How to Write Goals Using the SMART Method.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010 at 5:00AM
A few weeks ago I wrote a post about the importance of writing goals. I was reminded by several readers the power of using the SMART Goal setting method. This is a great method to write easy to follow goals. One of the reasons people are not successful at achieving their goals is that they do not have the components of a good goal. How can you set a goal that can be accomplished? To be successful with goal setting you should follow these guidelines using the SMART goal setting method.
Specific- Do you have a specific goal in mind? Becoming a better person might be a good goal but it is not specific. A better goal would be to volunteer one time a month at the homeless shelter which will result in your becoming a better person.
Measurable- Are the goals measurable? You may have a goal that you want to make more money but it is not measurable therefore you will not know if you have met the goal. A better goal would be to make an additional $500 per month beginning in September.
Achievable- It may be good to have a goal to have your book published by January but if you haven’t started your book you may get frustrated. You can keep the goal to write the book but break the goal down into a smaller more achievable goals. I will write the first chapter of my book by October 1st.
Realistic- You may want to make $100,000 by February but if you are making minimum wage it may be hard to achieve the goal in that amount of time. Have a goal that is a stretch but not unattainable.
Time element- When do you plan to achieve the goal? How often will you do the goal?
Goal Categories
Goals involve your entire life so you should make goals in several categories. Here are just a few examples of different goal categories and how you might list your goals following the SMART method under each category.
- Relationships
I am going to send a card to my sister one time a month.
I am going invite my daughter and her husband for Thursday night dinner.
- Health
I am going to exercise 3 times a week.
I will lose 10 pounds by Oct. 15th .
- Career or Business
I will read 15 min of a good book a day.
I will write complete the outline of my book by Aug 1st
I will complete one chapter of my book by Sept 1st
We will increase web traffic to 400 unique hits per day by Oct 1st.
We will increase online sales to $5000 a month by Nov. 1st
- Spiritual
I will volunteer at the homeless shelter one time per month
I will meditate 30 min every morning
I will perform on random act of kindness every day
- Challenge goal
I will run in the mini marathon in May.
I will run in a 5k race in March.
I will run 4 miles 5 times a week.
To be successful at achieving your goals it is important to write the goals down and post them in a place where you can see them on a daily basis. Review and update your goals monthly or weekly. Identify your obstacles and adjust your goals accordingly. While you are writing your goals you may not know exactly how you are going to achieve the goal. The plan will unfold as you focus on the outcome.
To find out more read Are You Doing Everything You Can to Achieve Your Goals? and Goal Setting is a Powerful Process.
Please share tips on how you have successfully achieved your goals. How do you monitor your goals?
Reader Comments (10)
You are so right. We fail with our goals when we are not specific enough.
By the way, how would you increase web traffic to 400 visitors a day?
Thank you for this post, Candace. It's so important to set goals, and I love the way you break it down. any goal (or task) is so much more manageable when you break down the steps to achieve the desired goal. Thanks for the reminder.
Julia,
SMART goals make a huge difference when doing annual planning. Thanks for showing how helpful these goals can be at home too.
All the best,
Chris
Caterina
The goal of having 400 unique visitors to my site a day is an actual goal.
I am a member of several blog groups, I just started listing the blog in blog catalogs, I list the blog articles on stuumbleupon and digg. I get most of my traffic from commenting on blogs.
It can be a challenge to leave a valuable comment when the blog is not related to my area of expertise. If I make a valuable comment that is related to my area some of the visitors will visit my blog. Of course I only know that if they leave a comment.
To meet my goal I will be very busy in the next few months. You are a great giver on LinkedIn so you should be starting to see some of the benefits.
Good question and I think I should have someone write a guest post on that subject for our site.
Heidi and Chris
It is much easier to achieve a goal if it is broken into a smaller achievable goal. Goals are not meant to be just for business. I think the life goals are just as important because it brings balance to your life.
These are great tips and very doable!
One tip I have is to have a goal buddy - someone that you have to be accountable to. My friend and I are doing this for each other - we discuss our goals for the week at the beginning of each week and follow up on our progress as well. We found that it really keeps us in check. It could be so easy at times to be a slacker but it's even worse when you have to go back to your buddy and say you didn't do what you said you would!
Stacey
Having a goal buddy or an accountability partner is a great idea. I think we definitely do better when we have to be accountably to someone other than ourselves. That is particularly true of goals that have to do with wt loss, exercise or stop smoking. Thanks for sharing. I had forgotten about a goal buddy. That would make an excellent new post.
Julia:
I have in my folder of ideas for a post to write about SMART as well. If we followed the methodology more we would more easily achieve our goals.
Thanks for your post being a reminder to me to move that idea closer to the top.
Rob
Definitely I love the line a goal not written down is only a dream. Here is a free simple facebook app that allows you to create SMART Goals and uses your friends as Goal Buddies to help monitor your SMART Goals. http://www.facebook.com/SMARTGoals.Me
Thanks for sharing your link. It sounds like a fun application.