Are you being SMART about your goals? The fact is there are quite a lot of goal setting tips and tricks out there can sometimes do more harm than good. Just the planning for the goal itself can feel like an extremely lofty goal. This can result in us feeling overwhelmed, exhausting us before we even get to a point of actually figuring out what our goal even is. 

The good news is that although there’s a heck of a lot of guiding principles for goal setting out there none have obtained as much acceptance or positive results as SMART goals. So it makes sense that we be SMART when setting our goals.  

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S: Specific. So you know exactly what you want to achieve. 

I like to think of it like a movie. What am I wearing, who am I with, what does it feel like? 

1. This can get us really excited and motivated. 
2. It’s really helpful. The more we know about what the goal looks like, the more we also know what it doesn’t look like, making it harder for those pesky roadblocks to pull us off track. 

M: Measurable. So you can set benchmarks, see progress and know when you achieve it. 

We’re taking specific to the next level here. Identifying a baseline can be very helpful as well in seeing positive changes and identifying progress. 

For example: 

-I exercise 1x per week currently and I’d like to increase this to 3x per week. 

-I currently spend about 10% of my week thinking about getting a new job, I’m going to slowly get this to 40% to include research and actions, resulting in job obtainment. 

A: Attainable/Action Oriented. So we can actually attain the goal we set for ourselves. 

Actually attaining our goals, I know novel thought right. And Action Oriented, requiring us to identify action steps that will help us reach our benchmarks and ultimately our goals. 

Only after we are specific in what our goals are and have ensured that those specific goals are measurable, then we can identify and set specific action steps towards reaching our goals. 

R: Relevant/Realistic. So our goals are achievable and actually make sense for us. 

Sure I want to be a millionaire, who doesn’t? But wanting it within the next week is probably not going to happen. If I set unrealistic goals for myself, I’ll keep failing and then I’ll stop trying because failing over and over and apparently without learning from it is no fun. 

If we start setting realistic goals for ourselves the likelihood of achieving them massively increases. It’s important to acknowledge that we will fail at something at some point so being realistic about that too is important. However, if we are realistic with our goals and acknowledge that we may not succeed the first time this will help us to keep trying and not throw in the towel too early. 

T: Timely/Time bound. So we have a dead line. 

Setting deadlines for our goals gives us a sense of urgency and helps us to take action. Setting timeframes to reach benchmarks along the way is also really important for this reason. I mean come on we’ve all heard of procrastination. 

If we can identify specific and measurable realistic goals while setting actionable steps in a realistic timeline we can and will achieve the goal (theoretically). 

Sometimes life though am I right? Don’t be too hard on yourself if it doesn’t happen the first or even second time. Failure is actually good in the SMART goal equation, because it helps us to identify what is not working and adjust our SMART goal steps and in turn increasing our chances of success on the next go around. 

Now try it for yourself. 

Look at the goals you have identified for yourself and ask yourself are they SMART? If not, adjust the goal to be a SMART one. 

Once your goals are SMART you will not only have a much clearer picture of exactly what your goals are, you will also know how to achieve them. 

If you think we may be able to help you to start identifying, setting and reaching your SMART Goals, please always feel free to CONTACT US You can also reach out via phone or email to schedule your free 15 minute phone consult or just go ahead and schedule something HERE. 

With appreciation and love, 

Victoria