They work for companies but not for people, because we are emotional creatures. That’s why I think S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timeframe) goals are dead. The idea is so 1980s! It’s time for a new way to set goals for the different times we live in, and for the different ways we can all achieve what is important to us.

The reason I believe the S.M.A.R.T. idea is past its use-by date is that you and I experience a vast range of feelings and emotions. There are over 130 different emotions we can all experience.

After 25 years of working with people and their goals, I believe the missing piece of the puzzle is the emotional connection, the true goal alignment that comes when you know how you want to feel, you think about what you want to achieve and then you do what’s necessary to make it come true.

Why would logical, intelligent people set a goal that is important to them, that will bring them a better result, only to procrastinate over taking the action, and have to negotiate with themselves each step of the way?

Traditionally people approach goals like this: they set the goal, take action to achieve the goal, achieve a result, then experience a feeling — joy, success, satisfaction or accomplishment. It looks like this:

1. Goal: I want to lose 10 kilos.
2. Action: I exercise more, eat less, take vitamin supplements and limit alcohol consumption over the next two months.
3. Result: I do this for long enough and consistently enough to lose the 10 kilos.
4. Feeling: I feel more energised, have more confidence and experience a sense of success.

Now this is logical. However, a logical connection does not compel us to take action. It validates the action, but it doesn’t motivate us. The challenge is that because we don’t achieve immediate success or we make only limited progress, we begin to question the benefit of making the effort. Our subconscious plants seeds of doubt because our focus is on losing 10 kilos, not the feeling we can experience moment by moment, day by day. We fall into the trap of focusing on the goal or outcome, rather than the activity that carries us towards the goal.

So why don’t we invert this model and start with how we want to feel? Each of us is driven at any one time by one to three emotions.

Let’s start with how you want to feel, whether that is across your lifetime, this year, this week or just today. Then let’s determine what action you have to take today to achieve that feeling. From there you gain a result that leads, step by step, towards the achievement of your overall goal.