SMART Goals or Mindfulness?

How Happiness Leads to Success

Did you make New Year’s resolutions AGAIN?

January is traditionally for new beginnings, new directions, new goals: the good old New Year’s resolutions. Certainly, this was always my approach in the past. It was a time to sit down and write down my goals for all areas of my life, taking care to ensure they were all SMART goals because, of course, that would guarantee more success! Or would it?

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How many people do you know that always stick to their New Year’s resolutions? I’m not talking about sticking to it for a week or two while feeling guilty after Christmas! Did you make any? Are you still sticking to them or did they fade away by the time February came around? The only one I can think of is my father who gave up smoking and never went back principally because the doctor said he would die if he didn’t: pretty good motivation! So, forget the concept of the New Year resolution, and, dare I suggest, forget the traditional concept of a goal? Let me explain a little more about why I now think this way.

After years of being one of goal setting’s strongest advocates, I have come to the realisation through years of strained family life, plus a bout of depression,
that goals are not the answer to life, the universe and everything! Happiness is the answer and if you take a look at your own goals, then at the heart of them is a desire to be happier:

• If I lost some weight I’d be happier.

• If I had more money I’d be happier.

• If I redecorated I’d be happier.

So, happiness is the destination, but unfortunately it’s one place that we rarely arrive. When we earn more money, have you noticed that it’s never enough? We could always do with just a little more! When we lose that weight, then our happiness becomes dependent on buying those new clothes, and so it continues.

In fact, it is never going to be possible to achieve long-term happiness by setting goals. Goal setting is all about looking at the future, and the future is where stress and anxiety lie, as you cannot predict what is going to happen. So, your mind will conjure up a variety of scenarios

of what MIGHT happen. Due to this, inevitably, most of us spend lots of time dwelling on what could go wrong, and ignoring what’s actually happening. Not very mindful!

I wouldn’t say that goal setting should be discarded completely as it can be helpful to have an idea of the direction we want to go in. What I would say is that goals are not the be all, end all of our life. Plus SMART goals are much more likely to cause us stress because of the added pressure they put us under in terms of timing, volume, money and so on!

In the current educational world where KPIs and performance targets (both staff and pupils) are everything, ditching the usual approach to goal setting might
not be very popular. But, as a leader, consider this: A happy, healthy staff member, taking a mindful approach to their performance, will achieve more by focusing on the present moment, instead of being paralysed by anxiety about the future. A stressed, goal obsessive, control freak could well be headed for their own personal disaster, especially when their goals have been forced on them!

And so this is why my approach to goal setting (both business and personal) these days is a mindful one. I now live my life occasionally glancing at a compass rather than totally focused on a road map. I understand that it’s really important that I know which direction I’m headed but I also realise that I have no real control of many of the circumstances that surround me.

I’ve changed what and when I eat so that I can lose some weight and stay healthy, but I know that a better diet is
a day-to-day activity and not a SMART goal. This approach allows me to relax and experiment with different foods and exercise so that I enjoy the journey.

I know how much I need to earn next year to ensure my family doesn’t starve but I have little control over who decides to book me or when those engagements may be held. I understand that if I send out marketing emails it will often produce business but I also realise that I can upset people with too much of that. Again the marketing I do is an activity not a goal.

Mindfulness has given me so much. My health has improved, my family life is happier, my business relationships are great and I am generally positive about my future. So, this is why I’m teaching only mindfulness practices now, so that everyone can benefit from improved productivity, performance and happiness.

“A mindful approach shows us that success is not the key
to happiness, happiness is the key to success.”

Here’s wishing you a mindful remainder of 2023!

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John Shackleton


With a sports psychology and sports coaching background, John now shows international business audiences techniques that exercise and improve the biggest, most powerful muscle in the body – the brain. His clients include Coca-Cola, Air New Zealand, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Sony and Renault. www.JohnShack.com