By: Dan Gress, military family member
What’s a change in your life you’ve been putting off? What’s
that thing that came to your mind right away that you know will improve your
life? Want to improve your health, lose weight, learn something new, or start a
new routine? What’s stopping you?
You need a strategy, a plan. You need motivation. You need BELIEF. You already have the
goal in your mind, now you just need the why, what, and how. I recently went
through this process myself, wanting to create a healthy lifestyle.
My Goal: Lead a more healthy lifestyle
My Why: Live a long life with family
My What: Exercise 5 times per week for at least 30 minutes while listening to podcasts I enjoy.
My How: I will track how much I exercise each week for the next month and reassess my progress.
Seems simple enough, right? This simplistic example of a goal is the end result of a powerful tool anyone can use, and it’s supported by research. This SMART goals planner can help increase motivation, task performance, and competence. Goals give purpose and direction by establishing a standard for measuring progress. We all have that goal in our head. It's time to make a plan to achieve it.
Goal-setting to build competency
What human doesn’t want to improve their life? Who doesn’t
want to get better at something? The question is how. This is where leaders and
mentors come in.
There‘s a tremendous amount of research on goal-setting, self-determination theory, motivation, and competency. What’s hard to find is a template, a step-by-step guide to help a mentor and mentee navigate the goal-setting process—including the all-important evaluation stage. Here it is.
- Use the WOOP goal-setting strategy to help the mentee identify a meaningful goal and potential barriers to that goal. The WOOP strategy has been shown to increase motivation too.
- Help your mentee identify their personal strengths and how to use those strengths to overcome potential obstacles to their goal using HPRC’s Signature Strengths worksheet. When you apply signature strengths to achieve a goal, you’re more likely to have internal motivation, feel true to yourself, and enjoy the process.
- Apply what the mentee has identified in steps 1 and 2 into a concrete plan using HPRC’s SMART goals worksheet. It will help your mentee develop their own Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-sensitive goals.
- Regularly check in to review the goal-setting process and other strategies that can help. Ask your mentee:
- How can you adjust your habits to achieve your goal using HPRC’s Strategic Habit Workbook?
- How can you use positive self-talk to achieve your goal?
- How can you optimize stress to accomplish you goal?
Keep the momentum going
When the excitement of achieving that goal has worn off, you need a plan to evaluate, reflect, and adjust. Providing feedback about the progress of your mentee’s goal can be a good way to reinforce motivation. It can also help them continue to be persistent toward meeting their goal. You might need to adjust the goal if your mentee exceeds expectations or an unseen obstacle comes up. (The adjustment part is often overlooked in goal-setting research, but it’s vital to help them build their confidence.) When your mentee hits an obstacle, help them adjust their goal to help them stay motivated, and feel accomplished and competent. Adjusting goals is crucial so they still BELIEVE!
