We’ve established that learning has a few different components, from information consumption, memory retention, and actual doing. All of these elements contribute to becoming an expert, but there is a final aspect that has just as high importance.

Creating goals. Why do goals matter in learning?

Human nature prefers the path of least resistance. If you don’t construct goals, or at least have an idea of the end point you seek, you won’t be properly motivated, and you will likely only do the bare minimum that is required. If you’re not trying to accomplish something with your learning or memorizing, then what’s the purpose of making an effort at all? What will keep you focused and in check when you have other distractions?

What will keep you from whatever your definition of failure?

If you took a class that never had any tests or exams, would you bother learning or studying? If you put a goal in place, like an exam, then you’d behave very differently with your efforts.

Suffice it to say, goals can assist your learning, and in many cases take it to the next level. There is one method in goal setting that has proven to be heads and shoulders above all others 먹튀검증커뮤니티. This is called the SMART method of setting goals, where SMART is actually the acronym S.M.A.R.T.

S.M.A.R.T. stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound. I’ll take you through each of these elements separately to see how you can make more effective goals that will help your learning and memory retention.

Specific

Let’s suppose you have the goal of losing weight. That by itself isn’t a very specific goal. In fact, it’s so broad and vague that if you lose even one pound, you could call your goal successful. It doesn’t help with planning and preparation, and it certainly doesn’t motivate you the way a specific goal would.

A better answer here would take into account exactly what you want to accomplish, such as, “I want to lose fifteen pounds and fit into the third notch of my brown leather belt.”

This makes your goal real because you’ve placed a number on it and a specific benefit; it’s no longer a vague concept. You’ve put it out there, and now you are capable of failure. This is the reason many of us don’t define our goals too clearly. It’s the same aversion to a negative reaction that will motivate you and push you to achieve.

You might also be specific as to the entire context behind the goal, which would include:

• Who is involved, if not only yourself.
• When you want to accomplish this goal by.
• Where this goal will occur, if applicable.
• Why you want to accomplish this goal.

The last point is the most important because it solidifies a clear benefit and desire from for reaching this goal. It gives you the long-term view of how your life will change, and can keep you focused when you are stuck or feeling despair. A clear “why” will power you and provide an energy boost because you aren’t just starving yourself or eating broccoli, you are doing it for self-esteem, to fit into your pants, and to attract the opposite sex better. This is something you should articulate at the very beginning, because it shapes everything else.

Measurable

You need a mechanism for determining whether you are getting closer to your overall goal. You have to be able to tell whether there is incremental progress, and if there is a difference from your starting point.

With weight loss, this is straightforward. You only need to step on a scale to see if you are making progress towards your goal weight. For other goals, you need a similarly objective method to measure your progress and how far you’ve come.

This serves two main purposes. First, seeing progress is incredibly motivating and provides positive feedback. It shows your efforts have payoff, and your actions can directly affect your fate. The subtext is that it motivates you to try harder because thus far, there has been a direct causation from your actions to your goal. That’s nice.

Second, measuring your progress keeps you accountable and on track. You can’t rely on subjective judgment because you will probably default to the path of least resistance, or be able to otherwise rationalize your poor progress or performance. An objective measure like a scale will never lie to you, and it will never swallow your lies. It will just tell you if what’s happening is or isn’t good enough.

Attainable

When you set your goals, they must be something that is clearly possible at some point in time by you.

There is a fine line between shooting too low and too high. It can’t be overly ambitious, because when you fail to adhere to that trajectory, you may become demotivated. If you shoot too low, then you aren’t gaining much.

It’s also important to consider what’s involved in attaining your goal. A good goal is not something that could possibly happen in the future if other circumstances align. It’s something that, if you are pushed out of your comfort zone a bit and control what you can control, has an extremely high likelihood of materializing.

When you set the initial goal, factor out everything out of your control. What can you plausibly control and manipulate to your advantage? That directly influences what is attainable, but make sure that you aren’t shooting too low to compensate for what is out of your control.

You also need to think about the changes required to achieve your goal, both in your environment and your personality towards things. What would it take to completely change your environment, and what skills or tools would you need to attain to achieve your goal? Take inventory of yourself. If you want to lose weight, and you are surrounded by friends who all eat terrible fast food every day, and you don’t possess a gym membership, what steps are necessary to change your environment and personality?

This keeps you accountable because you won’t be able to blame anything external ? you have sole responsibility for whether or not you attain your goal.

Relevance

What is the relevance of this goal to your life, overall goals, and happiness? Why does it matter and why do you want to achieve it?

This is similar to the “why” we discussed earlier. You need a compelling “why” because it’s what will keep you motivated and on target through the struggle of reaching your goal. Often, we may have trouble articulating these because they are tied to improving our emotional states, i.e. “I want to lose weight because I feel embarrassed and lack confidence.”

If you lack an overarching goal or emotional motivation, it’s incredibly easy to veer off the path to your goal because there’s no backlash. You won’t feel like you’re missing out on anything.

Time-bound

You must be able to impose a deadline for reaching your goal. A goal without a deadline is just a dream or, at best, a statement of intent. If you don’t have a deadline for your goal, you won’t have any urgency or reason to take action today instead of tomorrow or next week. This is key to actually carrying through.

Anyone can set goals, but if they are ambiguous as to timing, it’s probably not intended to succeed.

If you have a longer-term goal, it can also be helpful to set deadlines for milestones throughout the course of the year so you are aware of where you should be at a certain time. This will provide further check-ins to keep you accountable and impart a sense of urgency.

If I want to lose fifteen pounds in the next year, I want to lose five pounds every month, which is 1.25 pounds every week. It provides much more clarity.

Now that we’ve gone through each element of S.M.A.R.T. goals, let’s go through a few examples to see how they differ from “poor”, but exceedingly common, types of goals.

Bob says, “My goal is to start a business!” with no further clarification. This goal is so broad that we don’t even know what he is referring to, much less how likely it is to succeed.

Let’s take Bob through the steps and create a S.M.A.R.T. goal for him.

• Specific: I want to open my own lawnmower store.
• Measurable: You can measure this goal by the money the business makes: I will make $10,000 in the first six months of opening my business.
• Attainable: This is attainable, but I need to hire a lawyer and accountant, ignore my family for a while, talk to my mentor more, and change my schedule so I can visit stores every weekend.
• Relevant: This store represents my freedom from being an employee and hopefully will eventually fuel my retirement.
• Time-bound: I want to sign the lease on the store itself in the next two months, and start selling products one month after.

Where Bob once started with “My goal is to start a business!” he now has “My goal is to open my own lawnmower store within two months and make $10,000 within the first six months, and work for myself for the rest of my life.”

Here’s another example: Elaine says, “I want to become famous in my field.” What is her S.M.A.R.T. goal?

• Specific: I want to be the most famous tax attorney in my state.
• Measurable: You can measure this goal by how frequently you are asked to be interviewed or speak on tax issues, as well as how much business you have.
• Attainable: This is attainable, I will need to hire a public relations firm, start writing for newspapers and magazines, and network with fellow attorneys that have sway.
• Relevant: If I can become the most famous tax attorney in my state, I will have a never-ending flow of business and I will be able to stop worrying about money.
• Time-bound: I want to accomplish this goal and have four interviews a month by the end of the year.

You can see how many more elements come up when thinking through your goals, and how going through the S.M.A.R.T. process essentially provides a blueprint for what you need to do. Not only do S.M.A.R.T. goals have a higher chance of success, they can tell you exactly what you are looking for.

S.M.A.R.T. isn’t the only guideline that will help you with your goals.

First, sometimes it’s better to make goals and success about the effort, and not necessarily the achievement. In other words, it can be motivating at the beginning to make a success just doing something versus doing it well. Just getting to the gym and jogging for ten minutes is a success. Aim for that, versus lifting heavy weights for two hours, as might be ideal to some. Effort and consistency is underrated in goal completion, so make sure to reward it.

Second, your willpower to achieve your goal has limits. Think of it as a battery pack that runs down at the end of the day. This means you should preemptively avoid temptations and distractions, and make it as easy as possible for you to work on your goal. For a weight loss goal, this would mean making it easy to eat healthy and workout by packing your lunch, and always having clean gym clothes, and avoiding buying snacks altogether.

Third, make sure the goals you set are because you want them. Don’t set goals that are from other people, or ones that you are bound to by a sense of duty or obligation. You’re not going to have a very compelling “why” to motivate yourself to achieve them, and they might be a waste of your precious time. The more a goal is for someone else’s expectations, the more of a chore it will feel like.

Finally, don’t forget to review and monitor your progress, starting from day one. Often, we are completely blind to incremental progress just because we can’t notice the difference. Whatever medium is appropriate, record yourself right from the beginning. You can make it visual so you can tangibly see and appreciate the difference. The point is to incorporate encouragement as a result of seeing your progress.