SMART Goals For Faster Progress

Fourteen years can look like “overnight success” if someone only sees the final jump in numbers. I’m pulling back the curtain on what it actually took to build momentum with my podcast, grow authority in the digital space, and finally feel like my work matches who I am. The uncomfortable truth is that the first decade wasn’t hustle, it was uncertainty. I tried paths that didn’t fit, chased opportunities that weren’t real, and learned the hard way that ambition without clarity turns into wasted time.

That’s why we go deep on SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-based. I explain how being specific forces better choices, how tracking measurable progress keeps motivation alive when growth is slow, and how achievable goals help you work with your real resources instead of fantasy plans. I also share how I used tools and simple systems to improve my execution over time, plus how Substack helped me get closer to my community and turn consistent effort into visible progress.

We also talk about relevance and identity, because your goals have to match your core message if you want sustainable growth. And to make the framework concrete, I use a mountain-climb metaphor that ties the whole goal-setting process together, including the part people forget: pacing yourself, taking breaks, and avoiding the burnout sprint when you think the summit is close.

If you’re working on personal growth, building a podcast, growing an online business, or simply trying to set better goals, listen now and tell me: what’s one SMART goal you’re committing to this week? Subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review if it helps.

Transcript

The 14-Year Journey To Clarity

SPEAKER_00 0:00

When people ask me how long it took me to to get to where I am today, you know, building my podcast, expanding my authority, and always seeking more, honestly, I tell them it was around 14 years, that's how much it took me. And often they they respond with surprise, guys. Say, oh my god, so such a long time. But the truth is, it literally took me 10 years to understand what I really want to do. Then it took me another three years of dedicated work on something I truly believed in. And in this past year has been the first time my podcast has been uh very good, like has seen a clear jump. My numbers are increasing, you know, visibly. And I launched my my SoupStack to engage more closely with my community, and I'm on the point of reaching uh 2000 subscribers, additionally, I have thousands of followers on Substack now. And I've also decided to record my audio and video separately with with the video content addressed as reels, you know, which I would split later. And if you think about it, what I'm discussing right now uh mainly focus on the last four years. So, what about the first 10 years? The truth is I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what I want to do, okay? So today I want to help you be more aware of how you can spend your time and to be more specific and clear in pursuing your uh your goals, and this way you can achieve your dreams faster than I did. Hi guys, my name is Fabio from Journey to Success and welcome. Today I I would like to talk about the the SMAT goals, S M A R T specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based goals. Right? While I have uh highlighted this concept in the past, I've never really dived into it. So I can't wait to share more with you. But before to go forward, as always, please subscribe so I know this is the right direction to lead you guys, to drive you and to guide you towards your journey to success. Let's guess, let's get started. Alright, as always. So, 14 years, guys, 14 years, probably more. I remember that that night I went to the bed, which was on my 18th birthday. I thought to myself, I want to be someone, I want to contribute value to this world and have enough money to live comfortably. But it wasn't just about money, it was more about you know the financial freedom or actually the ability to pursue my own path, you know, like proper freedom. I want to achieve something meaningful in my future that wasn't tied to an anonymous course, anonymous path. And also in an egoistic sense, I want to be remembered. I didn't want to be someone who could be easily forgotten, you know. I know in this case my ego is speaking, and I know it's a little bit ugly, and I probably need to do some self-reflection about it. I will work for I promise you. But it's true, it is true. I I I've always I'm always be honest with you. I've always tried to be honest with you. So from that day forward, anyway, a lot changed. Initially, I dreamed of becoming an actor or a singer, you know, as many of us do. So I started my my journey by exploring ways to work for home because I just want to support myself while pursuing this dream. Okay, and over the years my determination grew and my focus shifted. So I started to desire not just the ability to work for home because of my inspirations, you know, because my artistic inspirations. But it became a personal dream of mine, the fact to work for home, you know. I really want to have incredible trip experiences from home, help those less fortunate than me in terms of mindset, in a way to help them and persist in growing my own mindset by learning from wonderful, more incredible people. And I also see my family, see my family more often since I moved away too much soon from my studies, you know. And uh yeah, I had, and I'm still having so many reasons to to go forward, you know, to to reach my my goals. And then after a while, it became a tough game for me. I knew the direction I want to take. Well, I knew barely the the direction that I want to take, it was just to be in the digital world, however, I still didn't know exactly what I want to do, guys. So I realized I want to be part of the online space, okay? In this uh worldwide web world uh space, but I wrongly thought it was only a small area filled with online opportunities. I didn't understand that it was like an infinite universe, I didn't know that. This it took me 10 years, a lot of sacrifices, change mindset. I spent time wasted on mistakes, time wasted that shifted into time invested, lesson learned, and experience that I can spread to guide you and help you avoid making the same missteps that I that I made, you know. So from the time I wrote my first article on WordPress about making money with roulette, based on what I thought was a smart strategy, but it wasn't, to exploring everything else, trading, binary option, uh selling courses, being on YouTube, about affiliate marketing, being scammed, and so on. So it took me so long because I just wasn't clear or specific about my goals. Specific. That brings us to the first letter of the smart goal framework. As for specific. Guys, it it is easy to say I want to work for home or I want to be in a movie or I want to learn the guitar, but ask yourself who do you want to become? So the more specific you are, the more focused you become. The more focused you are, the faster you can achieve your goal and become the that person one day, you know, the second version of yourself. So being specific is very important. Once I finally understood what truly aligned with me, and as my podcasting journey focused on personal growth, I realized something crucial. It is a matter of both quality and quantity. I spent enough years recognizing that in the end of the story, I wasn't one of those lucky people who went viral overnight. Absolutely not. Today I'm happy because I can teach what I've learned from my missteps and my experiences of bouncing back. Okay. But I knew, I knew I had to improve in some way. So while I may not have been the most skilled or talented podcaster, I understood that practice often exceeds talent. So to overcome obstacles, I learned how to become smarter. For example, free speaking podcast, I'm not the best. I'm not doing right now, I'm not freely speaking. I don't do in Italian. Can you imagine English? It's not even my mother tongue. I so I eventually started writing my own scripts after one year, one year and a half, maybe something more, I guess. And even if my scripts may not have been the most grammatically correct, you know, I found this solution. And uh I've been using tools like Grammarly to improve my grammar because I knew that I needed some help. Let I use correction from the AI on grammarly.com. Still my voice, still my core, I know what I wrote, I know what I'm reading, I know how I'm reading because I wrote it. It's still my creativity. But with a correction agent close to me. Okay, so in the beginning, you have to trust blindly because you don't see many numbers at the start, you know. However, those few listeners per month can transform into a few listeners per day, and uh eventually you might attract tons of listeners in just a few hours. Tracking your progress becomes essential, and you understand that focusing on uh measurable small accomplishments boosts your motivations, okay? And then we're talking about the the second letter, that's M, okay, from measurable. We often make the mistake of trying to reach large numbers, guys. But the truth is that if you focus too much on those numbers, you can lose sight of quality. And contrary wise, if you focus on delivering high quality, the numbers will fall. Okay, once you reach a good level of quality, you begin to understand how to push it more. And I started using Substack to share episode Linkin newsletter, and uh everything was everything was so on the floor. Then out of nowhere, you finally achieved the third letter, A, from uh achievable. So once the numbers start to talk, you know, you understand what you can achieve, what you cannot, what you cannot, based on on the resources you have, uh, then uh you know exactly what you are what you are achieving, but still with the resources at your disposal, you know, and then you can also can be more inventive, guys, because of course once you acknowledge, once you re you recognize, let's say in this way, recognizing the limits of what you have is when you can truly announce your work and achieve something you never thought possible, as you become more inventive, you know. And here we have the A, guys, the A achievable. For example, I recognized that I I couldn't spend so much money on ads. It wasn't achievable for me. It would be a waste of money because I couldn't be as consistent as I wanted. So after years of trial and error and lots of spending, I was also done spending more money if I couldn't be consistent without, you know, gaining something back, without a positive role. So I thought, how can I achieve better numbers with the resources I have? And then I thought about Substack. Substack seemed like a good fit for me to build my community and post-episode recaps. So once I improved this framework, I was satisfied. I noticed that my numbers increased over time. After almost a year of studying Substack, after I was satisfied, I thought, what can I do now to make it even better? Maybe I should record both audio with the mic and video with my phone and split the video into reels. So in the meantime, I've already reached the letter R for realistic. So basically, the more specific you are, S, the more miserable you can be, M, the more you can achieve A, the more realistic you can be. S M A. Of course, with money, I understood how to push my project more, but that wasn't the case for me. So I had to be I had to be realistic about my limited resources and accept that I couldn't scale yet. And then we have the R also stand for relevant, you know. You are finally building your identity in this case, and uh whatever you do from now on has to align with your core. You know, if I talk about personal growth, I cannot wake up one morning and say, let's discuss about video games. It does work like that. Otherwise, everything will fall apart. It is so satisfying when I ask JPT a related AI, you know, like cloud or Germany, whatever, about the journey to success. And they provide exactly what I've wished for over the over the years. It would be very confusing, you know, for them if I started to talk about video games or food. Now let's take a moment to discuss the T about time along with S, A, and R. You know, I'm gonna make a general example that also touch on the concept of time. Now, imagine you are an explorer, try to conquer a mountain. So the first step your journey requires you to establish a clear destination, right? You need to be specific. So let's say the summit of a particular cliff. So if your goal is simply to climb a mountain, you are setting yourself up for confusion and likely failure, you know. So you should specify which mountain you want to climb and exactly where on that mountain you intend to reach. A specific watch point or maybe particular landmark, you know. This clarity aligns with the S in smart goals. So be specific, okay? So you set your goal. Now that you have set a specific goal, it is essential to track your progress over time. So suppose you know the mountain is 3,000 meters tall, okay? So you could break this down into miserable distances, like aiming to climb 300 meters each day. And this is where the M for miserable comes into play, guys. Each time you reach another 300 meters, you'll get a sense of accomplishment, accomplishment that keeps you motivation hike. And as you begin your climb, it is crucial to recognize what is achievable. So you shouldn't set a goal to reach the playing point in a single day without proper preparation. Okay, that would be unrealistic, of course. Instead, plan your climb over several days to allow for rest and recovery. This brings in the A for achievable, okay? Adjust your expectations based on your fitness level, weather conditions, you know, climbing experiences, and so all. Then comes R for realistic. So if you realize halfway up the mountain that the weather is turning bad, or you know that you are feeling fatigue, you need to understand which resources you have to reach your goal. Okay, you need to understand that. Maybe reaching the summit tomorrow is not realistic anymore. And instead, you decide to make it to a panoramic vista point where you will still enjoy a rewarding view despite not reaching the top. So your goals must align with your current situation and resources. And finally, first time we talk about this letter, there is T for time-based. You might set a clear timeline for your climb. Let's say you want to reach the summit in five days. So each day has its own objectives. So day one, you climb 300 meters, day two, another 600, etc. etc. So this time helps create urgency and keeps you focused. Okay. So going back to my example, I have a lot of data and my podcast predictor that helps me understand how many listeners I should reach within a specific period, okay? However, I've made certain choices in the last few weeks, few months, a few weeks that may impact this prediction tool. So, you know, when I say to you 300 meters, 300 meters, well, in my case, can it's 10, 20, or 30 listeners per day, all right? But it is increasing because I made certain choices that put me ahead, okay? Causing my projection to rise over time. With my monetization effort on Substacks, still with my monetization uh effort, I have already started generating income, and soon I will be able to make simple predictions based on the purchase-related conversion percentage. However, some choices, such as uh sending a daily newsletter, could boost my progress and help me exceed my my current expectations. So talking about the time expect, I cannot say exactly the day, the week, or even the exact month when I will reach the summit, you know. I'm more for a ranch guy for this. The reason is that I believe certain expectations can be counterproductive as disappointment, guys, can slow down the process. It happened to me, too, you know, to everyone. But what is the point here? If you embrace different small achievable goals to boost your motivation, related also to your prediction, connect to the numbers that you have, you will realize that sooner or later you will achieve your dream sooner than you think. Okay. And also, with all my honesty, if I can say, a lot of things change in the last month of my life that urge me to push faster than ever before. And it worked, of course it worked. When you have that clear urgency, of course you are faster, right? But I also realized that it is not black and white. We also have to be careful not to run to the summit so much, because you know, when you think that you are close and then you are run, you run so fast. I don't know, you end up to to to fall, maybe because we are too tired, or maybe because we are too overwhelmed, okay. This uh an advice, a personal advice from a person who is still learning this, okay? Because sometimes I go too much far, too much fast, okay. So it's also important to uh to have your breaks during this climb, you know. In summary, as an explorer, being specific about your destination, measurable in your progress, achievable in your goals, realistic about your circumstances, and time-based, you know, and uh everything is connected towards a plan that surely will guide you toward a successful climb, successful path, you know, towards your dream. So being smart in your personal and professional life for sure will lead to success, okay? Now, before we wrap up, let's see what we discussed today. In today's discussion, we explored my journey over the past 14 years in building my podcast and expanding my authority in the digital space. I shared how the first ten years were primarily Focused on understanding what I really want to do, which require time and numerous experiences. Okay. But the last four years have been very transformative with my podcast growing and me engaging more closely with my community through platforms like Soupstack. Very, very happy, very proud. And we dove into the concept of smart goals, specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based, and how crucial it is to be specific about our goals, right? I reflected on my early aspirations and how they evolved over time into a desire for financial freedom and meaningful contributions. And I emphasize the significance of each element of the SMART framework, illustrating how specificity be specific leads to focus, measurable goals, maintain motivation, achievable targets, encourage creativity, relevance ensures alignment with one's identity, and time drives urgency. Okay. I also share personal stories about my shift from wanting to be an actor or singer to embracing the online world, discussing the lessons learned from numerous missteps that I that I had. And the importance of practice over talent. That's very important as well. As well as necessity of learning to trust the process, okay? Especially when progress might seem slow. It's still there, it's just not visible, but it's there. And in summary, being smart guys about your goals creates a clearer path to success, helping to navigate the journey in a more effective way and reach your dreams faster. Now, I would love to hear from you. How have you been working towards your goals, guys? What specific strategies do you use to stay focused and motivated on your journey? Send them a message, share your story, or connect with me on Soupstack. I would love to learn about your experiences. And of course, if you enjoyed today's episode, make sure to subscribe so you never miss an update. And if you know someone who could benefit from this conversation about smart goals, please share this episode with them. Okay? Very important. Thank you so much for being for being here, for being part of the journey to success community. Remember, together we are shaping a life full of purpose and achievement. Cannot wait to see you in the next episode. Cheers.