SMART Goals and the NLP Well-Formed Outcome Model

Goal setting functions as a prerequisite to success in most areas of life. Yet sadly, still ninety-five percents of people do not set goals. Who do these ninety-five percent work for? – The five percent who do set goals in life!

In NLP, the acrostic SMART helps you to define as precisely as possible an outcome, what we really want, a goal and-or an objective. Obviously, a goal is not an end in itself and rather a mean.

The Neuro-Linguistic Processing Model (Well-Formed Outcome Model) allows us to go beyond mere “goal setting” into the actual “programming” of our minds to drive us toward our desired goal. Our unconscious is our best ally and will work precisely to achieve what we set it forth. (You will find it interesting to have a look to the Prime Directives of the Unconscious mind).

If you don’t set yourself on where you really want to go in life, you might well be driven anywhere. While such an attitude can be a learning experience in itself, it is crucial for your development to set and to define as precisely as possible what you really want.

Why and what are SMART goals ?

First of all, let’s go more into details of the meaning of this acronym

(S) means Specific

A specific goal has a much greater chance of being accomplished than a general goal.

To set a specific goal you must answer the “W” questions:

Who : Who is involved?
What : What do I want to accomplish?
Where : Identify a location.
When : Establish a time frame.
Which : Identify requirements and constraints.
Why: Specific reasons, purpose or benefits of accomplishing the goal.

EXAMPLE: A general goal would be, “Get in Shape.” But a specific goal would say: “Join a health club and workout 3 days a week.”

(M) means Measurable

Establish concrete criteria for measuring progress toward the attainment of each goal you set. When you measure your progress, you stay on track, reach your target dates, and experience the exhilaration of achievement that spurs you on to continued effort required to reach your goal.

To determine if your goal is measurable, ask questions such as:

How much?
How many?
How will I know when it is accomplished?

(A) means Attainable

When you identify goals that are most important to you, you begin to figure out ways you can make them come true. You develop the attitude, abilities, skills, and financial capacity to reach them. You begin seeing previously overlooked opportunities to bring yourself closer to the achievement of your goals.

You can attain most any goal you set when you plan your steps wisely and establish a time frame that allows you to carry out those steps. Goals that may have seemed far away and out of reach eventually move closer and become attainable, not because your goals shrink, but because you grow and expand to match them.

When you list your goals you build your self-image. You see yourself as worthy of these goals, and develop the traits and personality that allow you to possess them.

(R) means Realistic

To be realistic, a goal must represent an objective towards which you are both willing and able to work. A goal can be both high and realistic.

You are the only one who can decide just how high your goal should be. But be sure that every goal represents substantial progress. A high goal is frequently easier to reach than a low one because a low one because a low goal exerts low motivational force. Some of the hardest jobs you ever accomplished actually seem easy simply because they were a labor of love.

Additional ways to know if your goal is realistic if you truly believe that it can be accomplished. Additional ways to know if your goal is realistic is to determine if you have accomplished anything similar in the past or ask yourself what conditions would have to exist to accomplish this goal.

(T) means Timely

A goal should be grounded within a time frame. With no time frame tied to it there’s no sense of urgency. If you want to lose 10 lbs., when do you want to lose it by?

“Someday” won’t work. But if you anchor it within a timeframe, “by May 1^st”, then you have set your unconscious mind into motion to begin working on the goal.

(T) can also mean Tangible

A goal is tangible when you can experience it with one of the sense, that is, taste, touch, smell, sight or hearing. When your goal is tangible you have a better chance of making it specific and measurable and thus attainable.

The NLP Well-Formed Outcome Model

How does it work?

How can we actually “program” our mind to drive us toward our desired goal, to achieve what we really want?

The brain not only uses the sensory system, it also uses our word meanings that drive the sensory system. For this reason, the NLP Goal Setting Model makes absolutely sure that we language ourselves in such a way as to drive our very neurology and physiology towards obtaining our desired goal.

The specificity of the NLP Goal Setting Model facilitates concentration on what you internally see, hear, and feel. Your attention will direct itself toward external and internal resources necessary in achieving the goal.

The Well-Formed Outcome Model provides the following key components that enable you to effectively identify your desired outcome and it begins by eliciting that outcome even now:

Stating the goal in positive terms.
Specify the goal in sensory-based terms.
Specify the goal in a way that you find compelling.
Run a Quality Control check on the goal to ensure balance in all areas of your life, work life, community – the global ecology of your projcet.
Ensure the goal can be self-initiated and maintained.
State the context of the goal.
State the resources needed to achieve the goal.
Evidence procedure.

We will add a very essential point: the pleasure, the FUN, a real satisfaction arising from the exercise that will come to shape events and the results.

For more on the S.M.A.R.T way to set and achieve goals through the NLP Goal Setting Model see the “Well-Formed Outcome Model” in The Users Manual for the Brain by Bobby G. Bodenhamer, D.Min. and L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

With carefully chosen questions, engaging all your senses, I pace and lead you with the NLP Well-Formed Outcome Model towards the realization of a bright future for yourself and others

Contact me : Denis +41791086729 (What’s App & SkypeID: samuilifecoaching)