It has been a while since I wrote about the S.M.A.R.T. approach to achieving your goals and dreams. I have been busy with my own goals. So I just wanted to take you through the next step of achieving your goals and that is making sure your goals are Realistic.

When someone tells you that you are not being realistic, isn’t it usually that that person simply isn’t willing to put in the work that is needed to make it happen? Often, when we tell people about our dreams, they are scared of the idea and also scared that we might failed. Everyone close to us wants us to succeed and they are afraid that a failure to achieve our goals would really hurt us.

That being said, you need to know if you are scared to achieve your goals. Are you willing to do what it takes to achieve your goals? Many times, we state a goal, but do not know what it would really take to achieve it. Sometimes, it could be very easy to achieve and other times it might be difficult. The difference isn’t in the difficulty, however. The difference is in whether you know from the start what you will need to do. That is why it is important to be Specific, Measurable, and Actionable, because these steps will help you realize the depth of work required.

By understanding what is required to achieve your goals, you will be able to determine what is reasonable, or realistic, for you. What is realistic to one person may not be for someone else. Therefore, you have to answer that questions for yourself. If you really cannot answer that question, there are probably two things you need to work on. One, you need to do a better job of breaking down your goals so that the steps are in fact reasonable. If all the steps are realistic, then the overall goal must be as well.

The second thing you need to do is learn more about what it is you are looking to achieve. Maybe you need to ask for input from someone who has done what you want to do. If you don’t already have these things as steps in achieving your goal, maybe you should add them in.

Sometimes you can do all of this and still have your head in the clouds. Sometimes those other people are right. Doesn’t that sound horrible? It can be a devastating realization that what you want truly isn’t realistic by anyone’s terms.

Many times, people write down their goals and if they just thought about them, they might see how absurd they are. For example, if you are completely broke and today you decided to write down a goal of having a million dollars in the bank, that would be great. However, if you said you wanted to achieve it by tomorrow, that would be UNrealistic. Sorry, but there is no way around it. Overnight success stories usually omit the months or years of work it took to get to the point where an “overnight” success was even possible.

So just remember, a realistic goal has to be realistic to you. If you are having trouble seeing how it can be realistic, work at breaking it down some more and making each of those chunks realistic. Start with one small step.

You can review the rest of the steps so far by following any of the links below.

SPECIFIC

MEASUREABLE

ACTIONABLE

REALISTIC – that’s this post.

TIME SENSITIVE – hold on, we’re getting there.