By Mark Laker
Last month’s blog ended with an acronym you may have not seen before – SCCAMP. It’s like the SMART goals you often hear about along with the GROW model and many other terms used to help people set goals, targets, plans etc.
SCCAMP stands for:
Specific: Our brains need to be very clear about what they’re working on.
Controllable: Write goals that you have control over I.e. whether you can go
training 2,3 or 4 times a week.
Challenging: A useful guide to set challenging goals is to consider whether you can see the goal, but not touch it. If so, it’s likely to be challenging.
Achievable: To be the next US President, realistically, is that achievable.
Measurable: You’ve probably heard it before, ‘if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it’. You need goals that you can measure your success, even if that’s visibly ticking them off as ‘done’.
Personal: Your goals need to be set for things you really, really want to achieve, not something others have told you ‘Should’ do. E.g., your trainer says you should train to run a half-marathon to build up stamina, although stamina isn’t something you need a lot of for your sport.
Using this framework may seem overly complicated, however I can assure you it’ll be time well spent and will save you a lot of time spent re-writing. It will also save you energy on activities that don’t produce the result you’re looking for and, when you tick them off as ‘done’, it’ll be rewarding.
Over the years I’ve used many different goal setting systems, apps, software and techniques, I could probably write a book about my experience…that’s an idea… However, I’ve concluded that there is no one correct way. Everyone’s needs are different, everyone has different methods of learning and different motivation triggers.
As we come towards the end of the summer, it’s a good time to start thinking about your Annual Review (more about this next month), whether that’s in a sport; your career; projects you want to achieve at home; new hobbies or other interests. Meanwhile, try using the SCCAMP method to get your goal setting juices flowing and let me know how it goes.
Mark
