Setting SMART (and smarter) Goals

Setting and achieving goals is an important element in helping you close the gap between how you are now and how you would like to be.

Setting goals allows you to

Make vague desires and wishes more concrete

Divide big tasks into smaller tasks (“the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”)

Goals should be written down, and phrased positively and in the present tense.

Writing down goals can make you rich

A survey found that 3% of 1950s Yale students were worth more than the other 97% put together in the 1970s. The only difference researchers found was that the rich 3% had written down their goals in the 1950s

It also helps to write down your goals using positive, present rather than negative, future language. “I am going to going to the gym once a week” rather than “I don’t want to slob in from to the TV every night”

SMART is a useful acronym to help you set quality goals (remember they also need to be written down and phrased positively and in the present tense).

SMART stands for

Specific State exactly what you want to achieve. Write down “I want to lose 10lb” not “I Want to lose weight”.

Measurable You need to be able to measure progress to see if you are on track, it. So write down “I want to have at least 1 quality evening out a week with friends” rather than “I want more fun”.

Achievable It will be discouraging if you aim too high – but on the other hand don’t set your sights too low. If you don’t think that realistically you are likely to go jogging more than once a week, then it’s better to say “I will go jogging once a week” than “I will go jogging every day”

Relevant In order to help you bridge the gap between where you are now and where you want to be, goals need to be relevant to your most important values. “I want a red ford fiesta by the end of the year” is specific, measurable, achievable and timebound, but won’t be a smart goal unless it is really important to you. Ask yourself “Will achieving this goal really help make me lead the sort of life I want to lead”.

You can also make goals are relevant by thinking of the most important areas of your life, including

Careers

Relationships

Family
Lifestyle

Timebound Having a target date helps you work on short, medium and long-term goals. It also helps prioritise as you get closer to the target. So write down “I want to do a yoga course by March” not just “I want to do a yoga course”. Split goals into the:-

Short term (e.g. for the next month)

Medium term (e.g. for the next year)

Long term (e.g. for the next 3 years)

3. Even SMARTER goals are Energising and Recorded. Check that your goal energises you –visualise it happening, what effect does that have on you? And if you’ve followed this process, it will be recorded – make sure to keep track of its progress - as part of a weekly review would be good.

Over to you …

My long term goals (next 3 years) are:-

My medium term goals (next year) are:-

My short term goals (next 3 months) are:-

Checklist

1. Are my goals written down , positive and in the present tense?

2. Are they SMART?

Specific

Measurable

Achievable

Relevant

Time-bound

If not, refine your goals to make them even smarter!

For example:-

Original goal: I want be less fat!
Positive	Present	Specific	Measurable	Achievable	Relevant
No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
Smarter goal: I am going to weigh 9 stone in one months time.

You may find it helpful to cut and paste the following table and use it as a template for each of your goals, to help turn your original goals into smarter goals.

Original goal:
Positive	Present	Specific	Measurable	Achievable	Relevant

Smarter goal:

Finally, visualise yourself achieving this goal. Does that energise you and motivate you towards taking the next step?

Best of the web on goals:
http://www.topachievement.com/smart.html

http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/library/PN/00051.html

http://www.businessbuffet.com/pages/Smart34.html

http://humanresources.about.com/library/weekly/aa121000c.htm

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