Goals/Good Deed Boxes

Instructions

We used cardboard box templates, but you can use any small cardboard box.

We covered ours with a Decopatch technique-just to make it more fun!

We wrote out a list of goals/good deeds, which needed to be  SMART(an acronym for, Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic and Time bound).

We finished off by thinking through the goals/good deeds we would like to achieve. We discussed them and then wrote them onto pieces of paper and put them into our boxes as a reminder.

Here is an example of smart goals

Specific:

A goal that is specific is CLEAR. It is clear as to what is to be done. So rather than saying: “I will be more helpful to my mum” you would say: “I will clean my room every day.”

Measureable:

A measurable goal has a quality that you can measure, like a certain number of actions or a quantity. So instead of a goal that says: “I will raise money for charity”, you would say it more like this: “I will raise £10 for Gaza by the end of next week.”

Actionable:

An actionable goal is one that – yes, you’ve guessed it-needs an action to be taken. So instead of saying: “I will be a better sibling”, you would say: “I will give my sibling a genuine complement at least 5 times a week”  or “I will count to 10 before I respond to my sibling, if he/she says something that makes me angry.”

Realistic:

It’s great to set huge goals, but if there isn’t a chance that you can achieve them, then it could be a waste of time.

It’s also  a waste of time to set goals that are too easy or for something that you don’t  normally do anyway.

 A realistic goal should motivate and encourage you to do something that will take effort, but will be really rewarding when you achieve it. So instead of saying: “I will stand in prayer all night”, make your goal realistic and say something like: “I will get up one hour before Fajr to pray 2 Raka`ah (units of prayer) and Witr and then read the Qur’an until Fajr” or “I will pray all the obligatory prayers within half an hour of the time coming in for the prayer”

Time-bound:

A time-bound goal is one that has a deadline in it. You will have noticed in all the SMART goals above that there is some ‘time’ included in them.

The goals without a deadline will be part of a larger longer-term goal, such as: "I will improve my memorisation of the Quran so that I can complete surah Baqarah by next Ramadan." Remember to set a review alongside any goal so it can be reviewed to make sure you’re on track.