-limit and check in at intervals during that time limit.  Setting a time-limit for your goals also allows you to break your goals into smaller steps, creating smaller goals for each segment of time.  It’s far easier to focus on losing 5 pounds a month than to focus on losing 60 pounds a year, but in the end, it’s the same result.  If you want to reach your goal, you have to know how far away the finish line is.  That partly includes setting yourself a “due by” date.

When you go about setting your goals, make sure that they fall in the SMART format.  Once you have a good goal that meets the SMART criteria, break the goal down into smaller steps with mini-goals. 

And don’t forget to reward yourself!  When you choose your rewards, make sure that the rewards are something that supports your ultimate goal — for example, rewarding yourself with a fancy dinner out is probably not the best carrot on the stick for someone attempting to reduce their BMI.  New gym clothes, or a spa day, or some other non-food self-pampering treatment would be much better!

Witches are masters of transformation.  Our best workings involve ourselves.  If you cannot master changes within, you cannot author changes without — not lasting ones, anyway.  Make this the year that you discover your own power and grow in ways you never believed possible. 

Photo by Eddi 07 (via Flickr).