What’s the point otherwise? Your stuff just ends up in the trash. You might as well never have sent the comment to my site.

Harvey Schachter of The Globe and Mail newspaper reviews the latest study:

SMART goals are dumb. That’s the conclusion of a study by the Leadership IQ consultancy, which found that so-called SMART goals – goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-sensitive – don’t correlate with success.

Instead, the study of 4,182 workers from 397 organizations found that the following eight factors in the questionnaire predicted whether somebody’s goals would help them achieve great things:

I can vividly picture how great it will feel when I achieve my goals.

I will have to learn new skills to achieve my assigned goals for this year.

My goals are absolutely necessary to help this company.

I actively participated in creating my goals for this year.

I have access to any formal training that I will need to accomplish my goals.

My goals for this year will push me out of my comfort zone.

My goals will enrich the lives of somebody besides me (for example, customers or the community).

My goals are aligned with the organization’s top priorities for this year.

Leadership IQ notes that at the core there is often a challenge: For people to achieve great things, their goals require them to learn new skills and leave their comfort zone. That’s the opposite of the achievable, realistic approach called for by adherents of the SMART goals framework.

It’s a common theme that these systems don’t work for people in general.  You are welcome to try any given approach and if it works for you, that’s great.  But usually they are more a system of belief.

You can also easily burn up your life trying out X, Y, and infinite more approaches trying to find what works amid all the many claims (most of which are for sale).

I am not a believer in linear progress.  What determines success is non-obvious and ill-described in our current culture.  What is described by most of the success or self-help literature mostly does not work.  Instead, it pays the bills of consultants and others who teach a practice but don’t have to data to substantiate it.

The answer lies elsewhere.

• Free resources for guided imagery (available in the pop-up box)
• How to have lucid dreams
• Telepathy and spiritual and psychic experience through psychedelics
• The impact of names on success
• How to exercise quickly for maximum impact in the shortest time
• How to meditate for full mental development
• How to meditate in everyday life

What next?  Hmm….