Creating S.M.A.R.T. Goals

What do you want to achieve in August?  As part of Action August we are going to dip into and create a S.MA.R.T. Goal, or Goals to ensure we achieve what we set out to by 31st August.  

S.M.A.R.T. stands for:-

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Realistic
• Timely

What does each part of the puzzle mean? 

Specific: 

A specific goal has a much greater chance of being accomplished than a general goal. To set a specific goal you need to answer four “W” questions:

• Who:      Who is involved?
• What:     What do I want to accomplish? 
• Why:       Specific reasons, purpose or benefits of accomplishing the goal.
• Where:   Identify a location, or place

As an example, a general goal would be “Learn Spanish” But a specific goal would say, “I will sign up to an online course and dedicate 1 hour per day for learning to improve my Spanish”

Measurable:

How will you know if you have attained the goal and achieved what you set out too?  Next you need to set the criteria for measuring your success.

When you set yourself a way of tracking progress, you are more encouraged to reach your target dates, and experience the exhilaration of achievement that pushes you on to continued effort required to reach your goal.

To determine if your goal is measurable, ask questions such as……

What will success look and feel like? A goal is tangible when you can experience it with one of the senses (taste, touch, smell, sight or hearing)

How much? How many?

Achievable:

When you identify what you are trying to achieve, you can then begin to find ways to making them happen.  You develop the attitudes, abilities, skills, and financial capacity to reach them. You begin seeing previously overlooked opportunities to bring yourself closer to the achievement of your goals.

You can attain almost any goal you set when you plan your steps wisely and establish a time frame that allows you to carry out those steps.

Goals that may have seemed far away and out of reach eventually move closer and become achievable, not because your goals shrink, but because you grow and expand to match them. When you list your goals you build your self-image. You see yourself as worthy of these achievements, and develop the traits and personality that allow you to possess them.

Realistic:

For a goal to be realistic it must represent an objective toward which you are both willing and able to work. A goal can be bold, audacious and realistic; you are the only one who can decide just how big your goal should be. But be sure that every goal represents substantial progress.

Picking something which stretches you is frequently easier to reach than something which is simple. Some of the hardest jobs you ever accomplished actually seem easy simply because they were a labor of love.  Bigger goals and you will achieve bigger and more remarked success.

Timely:

A goal should be fixed within a time frame. With no time frame tied to it there’s no sense of urgency. If you want to lose 2 kgs, when do you want to lose it by? “Someday” won’t work (because as we know, “Someday” is not a day of the week!).  But if you fix your goal within a timeframe, “by 31st August”, then you’ve set your unconscious mind into motion to begin working on the goal.
Your goal is probably realistic if you truly believe that it can be accomplished. Additional ways to know if your goal is realistic is to determine if you have accomplished anything similar in the past or ask yourself what conditions would have to exist to accomplish this goal.

I hope that helps and look forward to hearing, seeing and sharing your successes.