SMART Goals

A big component to personal development is goal setting, and this tip will make sure you are working toward your goals in the right way, specifically by SMART goals.

No, I’m not talking about having goals around your intelligence. SMART, in this case is meant to be used as an acronym. Each letter represents a different contributing factor to a well crafted goal. SMART stands for, specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely.

To quickly breakdown each of these, specific means that the goal is narrow enough so that it can be independently focused on and worked toward. Measurable means that the result can be tracked in an objective way, eliminating any doubt you have about your progress. Attainable and Realistic go hand in hand, because they both talk about the importance of the goal actually being possible and can be achieved. Goals that aren’t attainable or realistic are not beneficial. Last is timely, meaning that you have established a time frame by which you want to have completed the goal, creating an accountability to work toward it. 

Together, these factors provide a complete framework to achieve your goals. It has been adopted in many different industries, from professional sports, to corporate suites, to personal development. 

The best thing to do if you want to start creating SMART goals today is to figure out what goal you want to accomplish, then unpack that goal into simpler components using the SMART principles. For example, instead of setting the goal “work out more”, it would be smarter to have the goal, “workout for 45 minutes 4 days of every week”.  Do you see how much neater that is, and how it provides a plan of action just based on how it is written?