HEART Goals

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the Remarkable Women Leaders annual conference, and it was just the recharge I needed to start this new year strong. I could probably write 10 blog posts about all of the lessons I learned at this conference, but one moment sticks out in particular.

You may recall a previous post in which I said a good way to enhance a SMART goal is to make it a stretch goal. I certainly believe there is a lot of truth to that, but I am happy to say I learned yet another way to enhance your current system for setting and achieving goals.

One of the founders of Remarkable Women Leaders and lead speakers at this conference was Kris Taylor. Kris is also the founder of Evergreen Leadership and co-founder of LEAP Consulting; she shared many of her personal and professional experiences, including all the times she has reinvented herself and taken a leap.

In one session toward the end of the day, she led us through an activity in which we created a SMART goal, but first we connected it to what she calls a HEART goal (you can see her original blog post about this here!).

Here is the meat of a HEART goal:

H: Holistic

E: Enduring

A: Aspirational

R: Really Matter

T: Timeless

For example, one of my SMART goals last week was to get back into blogging…you may have noticed I took a *several* week break there…my apologies.

But that’s something I have been thinking about for quite a while, so clearly I needed something else to get me back on track. Simply setting a deadline had not been good enough.

The idea is that a SMART goal is at its very best when it is related to something truly meaningful for you. When I took the time to connect that goal to something bigger, it finally clicked.

Writing this blog does really matter to me; I am proud anytime someone tells me they read it, or shared it with someone else. Most importantly, I really appreciate having an outlet for my ideas so that I can re-imagine them, articulate them, and use them directly in my work.

So it’s safe to say that it worked! Here I am blogging again. Within two days after the conference I had five ideas for new posts to write, all because I took the time to dig a little deeper, and think a little bigger.

And on that note, I leave you with this final thought:

When you put your SMART goal into a greater context, does it help get you closer to something really meaningful for you?