If I asked you what your ultimate goal is, what would you answer? I’m guessing that most of you would quickly say that you want to go to Paradise, and maybe even that you aspire to go to Firdaws; the highest level in Paradise. But if I then asked you how you’re going to get there, would you respond with a blank stare and a lot of insha Allahs or would you show me the steps you’ve planned to get you there?
How about if I asked you how you’re going to get to where you want to go in your career or how you’re going to get your children on the best career path for them? I’m sure that you would be able to give me a more specific answer, detailing the steps you’ve planned to reach your goal.
People generally take the time to plan the steps they’re going to take to achieve their career or educational goals, but don’t spend much time on the other areas of their life; leaving them to chance, including the most important area, their Hereafter.
Is it important to set goals for all areas of your life? You may feel that you’re doing OK and that you seem to be on the right track - perhaps you can check that out by doing the Life Wheel self-assessment in my Is Coaching for Me? eBooklet. But if you want to do better than OK? Setting specific goals to work towards in important areas of your life will help you to focus your energies and make more achievements more quickly.
In the post last week, I said that I'd write about SMART goals this time, but why? What is special about them? SMART goals help you to be very specific about your goals, so you can check to see whether you have achieved them or not. They’re the difference between: “I will be a better Muslimah” and “I will do at least one act of Sadaqa every day for a month.” Both of them have the same aim, but at the end of the month, which one will you be able to judge whether you have achieved it or not with certainty? The second one of course.
So what is a SMART goal? SMART is an acronym for a goal that is: Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic and Time-bound.
A goal that is specific is clear, unambiguous, and not woolly. If anyone read it they would know exactly what was meant by it and it gives a clear direction as to what is to be done. So rather than saying: “I will be kinder to my mother” you would say: “I will take my mum out to dinner or for a walk once a week” “I will visit my mum for at least 2 hours every Sunday”, or “I will clean the bathroom every week”.
A measurable goal is one that has a quality to it that you can measure, such as a specific number of actions or a quantity. So instead of a goal that states: “I will take better care of the Amanah (trust) that Allah has granted me in my body”, you would state your goal more like this: “I will lose 4kg in weight by the end of the month” or “I will only eat one bar of chocolate of less than 75gm each week” or “I will walk briskly for 40 minutes 3 times a week”.
An actionable goal is one that - surprise, surprise - requires an action to be taken, rather than a concept to be achieved. So instead of saying: “I will be a better wife”, you would say: “I will give my husband a genuine complement at least 5 times a week” or “I will stop what I’m doing and greet my husband whenever he comes home” or “I will count to 10 before I respond to my husband, if he says something that makes me angry”.
It would be very nice to set humongous goals, but if there isn’t a chance that you would be able to achieve them, that would be a bit of a waste of time. It would also be a waste of time to set a goal that was too easy or for something that you would normally do anyway. A realistic goal should stretch you and motivate you to do something that will take effort, but will be really rewarding when you achieve it. So instead of saying: “I will stand in prayer all night”, make your goal realistic and instead say something like: “I will get up one hour before Fajr to pray 2 Raka`ah (units of prayer) and Witr and then read the Qur’an until Fajr” or “I will pray all the obligatory prayers within half an hour of the time coming in for the prayer” or maybe “I will learn how to pray Dua` Qunut before 20th March”.
A time-bound goal is one that has some element of time or a deadline in it. You will have noticed in all the SMART goals above that there is some element of time included in them, such as: “...before 20th March”, “...until Fajr”, “....for 40 minutes 3 times a week”, ”...whenever he comes home”. This is done to stop the goal being open-ended, as well as helping to make it more measurable. The goals without a deadline will be part of a larger longer-term goal, such as: "I will improve my health so I can run for a bus without being out of breath by July 31st" "I will improve my relationship with my husband so we can spend at least one peaceful hour together every day by May 31st". In addition to time being specified in the goal, a review date should also be set alongside any goal so it can be reviewed and its success evaluated.
Insha Allah, you will have gained some ideas about how to set better goals to get you on the path to Firdaws from this and maybe some ideas for you to work on for yourself. Have you got any goals you’d like to share with us or questions? Please feel free to comment below.
Next time, insha Allah, I’ll give you some goal setting tips and hints and if you’d like some help to work on your goals, please get in touch to see how we could work together on them.
Related posts:
Tips for Keeping Track of Long-Term Goals
How to Decide which Direction to take when You find Yourself Lost at a Crossroads
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