Smart(er) Model: How To Keep New Year’s Resolutions
At the end of the year, many make a list of resolutions to fulfill the next: from doing more sports, to quitting smoking, to going back to school, these are some of the most common points on that list.
Some of them are recurring resolutions that are repeated on that list year after year because they are never completely fulfilled. Although this is often blamed on laziness, lack of will or lack of time or money, the truth is that one of the main reasons for this failure to achieve the proposed objectives is due to not defining it well. the purpose; that is, it is not applied previously what in coaching is known as a filter or Smart model and which at D’Arte Human Business School we prefer to call Smarter.
In Coaching the Smart model is used as a filter to define a purpose or objective as much as possible When an objective is perfectly defined thanks to the steps of this model, it is easier to execute an action plan to really achieve it.
Smart is nothing more than the union of the acronyms (in English) of the different steps or phases of this goal-purifying model, which are:
1. Specific
In this step, the purpose to be fulfilled must be detailed as much as possible For example, the purpose of ‘losing weight’ is extremely general. To accomplish this first step, a more specific goal would be: ‘I want to lose 10 kilos between now and the beginning of summer.’ Generalities are distracting, but if we have something specific in mind it is easier to visualize it and, therefore, achieve it.
Here it is time to establish how oneself will measure the results obtained. That is to say, What will let you know that you are on the right track to achieve goals For example, in the weight loss example above it’s pretty easy: if I lose weight, I’m getting there.
In other cases it is more difficult to establish a rigorous measurement, but you can establish your own measurement system. Thus, given a goal that is to go out for a run twice a week, we can say that we will know that it has been achieved if the recurrence of going out for a two-day run has been met every week for at least two consecutive months.
3. Attainable
This step of the model is not just thinking about whether it is a possible or impossible objective: it is define if at that moment, with the resources available, it is really achievable or it will be a failure again
Thus, if someone who intends to quit smoking is currently experiencing a time of personal stress, perhaps this step of the filter will make him see that, perhaps, it is not possible to achieve it now.
4. Realistic
Although it seems very similar to the previous step, in this case it consists more of determining If you really have the degree of commitment necessary to achieve it and what are the real conditions for success? It may be one of the most important steps to define our objective: if there is no commitment and the achieved objective is not visualized, achieving it is practically a chimera.
This step of the Smart model consists of set the time in which you want to achieve it, the beginning and end with which we will say that the objective has been achieved If you can put an exact date, the better. Here you have to be especially careful to be really realistic, as the previous step said: do not set very short deadlines if it is not feasible, but also do not set extremely long deadlines that will probably cause the desire to disperse over time.
Smarter model: add an E and an R
At D’Arte Human Business School we make this model more complete by converting it into Smarter, that is, adding two more steps in defining the objective.
1. Ecological
This means analyzing whether to achieve my goal is going to involve or directly affect someone in order to be able to take it into account and find, perhaps, how to achieve it without this implication being a problem.
2. Rewarding
If we really think about the real purpose of the objective, what we really achieve with it, and we visualize it, it is easier to actually achieve success. Thus, beyond losing weight, the reward can range from being able to fit into those jeans that that person has been wanting to wear for a long time, to not getting tired climbing stairs.
Smarter model, essential for a good coach
In D’Arte Human Business School We know that this model is one of the most important tools that a professional coach has to use.
For this reason, in the different coaching training that we provide at the school, such as the Master in Professional Coaching or the Coaching Expert course, we place special emphasis on in-depth learning and practice of the Smarter model so that our students can help their clients to achieve their purposes and objectives with a guarantee of success.
