The SECRET for achieving your objectives is...

Hi, welcome to this new video. The topic today is smart goals. And this is a very important topic, not just for investing your money, but in general for many other things in your life. Because smart goals and smart doesn't just mean smart. But I will show you later in the video the meaning of this term. In this context, a smart goal is really what can make the difference between you being able to achieve the goal and not being able to do so. So let's see together, what is a smart goal? Now the first question is this. Have you seen, have you experienced this? This? Sometimes when you set a goal, there are some situations where it's very easy for you to achieve the goal. It seems that everything is going the right direction and then you don't have any destruction, you don't have any, any external event that is really shifting your focus from your goal. But some other time is very hard because maybe you know you want to achieve your goal, but you know, you start to use your phone, your social media, you go out, you are tired, you are lazy, and then you never progress. So the question is why this happens? What is the difference between these two situations? The difference is that often when you can achieve a goal, the goal is smart. And you can see here what I mean by smart. The S of smart means specific. Okay, Then we have measurable, achievable, relevant and time based. Now in this video we are going to check more in details every one of these five elements that define a smart goal. Let's start with specific. What does it mean to have a specific goal? It means basically that you will be able to answer this question, what exactly do you want to achieve? And the key word here is exactly. I give you an example. If you say that your goal is I want to find a job, well, this is not very specific, which job, right? But if you say I want to become a chef, well, this is already more specific. Why is this important? Because if you want to find a job, is it possible that you just go through a lot of job announcements and nothing really excites you and you don't take any action? But if you know that you want to become a chef, then is much more specific. So you may just look at these opportunities to become a chef and already having in your mind something more specific as objective will help you to become more excited about that. So these are specific. What's next? Measurable. Measurable is also very important because when you want to achieve a goal and you will see later is never a straight line, you may want to achieve a goal and then you may have some success and then some failure and then again success and is more or less, you know, the. They often do. They often use this example of the flight, right? So suppose you are flying and then you want to go from point A to point B, right? And, and what happens is that usually when you are flying, you are. You, you know, you, you need to go this direction. But maybe the. Because of the wind, the flight, the plane will go up and then you need to correct and then go down, left, right. So you know, you, you need to keep taking this corrective action. Because when you are off track, then if you know that your goal is achieving B, then you know what to do to go back on track. And then eventually you achieve it. But if you don't have any way to measure if you are on track or not, the moment you are going, let's change color, maybe red. The moment you start to go off track, then you never do anything. And then you end up, and then you end up somewhere else. That is not really where you want it to be. So what do I mean by measurable? You need to be able to know when you have achieved your goal. That's the point. Now let's compare again to example. If you say I want to buy food, well, it's not really something that you can measure. What do you mean you want to buy food? How much food? How do you know that you have achieved that? But if you say I want to buy three apples, then okay, I know that if I bought one, I still have two to go. If I have two, then I still have one to go. Now it may seem a stupid example, but this is just for you to understand what I mean by measurable, right? It means that really you have a way to know how close you are to your objective. And so if you are not getting close enough, you can take corrective action like the flight we have seen. So that is more likely you will achieve your goal achievable. Can the goal be achieved? This is also very, very important because many people, they may have huge goals and is great, but they also need to be achievable. Of course, if I say, well, I want to go to the moon now, it's very unlikely you will achieve your goal, you know. But if you say I want to learn French, well, this is also a big goal. Of course, I'm assuming you are not a native French speaker, otherwise doesn't count. But let's say you want to learn a new language like French. It's not impossible, of course. If you want to learn French, you need to take action. You need to go to a course, for example, or spend some time in the country where they speak French. But is achievable at least. So this is also something very important. When you set goal, it must be something that is possible to realize. I'm not saying easy, but it must be possible. Then it must be relevant. Relevant can have different definitions. I think the easiest way to know if it's relevant is when you check and then you see if is a goal that you must achieve or you wish to achieve. And there is a big difference. Because if it's a goal that you wish to achieve is probably something that is not really important to you. It's something that would be nice if you can have. But even if you don't have is still okay. But if it's something that is really important to you, then it become a must. For example, let's say that your goal is to get a new smartphone so you can play games. Well, this is not something really important, right? But let's say that you want to become a chef, as we said before and there is a book that you want because you want to learn cooking. Okay? Now this is more important because if your goal is to become a chef, then having that book may really help you. Next time based meaning to say we need a deadline and this is very important. Why? It's very important because the moment you put a deadline is also related to what we said before measurable. The moment you put a deadline, you know how you have to take action in order to achieve the goal. If you know that you have to learn a language in let's say here the example I want to learn Chinese. Well, I want to learn Chinese is probably achievable, but you are not telling by when. So if you never say when you are going to learn Chinese, guess what happened? You keep procrastinating and delaying and then you never start. But if you say I want to learn Chinese by 31st December 2021, then it's different because now you have a deadline. So you know that you need to study, you need to go to class, you need to take action to be able to speak. Let's say your objective is to be able to speak Chinese by that day. So these are the five element of a smart goal. Let's have a look here at these three examples and see which one of those is smart. So if I say I would like to buy a bag, is it a smart goal? Well, I'm not saying for example, which bag? So not really specific. Is one bag, then okay, it can be measurable. Is it relevant to you? I don't know. Is there any deadline? No, there is no deadline. So this is not really a smart goal. I want to win the lottery. Okay, maybe it's more specific. It could be even more specific if you say which lottery, right? You want to win the lottery by when. But you know, the main issue with this problem is that there is no way for you to be in control. In other words, is not a goal that is really achievable according to the action you take. Of course, the more tickets you buy, the more chance you have. But is it really a goal that you can achieve? Well, it's kind of out of your control because it really depends on the odds, on the luck, right? So if your goal is just based on luck, is not really a good goal. What about this one? I want to create my YouTube cooking channel and upload two videos a week starting from the 1st of February 2020. Now this seems better, right? So you have a deadline. You are quite is measurable because you know that you want two videos a week. So the moment you are uploading one video and then Sunday is coming, you know that you have to upload another one, right? Is relevant. Well, if we assume that you are interested in cooking, yes, it's relevant. So it's measurable. Is relevant. Is specific. Yeah, it's pretty specific. You know, is a YouTube cooking channel. And, and there is a deadline. So it's a pretty good goal. So this is the best among these three. And this kind of goals, when you set a goal this way, is much easier that you will achieve it. Now I would like you to do something, stop the video here and just take some time, maybe five, ten minutes to think about your goal and then write it in a smart way. So write it in such a way that is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time based. So you can stop the video now and then when you are done, you can continue. Okay, so I'm assuming that you have done the exercise. I hope that you got something that is closer to the third one here rather than this. And probably you had to work it a little, rewrite it, but that's, that's good. You are training your brain to go in the right direction. Now let's have some other discussion about smart goals. The question that you may have is, okay, when I have set my smart goal, is that all, Then everything is easy. Well, the reality is that it's not easy. Usually what happens when you see people that are achieving some success, you see only this part, right? So they see people successful and you assume that they are rich or famous just because they are lucky. But often what you don't see is this bottom part, okay? Because to achieve success you probably have to go through a lot of disappointment, failure, sacrifice. You see all of them here, right? But this is something that people don't see and they don't want to see. Because it's much easier to believe that everything is easy. Everything is, I start now and tomorrow I have already my objective. So you need to learn first to enjoy the journey, not just thinking at the goal. And then you are just working hard. And when you achieve the goal, only then you are happy. No, you must be happy through the process. And this is much easier if the goal is relevant to you. Because if it's something that you really are passionate about, is much easier to enjoy the journey. And then you don't have to be demotivated when these things happen, because they will happen and they happen to everyone. Okay? So this is something to have in mind. Set the goal, but don't expect it is a very straight journey, is like the flight example before. This is something that is normal and this is something that will help you improve your resilience if you want. Because when you are able to overcome all these things, then in the future, in your life, you will be much more stronger when something unexpected happen. And this is what we say before, this is what you may think at the beginning. You are here, right? And then you are, okay, this is my plan now I'm setting my smart goal, right? And then the smart goal is here. And then, well, I just go, right? Well, actually it's more likely like that you are here and then you will have your failures, your obstacles that you have to pass. And then eventually you will achieve your goal. So the journey will be much more like that rather than like this. Another thing that I want to mention is the mindset that you should have. That is the mindset of never give up. Because many people, because the journey is not so smooth, what they do is that at some point, sooner or later they give up. Like this guy here, you know, he gives up and he was so close to the goal. So you need to have the passion and the consistency to keep working on your goal. Knowing that is a journey that can be long. But you don't have to stop just because there is one failure. Because if you look at the history of the most successful people, you will find out that they had a lot of failures, even more than normal people. So, so what is the difference between them and the average person? They never give up. They keep improving. They keep working to achieve their goals. And eventually they did. So remember, this is very important. Now, the question you may have is great. It's not easy. It may require sacrifice and time and effort. So what to do when things are not easy, easy? Now, there are two things that I suggest you. One is about this sentence. There is no failure, only feedback. Because remember, any external event that is happening to you, you are the one deciding the interpretation that you give to this event. That means the same thing that happened to you and for which you feel bad. Another person may feel happy. Okay, so what is the point here when something is not going the way you wish, when you are achieving your goal? Maybe, you know, I was saying you start your YouTube channel and then you don't have subscribers or nobody's watching your videos or anything. You know, don't take it as a failure as, oh, I'm bad, I'm not good, I will fail, I will never achieve my goal. Because remember, you don't have to give up. Rather look at it as a feedback, an opportunity to understand that the strategy that you are using may be improved. Okay? And this means, for example, in the case of YouTube, well, maybe I can make something to make my videos better. Maybe people don't watch them because the way I. The title I use is not good. And so by doing that, you improve because you will take the feedback, you refine the strategy, and then you will have a better strategy to move even faster to your goal. And this is basically the point. Change your strategy. Don't assume that the first thing you start to do will be the best, because that's how you learn. Basically, you do something, you check if it's going well or not. If it's going well, great. If not, take the feedback, improve the strategy, and get something better. So let's summarize what we have discussed in this video. The first one is, if you want to achieve a goal, you need to specify the goal in such a way that is smart. And we have seen what smart means. So the five elements of a smart goal. So that's why I asked you to do that exercise. You need to have the goals that are important for you. Define as smart goals. Why? Because this will improve the likelihood that you will achieve your goal. And your goal must be a must. Must be a must. Meaning to say if your goal is not something that you really feel you must Achieve, you know what is going to happen. You may feel excited for a short amount of time, maybe couple of weeks, and then you stop working on your goal. But if the goal is a must, then you will find the time and a way to work for that, right? So let's say, for example, you have to find money because you need to buy something. Okay? Maybe you need to buy a gift for your girlfriend or boyfriend and you really want to buy that gift and you need some money. If that person is really important to you, you probably will find the time and a way to get that money money and to be able to afford to buy that gift. But if it's just for, you know, I have to buy something, like, I don't know, a new watch, you know, because I like it. But really I'm. I'm not really so excited about that. I will be happy if I have, but even if I don't have, it's fine, then probably you will not even care about that. So the point is this. When you specify a smart goal and then you find out that your strategy currently does not allow you to achieve it because it's a must, then you will find a better strategy that will help you achieve the goal faster. And then as we say at the end, remember, there is no failure feedback instead. So take whatever happens as a way to understand if what you are doing is good or can be improved. And this will help you to define a better strategy. So eventually you will find a way to get closer to your goal. And with that, I would like to thank you for watching. If you have any question, write me a comment. I will be happy to answer and see you next time.