Reflections | 3 reasons to start using the SMARTER goals tool
“Starting from tomorrow, I will exercise more.”
“I will read more books.”
“I will learn a foreign language.”
“I will eat healthier."
Does any of the above sound familiar to you?
If you ever found yourself setting the above goals or resolutions or plans (or however you want to call them) and ended up blaming yourself for not having enough self-discipline to achieve them, then you should definitely keep reading.
(And when you’re finished reading, you are welcome to share the link with friends too
如果你发现自己设定了上述目标、决心或计划，结果却责怪自己没有足够的自律来实现它们，那么你一定要读完这篇文章。
（阅读完后，也欢迎你给朋友分享一下这篇文章
A lot of people are struggling to either keep up with their New Year’s Eve resolutions or to learn a language, lose weight or to do many other things, yet many times they are unsuccessful.
On the long term, this creates a feeling of disappointment, making a lot of people blame themselves for lacking self-discipline.
Ultimately, many just give up trying to set any more goals feeling it’s not for them.
很多人都在努力，要么是为了跟上他们的新年决心，要么是为了学习一门语言、减肥等其他目标，但是很多时候他们就不成功。
长期来看，这种状态会产生一种失望的感觉，让很多人自责，认为因为没有成功而缺乏自律。
最终，很多人将放弃设定更多的目标，觉得这并不适合他们，错误地认为没有这方面的天赋。
At this point people have already entered a state of learned helplessness, which is associated with depression, low self-esteem, bad relationships and many more issues (although maybe not all at once, but you get my point).
I will write more about learned helplessness and how to deal with it in future articles, so don’t forget to follow the account by scanning the QR Code at the bottom of this article.
Now, let’s move on to the good news.
The good news is that your self-discipline is not the problem.
The way you set your goal is.
But hopefully, this article and all the information in it will arm you with the tools and knowledge that you need to achieve all the goals that you want.
Some of you may have heard about the SMART goal tool.
那么，让我继续说好消息在哪里。
好消息是你的自律一点问题都没有。
问题在于大家设定目标的方式。
因此，我希望本文和其中的所有信息能为你提供实现所有目标的工具和知识。
有的人可能听说过SMART目标工具。
So what is a SMARTER goal then?
And most important, why do I recommend it against the SMART goal tool?
最重要的是，我为什么觉得它比使用SMART目标更好呢？
For the readers who are not aware of what SMARTER stands for, here’s a reminder of what each letter means.
对于那些不知道SMARTER代表什么的读者来说，这里使用以下图片提醒大家每个字母的意思。
For M I would personally also add making your goal Measurable.
In other words find ways to quantify your progress.
This will become extremely useful in the Evaluate and Readjust phases.
关于里面的M，我个人认为也可以加上Measurable (可以衡量的）。
换句话说，这样对量化自己的进步就有帮助。
这将在评估（E）和重新调整（R）阶段变得非常有用。
For more on how to use the SMARTER tool exactly, you are welcome to watch the below lecture.
What are the 3 reasons why I strongly recommend the tool?
我强烈推荐这个工具的三个原因有哪些呢？
01
Like any other skill, setting SMARTER goals requires practice, but if you’ve tried it once and followed all the steps, you can’t possibly go wrong with it.
You become a natural in a very short time.
像其他技能一样，学会设定SMARTER目标需要练习，但是如果你试过一次，并且遵循了所有的步骤，你就不可能出错。
你在很短的时间内就能成为一个熟练使用这个技能的人。
02
It gives you the opportunity to know yourself better
它给你机会更好地了解自己
We often get very excited about our goals, forgetting that often these goals are not entirely ours.
When setting our goals, we are heavily influenced by friends, social media (in a nutshell, our social environment can mess us up if we don’t learn how to control its influence on us).
What this means is that setting a goal and not achieving it is not the problem.
The problem is lack of understanding of what was the exact reason for not achieving the goal in the first place.
The Evaluation stage in the SMARTER goal tool allows you that reflection moment needed to understand what the actual problem was, before starting to doubt your self-discipline.
Once you have figured out the problem, then you can Readjust until you have managed to find the pace that is most suitable for your own situation and not the “one-size-fits-all” type of solutions that you find all over the place that end up making you frustrated if you can't follow.
Different people are different, so finding what is suitable for the self against what the majority does is very important (That is if you care about your sanity).
我们常常对自己的目标感到非常兴奋，却忘记了这些目标往往不完全是我们自己的。
在设定目标时，我们会受到朋友、社交媒体等因素的严重影响（简而言之，如果我们不学会如何控制社会环境对我们思维和行为的影响，我们就容易变得很迷茫）。
这意味着设定一个目标而没有实现它不是问题所在。
问题是缺乏对当初没有实现目标的确切原因的理解。
SMARTER目标工具中的评估（E）阶段允许你在开始怀疑自己的自律之前，进一步地分析没实现目标的具体原因是什么。
你一旦发现了具体问题，你就可以重新调整（R），直到你找到了最适合你自己情况的进行节奏，而不是按照在各地能找到的那种如果你不能跟上，最终会让你感到沮丧的“一刀切”解决方案。
不同人面对的事情不同，因此找到适合自己的方式做事，而不奔着大众的做法是非常重要的（当然，这是如果你关心自己的身心健康的话）。
03
It helps improve time management skills
它有助于提高时间管理技能
Because the SMARTER goal must be time-bound, meaning that you need to be specific with how much time you spend doing what, it forces you to visualize your time.
This way you see how you can accommodate everything into your busy schedule so that your goals can actually be achieved.
As a result, it will also help with planning things in your life so that things don’t feel so overwhelming all the time.
In other words, using the SMARTER goal puts you in control of your own life and all the things you want to achieve, but it also pushes you to reflect on why you actually want to achieve those goals.
Are they really your goals?
因为在SMARTER目标里是需要设定时间限，这意味着你需要明确你将在哪里花多少时间做什么，所以这迫使你对自己时间安排更负责。
这样你就可以看到你如何在繁忙的日程中安排好每一件事才能实现自己的目标。
因此，使用这个工具也将有助于更好地规划你生活中的事情，避免因为忙不过来而感到压抑。
换句话说，使用SMARTER目标可以让你更好地掌控自己的生活和所有你想实现的目标，同时，它也会促使你反思你为什么想实现这些目标，让你不断反思这些目标真的是你的自己的吗？
There are many other benefits of using this tool, but I only promised 3 in the title of this article.
Besides, I think it would be better to let you discover the rest of the benefits by yourself while actually using the tool.
And don't forget to follow the account and share this link with whoever you feel would benefit from it!
Opinion | 粉丝交流
Do you have any other tool that has helped you achieve your goals?
Let us know your answer in the comments section.
Your opinion matters
请在文末的评论区写下你的答案。
你的意见对我而言很重要，我们一起交流吧~
《快乐竞争力》在线阅读训练营是一项使用SMARTER目标工具设计的在线学习计划。
下次训练营将在2021年3月1日开始！
了解更多以及报名，请按照小视频里的指南进行操作。
"Tianmei's World" Academy Intro | “天美的世界”学院介绍
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