For Life Coaches and their clients alike, it is only natural to reflect on and set goals with the coming of a new year. As a professional coach, it is important to feel energized and enthusiastic about the potential that stretches across the coming months so that you might then serve the highest good of your clients, or, if you are just starting your practice, dare to go after the types of clients who will best fill your growing business.

One of the most satisfying aspects of coaching is guiding people in a process that lifts them and helps them break through outdated, limiting blocks. Guiding clients through goal setting is a major early step. Setting your own goals is a great place to start. Goal setting also is a necessary step that must be taken even to discover what is holding you or a client back.

One time-tested goal setting method is the S.M.A.R.T. Goal process, and it remains one of the surest ways to create reasonable but challenging targets that give one the best chance of success. The word “S.M.A.R.T.” stands for: “S”, Specific; “M”, Measurable; “A”, Achievable; “R”, Realistic; and “T”, Time Limited. The act of crafting a S.M.A.R.T. Goal for each life area creates momentum that will help see you through the inevitable resistance faced by even the most successful of goal setters.

“The S.M.A.R.T. Goal approach is a must for clarifying exactly what you are aiming for,” says Fern Gorin, founder and director of the Life Purpose Institute, which has reached 1 million people worldwide through its certified life, career and spiritual coaches.  “But to truly make it a goal worth achieving and foster the needed momentum, one must also identify what motivates them to want that particular outcome.”

Gorin suggests a slightly different approach for the “S” in the S.M.A.R.T. Goal process. “In my individual coaching sessions and in coaching intensives,” Gorin says. “I teach a method that helps clients to understand not just what they want, but why they want it. The underlining drive that fuels the desire to create something is often more important than the goal itself. The answer is not always obvious to them and the work done to pinpoint the motivating factor makes a world of difference in their results.”

With Gorin’s advice in mind, here is a review of the S.M.A.R.T. Goal process, with a few updates:

Specific

The traditional approach to crafting S.M.A.R.T. goals starts with specifying what you want, and of course this is a critical aspect of setting achievable goals. However, Gorin suggests that you first specify, “Why do I want this?”  Make some quiet time, with pencil and paper, and truly explore your motivations. The obvious may come quickly, note those and continue past the point where you think you have exhausted the possibilities. Ask, “What else is motivating this desire?” “Who are the people I hope to impress?” “Who do I hope to help?” “Is there someone else who wants this for me?”

In this way, you will be able to choose the goals that best serve you, avoid those that represent things others want for you but that you may not want for yourself, and, most important, key in on the feelings that bring excitement to the goal and provide the real payoff to its achievement.

Now you are ready to take the time to define the goal itself more precisely. For example, rather than setting the goal “Lose weight,” how much weight, measured in pounds and/or inches, by when?

Measurable

This aspect of S.M.A.R.T. goal setting requires that you ask, “What precise measure can I use to know when I have achieved this?” Perhaps the scale will read 135 pounds. Your savings account statement will read $10,000. You will land a position in management. Whatever that exact measure is, that becomes part of your S.M.A.R.T. Goal.

An exercise to help pinpoint measures is to take some time to envision a scene that represents the achievement of you goal. What do you see? How do you feel?  What response are you getting from onlookers? Visualizing the experience as precisely as possible through all five senses is a great way to experience the specifics that will answer how to know when you have achieved it.  When you are wearing the emotions of accomplishment, log what you see, how you feel, and what you hear. Even smelling the fresh air or tasting champagne during a toast are good ways to reinforce your vision.

Achievable

The extent to which you can visualize and “live” your goal also is an indication of whether it meets the criteria of the “A” in S.M.A.R.T.:  Is it achievable? Many people get confused over the idea of “achievable.” After all, we live in a culture of “Anything is Possible. You can have it all.” Being realistic can sometimes feel downright shameful.

The reality is, you can only achieve or have what is aligned with your deepest beliefs and what falls in line with the reasonable limits of reality. This is not to discourage you or to imply you should not create “stretch” goals. You most definitely should. And even deep beliefs can be discovered and changed. Still, it helps to consider the scope of your goal in terms of wanting to feel the reward of achievement within a reasonable timeframe.

Realistic

Discouragement will be guaranteed if you do not take the time to honestly assess the likelihood that your dream can become a reality. For example, I once saw this goal written by a friend “Regain the body I had at 18.” Now, this person was 55 years old. Getting in top shape for her age? Realistic. Regaining the body of an 18 year old? Afraid not.

If you set goals, but doubt somewhere inside that they are realistic for you, no amount of self discipline will override your disbelief. It is better to craft something closer to what you believe you can achieve, then use the feeling of success when you reach it to move on to larger targets.

Time-Limited

Give your goal an end date. Remember you started with envisioning your experience of having achieved the outcome represented by your goal.  Visit that place again and work backwards through the steps you would have taken to have gotten there. Consider this carefully, as it will yield the accurate amount of time you will need to allow for its achievement.  Set a reasonable end date. If your vision took you to a place of wild accomplishment two years out, break it into a few milestones you can set as S.M.A.R.T. goals to take you there over time.

Coaches who take the time to master the S.M.A.R.T. goal process have much to gain in client satisfaction and results. From a S.M.A.R.T.  Goal more easily come right action, incremental success, and repeatable processes for helping clients get to where they want to go in all areas. The S.M.A.R.T. Goal process is a fundamental worth reviewing any time of year, and it is even more powerful the Life Purpose Institute way.