SMART Goals

The number one resource I personally use for motivation and reaching goals. It's the little things you do that can reap you tons of beneftis along with a grand sense of accomplishment. Check out Everything Counts!

SMART goals represent an acronym for five proven steps for goal achievement as follows:

S = specific
M = measurable
A = achievable
R = realistic
T = timely

This technique is a tool which allows for effective personal goal setting. It is very important that you use this technique correctly so that you maximize your success.

Your Goal Must Be Specific:

The entire point of setting a goal is to provide yourself focus, along with a path towards achievement. The more you know about your goal the better you can plan your efforts. If your goal is too broad you divide your energy and efforts. Broad goals can lengthen or lessen your chance for success. The longer the time frame the tougher it is to stay motivated. The more effort you must exert the tougher it is to stay motivated. The faster you experience success the more excited you become. Think in terms of a snowball gaining momentum as it rolls downhill. It keeps adding more snow - building as it rolls along. If a specific goal can fuel your motivation you increase your odds for achievement.

How do you know if your goal is specific enough? Let's say your goal is to earn a huge raise at work. What does this mean? Define huge? Huge is subjective and open to interpretation. How do you know what effort is needed for huge? Your time is valuable so you want to be specific enough to use your time and energy effectively. Which brings us to your next consideration.

If You Can Measure Your Goal It's Specific:

When personal goal setting, you must be able to plan your time and energy. This means when you add measurements to your goal you can determine progress along with your time and effort. Let's say you decide you want to earn a 20% raise. What criteria and effort is required to earn this amount? You may ask yourself if your company offers 20% raises. If yes, how will your efforts align? Is there enough hours in the day to meet the requirements? What if the largest percentage for a raise your company is willing to offer is 5%?

Your Goal Must Be Attainable to Be Worth Your Efforts:

You determine your goal to earn a 20% raise is not attainable, because it will require an additional 8 hours of work after you have already put in an 8 hour day. You will be required to work 16 hour days for six consecutive months with 100% quality results. You assess your energy level and personal commitments. You determine you do not have the time or desire to exert the necessary effort. This is not an attainable goal for you.

Goal Setting - Reality Bites:

From everything you've learned a 20% raise is not offered at your company. Therefore, your goal is not realistic. You have three choices. You can adjust your goal so that it is realistic and attainable or forget about it. Better yet, you have the opportunity to start over with SMART goals worthy of your time and effort. Maybe your time is better spent on a goal to earn 20% of your current salary with a part time job or income generating project?

A Timetable for Motivation and Achievement:

Once you determine your goal is specific, measurable, attainable, and realistic you need a time frame for assessment and achievement. You should set specific dates to measure the value of your time and effort spent in comparison to what you hope to achieve. Are you on target or do you need to make adjustments? That's the beauty of this technique - you have the ability to tweak things as you go along. This means you should constantly reassess each step in your personal goal setting process. Always circle back to the most important factor of this technique - it is only a SMART goal if you are successful.