what are smart goals?
Every one of us has ambitions and dreams.
Even young kids have dreams. I remember when I was a little girl, I wanted to become an astronaut. According to neuroscientist J. Allan Hobson by the age of 70 most people has spend 6 years of their lives dreaming. We all have wishes or ideas of the future and who we would like to be or achieve. However, when we get older and know ourselves better, we are better equipped to achieve our dreams, but why do we not achieve them? Is it lack a plan or lack of commitment?
In this blog I am going to share with you one of the secrets on how to set and achieve your goals.
Let us first start defining What is a goal?
According to the Cambridge English dictionary a goal is an aim or purpose. The word purpose means the reason for which something is done or created. The purpose is the reason and why we strive to make an effort. One of the main reasons we cannot be consistent with out goals is because we are lacking a good purpose or motivation for doing it. For instance, if we strive to lose weight just because we want to look better than others then sooner or later, we will find out that we will lack the motivation to keep exercising. But if your motivation is to stay healthy and live longer to see your kids grow your strength will be bigger. And we need strength to accomplish the goal.
But before you start designing your plan you need to ask yourself these questions:
Why is this goal important to me? What is your schedule? What is your budget? What else should I consider?
When SMART goals can be successful?
When they are Specific, Measurable, Action-Oriented, Realistic and Time-bound
Specific:
If you make your goals specific you will have better chances to achieve it. To help yourself with this step ask yourself:
How much time should I spend for doing it? How much should I eat or drink? For how long should I reflect?
For instance if you desire to lose weight you could say: 15 minutes of running, or 1 cup of vegetables, or 1.5 liter of water, 1 hour of reflection
How frequently should I exercise?
3 times a week, 1 time a day, Once a week
When will I start writing content?
I will start early in the morning, or after lunch
Where will I work on this goal?
Within my house, in my bedroom
Examples of blurred goals and specific goals:
BLURRED GOAL
I lose 10 pounds per week
I grow my business every day
SPECIFIC GOAL
I eat one full salad per day 3 times a week
I build daily 10 new connections with potential clients
Measurable:
The last goal is specific and measurable because there are specific numbers that can be measure by counting them.
Action-Orientated:
For instance, the previous goal of “I build daily 10 new connections with potential clients” is showing the action of making connections. The action is under 100% of my control and is orientated toward a result. Is important to remember that we cannot control other people’s actions only our own.
Realistic:
Our goals need to be achievable and sustainable otherwise we set ourselves to feel frustrated and in the long term we will not be motivated. We should also feel that they are important to us, and we need to have the resources for achieving them.
Time-bound:
We need to make sure that we are giving us enough time to achieve them. However, we need to specify the time frame and the deadline otherwise we will end up procrastinating.
At the end we should pull it all together and set short-term-medium terms and long-term goals so that we can see the big picture. Maybe we will notice that the goal was too challenging, and we may need to adjust it so that we can have more chances to be successful or more productive. However, we do not need to beat ourselves up if we don’t fully meet our goals. This is normal, most people get out of track sometimes. But we need to remind ourselves that this is normal and then turn to focus again on the task. If you still find this is still hard you may look for professional support on this area.
