How NOT to Set Goals (Why S.M.A.R.T. goals are lame) 

D (Dream, Drive) + U (Uplifting, "Uhuu") + M (Method, Map) + B (Behaviour Trigger)

SMART Goal defenders, you are missing something. He is not saying not to set goals, he is not even saying don't use the SMART model for goal setting. He is saying that people have become so focused on fitting goals into a prescribed box that they short change themselves on the bigger vision. His approach is to start with the impossible dream and bring it back to manageable objectives that are established using SMART, to achieve the greater vision.

Think DUMB, act SMART is what I got out of this. For my long term goals I'll think DUMB. For my short term goals, that enable me reach to my long term goals, I'll act SMART. ***** another great video. I think I'm hooked.

I watched this video a few weeks ago. I created a D.U.M.B. goal sheet as a result. This morning I decided to start filling out the sheets I made in an effort to get organized. I like focusing more on what I want to do, be, have or experience than on just what I want to get done. Looking for the gains I will get is so uplifting! Before starting to apply this info I felt over-whelmed and directionless. Now I feel excited and enthusiastic. Combining the sheets with what I am learning in the Motivation Manifesto course has given me direction and the "how to" to get things done, to become the person I want to be, to take actions toward the things I want to have and to experience the kind of life I have always wanted. Thank you, Brendon, you have inspired me to greatness!

I watch this video many many times! Please don't skip it this is amazing Here is my notes on it 1 DREAMS/DESTANY : > What would be the magical thing that is even beyond my compression > What is WAY out of the box that would FIRE ME UP > What would be so AMAZING > Examples: “Lets go to the moon”, “I’m going to invent xyz” > Start With the WHAT - the HOW will be LATER 2. UPLIFTING: GAIN ATTRACT "Expanding my energy" instead of “i’m losing weight…” 3. Method Friendly - Practices and Routines > It can be turned in to a routine repeated 4. Behavior driven - Triggers set up to do this > Every time I DO X I will DO Y > Every time i go to grocery store I only go to the vegetable section > Every time i get in the car i say to myself XZY

Why not use both? Have a smart goal to get closer to your biggest dream.

False-dichotomy. Our SMART goals are what get us to the DUMB goals. We need both!

I've bought every product Brendon has launched. Yes I've spent over $10k on his products but I don't regret it one bit. I view money as exchange of values, the $10k investment is minuscule in comparison to how much value Brendon has provided in to my life. Keep it up Brendon, Live. Love. Matter!

Brendan, this is one of my favourite videos of all time. Your energy, enthusiasm, truth, vision and humour never ever fail to pick me up if I feel down or unmotivated. Thank you. I’ve watched it at least 10 times and shared it to everyone in my surroundings. With love and light, Solenne from Australia

My personal opinion is that those ideas are wrong or at least incomplete. He confounds vision with objectives. Both are necessary. Those „dumb” goals are confounded with vision. Try to use dumb goals in people who have depression, and you'll aggravate their situation. You see, this makes you feel enthusiastic and have high expectations, but when you face reality and if unfortunately the reality does not coincide with your expectations you'll feel what? Frustration? Discouragement? And you'll lose more trust in the sources of help that you perceive (like him) and deepen your frustration. My recommendation: seek counseling 1 by 1 with an certificated therapist/coach.

Thank you for exposing the S.M.A.R.T goals limitation to the goals of dreamers. I may be a teenager but I already understand that goals shouldn't be limited and be extravagant as they want.

Thanks Brendon for putting this on an ad, it has given me that push I needed to continue on my path. My goal: To be able to bring happiness to my family as well as to the whole world, in many ways. (financially, emotionally as well as to revolutionary human life experience as a whole) I don't know how long is this going to take, but if I do succeed, I will make sure Earth will become a much better place than it is today.

A dumb goal is a wish. If it's not at least specific and actionable, it's not gonna happen.

your energy and passion is so contagious.. my god if we all had someone like you in our lives as a child the world would be a totally different place. everyone needs a brendon as a best friend :)

Don't over-analyse this - how did it make you FEEL?! I laughed and I got an energy buzz about how I will approach goal-setting in the future and I feel GOOD :)

Wow. I've watched a lot of motivational speakers and just found your channel. So impressed. Immediate sub!

I absolutely love this. Brendon - You’ve gone and lit a fire under us again and given us the courage to dream BIG!

i love your energy, your passion shines through :) thank you

Found this video on Twitter and got up at 5am to watch it... WOW - got me thinking so much!!

wow great stuff never thought of it like that. I am glad you advertised this :)

Actually, sending a man to the moon was almost SMART - it was Specific, Measurable, Time-bound (By the end of the 60's decade by JFK) and Relevant. Only Achievability was in question. Goals and dreams both are important, no need to turn on one of them just the praise the other. The way I see it, A goal is a dream that became Achievable and Time-Bound.

" it is the why that fires the human soul " ~~ very well put Brendon.

This is my absolute favorite video I've ever seen!! I love all of Brandon videos but this one touch my soul. Thank you for being so amazing!

I've been working on setting up my goals and just happened to see this video, it really hit me. Especially I loved what he said about uplifting goal setting and making a trigger point of your behavior. Thanks so much for making this video.

This is the best video I've ever watched on goals ! Thank you Brendon :)

I am enjoying to journal now. It brings clarity and I feel great after doing it.

I‘m so happy I just found you. Please never stop talking you just have that something that makes people/makes me wanna listen. I needed that! thank you.

You are probably the best motivational speaker on youtube. Not only do you have ideas, you have methods. Not only motivation but strategy too. Thank you for making changes in mine and other people's live. God bless you.

Thank you Brendon. You give me 2 in 1. First, English lesson, second you make my day better. That is why I watch you every morning. Take Care.

Watching this video has given me a powerful start for the day.

People need you in life, you have awakened me and enlightened me in EXACTLY the way I needed. Please keep posting more videos! You deserve more viewers!

You are really a very great person. Thank you very much for this great video. I learn many things from this video. Now I am going to execute it. Thanks again.

Ok, I have to be a Debbie Downer here but SMART goals are how you get to your dream. What seems impossible to one may be a possibility for another. I do however agree making goals into something you gain and not something you lose! That's amazing. I'm going to use that perception in my coaching!

Thank you so much, Brendon !! Expensive video

Behavior driven triggers, brilliant! Thanks Brendon for this awesome insight!! Much love from Bali ❤️

This is so perfect for me! Thank you so much for sharing this knowledge!!!

Awesome, Brendan! Thank you for the inspiration!!

Incredible, Imaginative, Motivating and just fricken awesome!!! This is the best vid I seen in a long time. I love the b&w. Great touch! Murray

well im having to do an assignment on smart goal. Now this video makes me rethink everything

I love you, thank you very much for your amazing videos and inspiration :)

I Needed this. Thank you for your video.😊

brendon, thank you for sharing with us. you have to know just how much you've influenced me in a great way.

So inspiring! I needed this, thank you

Okay, I'm fairly new to Brendon and his stuff and this video caught my eye, for the fact that it slated SMART goals. Now a million studies have been done on goal setting, and results consistently show that setting goals have positive effects. The size of the effect can depend on how emm... smartly, or how effective the goals set are. Again the evidence has proven SMART goals to be effective, they give something of a framework in to how set goals that will help you achieve bigger, or faster results and improvements. Nonetheless, I'm very much open to new and innovative thinking, so I was keen to see what he had to say. So Brendon went with a different acronym, DUMB goals, obviously making the point that we shouldn't simply subscribe to what the popular SMART method suggests, and that's fine. While effective SMART goals have been proven to work, simply getting reverting to "in the box" and "completing the checklist" thinking is something we need to be wary of. In DUMB, I do like the D, and U. It's good for goals to be exciting, so thinking big, going after dreams and picking uplifting goals, these sort of things are absolutely the sort of things that will inspire and motivate us to take the action to reach our goals. Though that's not to say SMART goals don't implement these, or at the very least that they can't. There is nothing wrong with dreaming big, the challenge is that it can be disheartening if the goal we want to reach is seemingly a million miles away, which can result in people giving up, especially if they hit a bump or setback in their progress (very common). This is where setting short, medium and long-term goals is advantageous. By setting goals that are attainable in the short term that help us improve, we get closer to the long term dream. We also get uplifted- a boost when we reach the targets set, whether that's 2 minutes off a 10k race, finishing a module in the course we are doing, or hit a sales target. This gives us confidence, motivation and belief to push on towards that big dream goal (completing a marathon, getting a qualification, getting a promotion). I fully agree with uplifting goals, though I wouldn't say this is particularly radical or groundbreaking. Again, there is a wealth of literature that tells us that instructions should be positive, not negative. Typically people setting SMART goals know to set their goals in a positive manner- focusing on what to do, move towards. That said, it's not part of the SMART acronym, so this inclusion is a worthy part of the DUMB goal that helps us to remember to set us goals that will get us inspired/excited (although I have seen the Acronym "SMARTER" in which the E stands for exciting). The M and B (in DUMB) I'm not crazy about. I don't disagree with them, they just aren't as clear or as concrete in terms of what we need to do. Okay, method based and behaviour driven, understood- but these things don't give me an instant feeling of "this is what I need to do". Meanwhile in SMART goals, we can look at the goals we have set and quickly ask ourselves "is this a specific goal, can I measure this, what time frame am I working in"". There should be a method, a way of moving in the right direction, but the term Method-Based is too abstract and not specific enough for me. And on Behaviour Driven, goal setting is all about putting the framework in place to change our behaviour (that's how we reach our goals), so setting behaviour driven as one of the fundamentals seems unnecessary. These parts of "DUMB" feel more to me like they are just filling in the letters in the (anti-SMART) acronym as opposed to serving an important and crucial purpose. So overall, I like the part of the message that urges us to think big, get excited and to think outwith the parameters of "SMART". Absolutely yes. But DUMB as a direct replacement to SMART? I'm afraid not for me. Principles such as being specific as to what you want to achieve, how you can measure your progress, whether the goal is achievable (and more importantly how to go about to achieving it), keeping records of your progress and having a time frame to do your stuff in are all worthwhile and beneficial things to think about and include when setting your goals. A lot of people will be uncertain of how to get maximum effectiveness from goal setting, there is a sizeable amount of groundwork to put in and you want to be effective with it, SMART goals will help the average person do that more than DUMB goals. I'm interested in seeing more of Brendon's vids, but coming from a sport psychology perspective, I wouldn't go reinventing the wheel on this one.

Thank you for this video, I was about to go remind myself about smart goals. Now watching this, I have remembered my big idea for the future. This video has given me q diffrent outlook on my tasks, and I want to re-focus on my dreams. Now as a teen I have learned more and more on how to do some of the things I am wanting to do in life, this video is helping point me in the right direction. Thank you for takeing the time to make this video.

Wow! Probably your best video ! And the best video on goal setting!!! This totally resonates with me!! Great! I never liked the SMART paradigm as it felt very limiting to me . Thank you!

D-estiny U- plifting M-ethod-Friendly (Practices Rituals, Disciplines, Action Steps, Repetitions) B-ehavior Driven. This video had really resonated with me Brendon, great principles and perspectives. I will look to apply them immediately. Thanx.

Yes , thanks so much for video Brendon Burchard ..

Good job Brendon. Awesome video!

Brendon is currently my favourite person on YT atm🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

I have gotten into the habit of reviewing the comments before viewing the program and there sure is a lot of stuck in the mud people with negative comments so opinionated that they present themselves to be close minded. I absolutely love Brendon's energy. He motivates viewers to live life utilizing the gifts we are all born with. Many of us lose site of the simplicities of living the dream of just living. The success of Motherhood is when we glow with joy that the child we nurtured is experiencing the joy of falling in love or the pride of independence they feel delivering their first newspaper or their first real paycheck. I feel that motherly glow of success every time one of my family members achieves a goal I know I contributed to just having been there with the words of encouragement and then the acknowledgement of their efforts. At the same time knowing when to say that was a great effort but I know you got a lot more of that to do better next time.!! Brendon has that kind of flow to his glow!!!!!!

Thanks Brendon. This is helpful for all of us seeking to be creative but reporting to board members brought up on smart goals.

Wow! Have watched a million motivation or goal setting videos and never saw this guy before. Powerful ideas. Thanks!

I luvv your smile, energy & dimples Hahaha. Anyways, another awesome vid! =)

Awesome indeed.................super enthusiastic........Thanks for sharing.

It's a nice, different methodology from getting here to over there. I am helping someone at their job, and they have a link on SMART goal setting that I rolled my eyes at, and saw this video sitting here and glad I watched it. It's a differing view on how to do goal setting with a little different approach. What he presents will resonate with the person I am helping, so that's all I really need. Just a little less institutional thinking and more emotional thought processes.

HELL YES TO THIS VIDEO BRENDON! Man, you always have the right thing to say. Keep it up!

I enjoyed this Video Brendon. I have a very special goal for myself this month and watching this video helped alot.

Brendon you are so amazing ! So inspiring ! It is such a pleasure, a pure moment of happiness listening to your speeches. I just love your way of thinking. And let me tell you that you have inspired us setting up our own business ... which will start end of August ! We do think just like you ! Thank for your energy !

I am absoloutley positively with you on that. I am one of those who made everything based on an unspecific plan. I just wished for it, started it and found ways and tools while I was doing it. I started everything from scratch and made it beautifuly done from 0 to 100. I am an artist and business woman at the same time, then I could apply and combine all possibilities in my life to achieve what I ve ever wanted to have. I had no idea of SMART but it just showed up partially by itself and vanished when it was sort of obstacle to accomplish my goals.

The problem with those build a big business that takes over the world dreams is that IN REALITY -- the land of REALITY -- for every mark zuckerberg there are 1000 jack zuckermans.. people who set their aims far too high and fizzle out as a result.. instead of seeing the forest from the trees, everyone wants to be a billionaire -- it's nice to give poeple a momentary boost of motivation -- and yeah obviously it works, but a lot of what we think is in our control is not -- you do not have control over your unconscious intentions, motivations, or anything like that -- you have only conscious control, which is a very small part of your brain. almost 90-95 percent of successful entreprenurs are people who are already upper middle class or better. It is said that very successful people make it against the odds for a reason -- and the ones who do make it often ignore the people around them who supported them throughout the entire process. I think as a society our problem isnt SMART goals, it's this idea that success is up to YOU as an individual and that your success is up to YOU.. you''re responsible for who you are, but there is a whole lot that is simply out of your control, and for the vast majority of people, those things out of their control run their lives.. to get to these extravagant goals, people need psychological and material support -- most people need to set realistic goals or they will burn out in our sick, win everything or lose everything materialistic society.

Awesome video!!

Amazing Brendon. Just what I needed at this point in time.

Thanks for the motivation!!!! I have been struggling with my dream to become a script writer for movies but now I know what to do!!! Thanks again!

This is a very powerful message thats much easier said than done

That was really cool! It was fun and interactive and showed me a few ways to hold on to dreams I thought I wouldn't accomplish because they seemed too outside the box. Thank you :)

I love this and how you present! Thank you for the inspiration, Brendon! Please continue to do wonderful things!

Omg amazing, I need this, thank you!! To "chase your dreams with reckless abandon" is way more inspiring & energising to me than the vision-limiting SMART goals (though yes, when drilling down to possible steps, you do then need those). Thanks so much, Brendon!!

I love this! Thank you Brendon.

smart goals are the most efficient way of solving problems and executing plans. Examples you mentioned either worked because all other factors heppened to work favorably or they involved much precise-based planning

This was addressed in the book Smarter Faster Better - the Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business - very helpful - talks about the history of SMART Goals and how to stretch your mindset as well.

Woow! This was actually awesome and I don't even like motivational videos! :) Thanks!!

Live this guy!! Love this video. He's nailing it. The new business, life coach.

So very helpful!!! Thank you!!!

without basic goals being achieved there is no way a dream can come true on will alone, and i fully agree that to many are thinking to small :) but some like myself are thinking to big and getting distracted by the dream and the reality is leaving me behind

SMART goals are perfectly usefull, use both!!

Keep Shining Brendon!

This is really cool ! Your are very inspirational Brendon!

Thanks for the reminder Brandon. I got a feeling we may work together in the future, Until then then Keep up the Awesome Job. God Bless & Best Regards Kenneth.

Wow I love this, great presentation!!

Thank you so much Brendon. I am really speechless. what a vedio ! thanks a lot for your nice initiative. :)

Hey Brendon great video, cleared my many doubts. Thanks :)

I get inspired every time from listening to brendon, I've flied to his Expert academy last year, he is amazing. DUMB goals are better than smart goals, that's for sure, as Brendon described. Unrealistic goals get unrealistic results and move the world!

I feel inspired to dream dreams that matter to me! Thank you for this video Brendon.

Everything you say and everything about you is so familiar it really trips me out.

Ha ha! Great video! I once heard it said, "If David Beckham had a life coach in his teenage years, he'd now have a nice cosy career as an accountant!" I think it's a bit unfair, but it's very funny and makes a point worth noting! Like you, I've found it ESSENTIAL to separate our big dreams and life desires from the smaller, attainable, incremental goals that might show up WITHIN our mission. I love that you had the balls to put this out there!

🔥🔥 I like it. It's a different point of view that I totally relate to. Learning how to identify SMART goals alone wasn't useful until I mixed it with the dreams I set for myself to become more than just a worker in a company. Now I'm a worker, a youtuber, a coach, and a conscious parent, with still more dreams to accomplish. All that because I identified my dreams first then utilized the SMART technique in. Great Video😀

Keep up the great work, we are all in gratitude for your words :)

Great stuff!!! well said! i love it!

🦋that’s why it’s so important to be mindful of your habits

Brendon, you're the best! I love starting my mornings listening to you :)

The fourth video which makes me SUBSCRIBE! Thank you

This is really, really, really good stuff!

Omg... This is exactly the method I use when going for my dreams... And like he said it always seems to magically happen...

The initial few minutes were the best....riveting !

umm..SMART Goals shows you how to get a task done. Not setting your Goals keeps you brainstorming when an assignment has a deadline. Think big but SMART Goals can at least stir you with a practice if you don't know how to start or have a deadline.

Searched Motivation and this video worked, so your sponsored ads are working.. dnt usually click sponsored ads. but title grabbed my attention and the 1st 5 mins of this video made me subscribe..

My favorite of your videos!

THIS video right here. This video has changed my life!!

Amazing! Love the paradigm shift this video produces