How to Set Smart Goals
Why SMART goals? Having dreams for your life is just the beginning, the starting point on your path of success. Making them into a reality requires goal setting, not just any kind, but setting smart goals. It is a good strategy to choose goals that are aligned with what your desire, with your life passion and your values. This way your focus will be razor sharp and your success more easily attained. What are Smart Goals? Goals are objectives. They are actions that move you towards a desired direction. As you move along you may discover there are some actions you'll need to do less of. Such as reducing procrastination time or unproductive activities. You'll also realize you need to do MORE pro-active behaviors, such as planning your weekly and daily chores in detail. This way, you'll start your day/week on the right foot. To get to where you want to go you need a road map, a clear blueprint. SMART goals is an acronym for: S - Specific Note that all five elements closely rely on each other. Usually when you get a couple right the other three fall naturally. Let's see... Specific Goals need to be clearly defined, therefore specific. For example: "I want to be happy," which is vague vs. "I will dedicate three hours a week on doing what I love," (because that makes you happy). Two hours of spending time with my children during the weekend days and one hour to either curl up and read my favorite book of the moment, or go to the movies with my partner. See the difference? And take the "big picture" goal ("I will dedicate three hours a week on doing what I love") and break it down to smaller chunks. The more you break it down, the more specific it becomes and therefore more achievable. Measurable Let's continue with the above example: "I want to be happy," is very hard to measure, but spending three hours a week with your children and doing one activity you enjoy, is very measurable. You can even schedule each hour in your weekly planner, which I strongly encourage you to do. Did you keep your goals? Did it make you feel happy? At the end of the week you can assess if you followed through and make any adjustments for the next week. Achievable Is your goal within your reach? Where you are now, is your expectation for achieving it within your control? If your goal is "I want to make $10,000 extra this year," how will you make this happen? Do you have extra time for a second job? Is there the possibility of asking for a raise and how feasible is it that you will get it? What would it take for you to produce this extra income? Now remember, dream big and dream in small increments. Success takes perseverance and time. And if your heart and passion is in what you're doing, don't give up! Realistic This ties in with achievable. Is it within you short, mid or long-term reach? For example, your might want to lose 30 pounds in one month. Is it healthy to lose that amount in such a short time? How about aiming for a life-long commitment to life-style change? Perhaps your expectations can be to lose the weight in 6 months and take care of all your health needs - emotional and physical. Timed Time your goals. The examples above where met within a time frame. Your achievements must have a specific time line for success. Additional Pieces of the Puzzle What's Your Life Purpose? Knowing yourself and what you want will allow you to identify your or your WHY. Knowing the reason why your are setting your personal goals will carry you through the difficult times. And you will have them. Everyone goes through rough patches. Goal Definition. What do you want to accomplish? Personally, professionally, in your relationships, with your life? What do you value most in life? Where do you see yourself one year from now? Two years from now? Five? Ten? If you don't have the answer to one or some of these questions make it your priority to think about them for the next days or weeks until you begin to identify your vision. Come back to these questions often to update your answers. As you grow and evolve so will your dreams and goals. Remember the nautilus shell - always growing! Goal Setting Strategies. The best strategy, in my opinion, generally is to start with the BIG picture - your vision and work your way backwards. I'll explain this further. But if you are just starting to practice goal setting strategies, then begin with writing down your weekly goals. Write what you want to accomplish for each day of the week. How to Set Goals. Start with the easy things first. This will allow you to practice first until you're ready for the more heavy duty activities. DO make sure you graduate to the more difficult tasks. There's no sense in staying with the easy chores indefinitely. You must be able to see a measurable evolution in reaching your goals. Continue to aim higher. Remember to reward yourself for the work you do. These are small incentives to keep you self motivated. Step out or your work environment. Visit a friend. Go out for a nice meal. Buy yourself something you've been wanting as a pat on the back for your great work! Setting Personal Goals. Personal goal setting should be just that - personal. No one else can do it for you. Your dreams are your own. You can look at people whom you admire for ideas, but ultimately you are in the driver seat of your life. Set your goals high. It's your life and you deserve to have an amazing one. Related Topics How do you stay motivated in setting and keeping your goals? How do you define your success? Acronym SWOT - What does it mean? Check back soon! Recently I ran across another acronym which I think is extremely useful - FOCUS Coming soon! Loading Return from Smart Goals to Home.
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