Moving beyond SMART goals

- So we saw in the last video that it's really important to have clear goals for your life, where are you going in your life. And in this section we're gonna look at how can we make those goals as effective as possible. Now you've probably seen, SMART goals and there's a, I think it's quite cliched actually, I don't really like SMART goals, the idea that goals have to be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timed. My objection to SMART is that A, it's a bit boring, doesn't really excite me and also, specific and measurable are the same thing really, and achievable and realistic are the same thing as well aren't they, or have I missed the point in some way? So I don't really like SMART, I would like to suggest that your goals should be SPVEM, and SPVEM, the first S, doesn't stand for specific, it actually stands for Scary, so I think your first goal, or the first feature that all of your goals should have, is that they should be a little bit scary, you should be thinking, ooh I don't know, could I do that, could I really do that? And that feeling of fear, is that feeling of your subconscious expanding slightly as it sort of thinks, well maybe I could, and as you start to visualize that goal more and more, you start to believe that you actually can achieve it. So your goals should be a little bit scary, they shouldn't be within your comfort zone, 'cause those are gonna happen anyway. The P of SPVEM, is that they should be Positive, you shouldn't have a goal to have less stress, or to be a bit less unfit or something like that, your goals should be things that you want to do that you can imagine doing. So instead of watching less TV, let's say, your goal should be to read for an hour, or to go out and do exercise for half an hour every night, something like that, so they have to be positive because your subconscious can only visualize positive things, so a goal to give up smoking is not a very good goal, because your subconscious just thinks about smoking, so you gotta think about what you'll do instead, what will your life be like when you're not a smoker. So that's the P, Positive. The V of SPVEM, goes with that, in that it's got to be visualizable, it's got to be visual. So if you just wanna live in a nice house, what does a nice house look like exactly? You know, will it be a cottage, will it be a flat in the middle of town, will it have a garden, so it's gotta be visual, and something like to have more security, what does that actually mean? Is it money in the bank, is it a skill that's always in demand, is it to have lots of small customers so that if you lose one, it doesn't matter, what does security actually look like? So it's gotta be visual and the best way actually to make things visual is to actually get a picture of it. Maybe stick the picture on the wall even, so if you want to be in good shape, maybe actually get a picture of the perfect body, some people stick their head on the picture of their perfect body they'd like to have, but then in your mind, your subconscious then thinks okay, right, I'm gonna aim for that. Or they get a picture of their perfect house or whatever and then that helps them aim for something similar to that. So the more visual those goals can be the better, and that's the V of SPVEM. Now the E, I actually can't decide whether the E stands for Emotional or Exciting, it's the same thing really, I think we should probably pick Exciting, so your goals have actually got to excite you, so you mustn't just write, oh well I suppose I better write down a Ferrari 'cause Chris says I've got to write down a goal, so I'll put Ferrari, unless you're exciting about Ferraris don't have that as a goal because it's your emotions that actually drive you to take actions. So you've got to feel emotional about your goals. And finally the M is Measurable, it's the same as in SMART, I think your goals do need to be measurable, so to be fitter, or get more exercise is not really good enough, it's a good start, but ideally your goal will be, to be able to run a mile in six minutes or to be able to do 30 press ups or something like that, 'cause that's a measurable goal that you can work towards and that you can definitely say, I have achieved my goal. So that is SPVEM, so what I'd like you to do now, is just go through that list of goals you wrote earlier and just refine them a bit more, make them a bit more exciting or think about how you're gonna visualize them, or how you're gonna measure them and tweak your list of goals to make it a little bit better and then in the next section we're gonna improve your goals even more.