SMART Goals

If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy and inspires your hopes.

~ Andrew Carnegie

Now that we've thought a little about what's really important in our lives, our next step is to turn some of our "wishes" into goals. Wishes do come true! But they aren't granted to us as in a Disney fairy tale. Because we live in the real world, we'll have to make our own wishes come true, by setting SMART goals and taking actions to reach them.

SMART is an acronym often used to direct the process of goal setting. The actual words may vary, but the concepts are invariable - because they work. SMART goals are:

• Specific (significant, stretching)
• Measurable (meaningful)
• Attainable (achieveable, agreeable)
• Relevant (reasonable, rewarding)
• Timed (trackable, tangible)

A SMART goal is a wish that has been tranformed into an action plan. If we try to follow a course that lacks these characteristics, we will come up short. Repeated failures can discourage us, and cause us to give up. But by setting SMART goals, we are setting ourselves up for success.
Consider the following example:

WISHFUL THINKING: I need to lose weight.

SMART GOAL: I will lose 18 pounds by August 1.

Can you see the difference? I would never reach the first goal (wish) because I don't even know what it looks like! How much weight do I want to lose? How long am I giving myself to lose it? But by making it a SMART goal, I know exactly what I need to do: lose just three pounds a month for the next six months. My new goal is specific, measureable, attainable, relevant, and timed. And now I'm ready to identify the steps that will get me there.

Let's try another one:

WISHFUL THINKING: I want to improve my golf game.

How can we transform this into a SMART goal? Well, we need to make it specific. What is my average score today? What do I want my average to be a year from today? By adding specifics, I can decide what steps I need to take (golf lessons, different clubs, more putting practice), I can measure my progress (averaging at least one point lower every three months); and most importantly, I will know when I've acheived it! Maybe I can't play like Michelle Wei by Friday, but I can reach a SMART goal like this:

I want to lower my golf score by four points in twelve months.

Test this method for yourself. See how much more clearly you can visualize your success. Experience the benefit of being able to track your progress, so you can gain momentum, or maybe adjust your plan. The best time management starts here, giving us a clear reason to make choices in the ways we invest our time.

To learn more, check out this list of goal setting articles.