How to Set Smarter Goals

Smart Goal versus Smarter Goals

Most people have heard several breakdowns of the term Smart regarding goal setting. And, like most people, I went right along with it. Turning SMART into an acronym somehow, we “buy in” and believe it to be truth. I did. Turns out it was nothing more than a vestibule for a decade of disappointment, pain and, even when I did hit the goal, little if any fulfillment.

We are taught that SMART Goals are…
S-Specific
M-Measurable
A-Achievable
R-Realistic
T-Time

That’s all good and fine but until I learned about setting  Smarter Goals, the passion, manufactured, became less and less. It was just a habit, something to carry out. There was not real connection and hitting goals was sheer determination that lacked intrigue, joy and bliss.

Hailed sort of a “hero” with several direct sales companies, I was asked to speak about it often at conventions. Cheers, pats on the back and even admiration.
Inside? Nothing.

Look, there is nothing wrong with “stuff” and accomplishment. Not complaining about learning how to write out goals, build a plan and doing it. There was not satisfaction in the soul, in my being. And, let me add, this feeling of pleased yet not fulfilled was no mid-life thing nor an existential journey to find the meaning of life.

Joseph Campbell Lends a Hand

I had long ago, in studying Joseph Campbell, aligned myself with that the question about the meaning of life is a pointless question, that life, in and of itself, has no meaning. The only meaning a life can have is the meaning we give to it. Or, as Campbell queried, “why ask what the meaning of life is when you are the answer?”

Blessed By Brokenness

In 2007, I had just come off a record-breaking year, hailed for remarkable achievement with a direct sales company, a standing ovation, and feeling broken inside while standing on stage. What a blessing. It was not fear. I knew I could fly home, reset, and do it again. Eating dinner with the bride, The Fabulous Davene, that night, I broke down. What a blessing!

You see, we are broken, when the belief systems we’ve been conditioned to value no longer hold value, there is a chance, a glorious opportunity for the ego to temporarily perish. It is here that new thoughts can enter, that transformation becomes possible.

Back home, I immersed myself in Campbell’s brilliant study of myths spanning 4000 years. The “aha” came quickly because I was so overvaluing “stuff” and business successes as a path to success, security and identity. And, bingo, understanding the need for a smart goal.

A smarter goal is chosen radically differently from “smart goals.” It turns out, like most people, I did not realize I had been conditioned. [BTW, if you don’t think you’ve been conditioned, you’ve been perfectly conditioned, just like me]. Honesty is your ally. It’s a bit difficult to get out of the conditioned mind and really hear your heart. And, equally difficult is understanding we’re all been taught, conditioned, or coerced by peer pressure/companies/schools how we will feel when we get the “big thing.”

What Are Smarter Goals?

Fire your head and hire your heart! This, whom I call the “intuitive visitor,” is imperative to setting a Smarter Goal. Sit in silence and invite this “intuitive visitor” into your being. Listen, honor the voice within, and ask, with humility, what you really want to feel. Not what you want, but what you want to feel.

As you dialog internally with your primal power of being, lock in on that feeling, and what to do to experience that feeling will come to you in thought. It invariably leads to that “one thing.” Once you find that “one thing,” nothing else will matter. The path to that Smart Goal that triggers fulfilment and bliss becomes clear. Ironically, all the cool stuff life has to offer comes your way… you’ll realize the “stuff” is confirmation of your power, it does not give you power.

The bliss of perusing that “one thing” opens you up to give meaning to your life. Most of the material stuff just won’t matter… nice? Yes. Meaningful? Nope.

You’ll find yourself drenched in gratitude, humbled by it, and sharing the rebirth of who you were intended to be, is an elixir that dwarfs the conditioning about success you previously labored under.