SMART Goals
There is something special in the air when it is time to go back to school. Maybe it is the smell of new paper and books, the mounds of school supplies in the stores, or the thought that fall is around the corner. Back to school is a time of fresh starts and new beginnings. With that comes new goals!
There are two times of year that people often make and start new goals, the new year and back to school. I personally love back-to-school goals over new year’s resolutions. They seem less strict and less forced. New Year’s goals seem like you have to make them just because. Did you know that most people get away from their New Year’s Resolutions before the end of February? I don’t like that pressure and that is a terrible statistic!
What’s in a goal?
In honor of back-to-school time let’s talk about making new goals. What is the point of a goal if you aren’t going to achieve it? If you need to get in the goal-setting mood you can probably find some really cool pens and notebooks on sale in the back-to-school displays at your local store.
Have you ever set a goal that you didn’t achieve? I know I have and I’m sure you have too. Sometimes we have really lofty goals that require a lot of effort. It can be easy to get discouraged and give up on our goals. Life is busy and often we have many demands on our time and energy. There are a few simple ways to make goals that you can actually achieve!
I always imagine driving down a deserted dusty desert road. On the sides of the road, you occasionally see a tumbleweed blowing in the hot desert heat. Those are our abandoned goals. No more tumbleweeds! Let’s make some S.M.A.R.T. goals.
No, I didn’t make that up, there are really goals called S.M.A.R.T. goals. That doesn’t mean you are a smarty pants or one smart cookie.
Specific
To start we are going to make SPECIFIC goals. Health-related goals are usually the easiest to talk about. You might have a goal to “get healthy”. What is healthy? What does that actually mean to you? Maybe it means to exercise more or to eat healthier or to lose weight. Those still aren’t specific enough. Make your goals as specific as possible. Try instead if you want to lower your blood pressure to 120/80 or you want to lose 10 pounds or you want to go down 1 pants size.
Specific goals are a lot easier to work towards because you truly know what you are going after!
Measurable
Now that you have a specific goal in mind, we need to ensure that it is measurable. If we are sticking with our getting healthy goal how do we measure this? You might be able to measure your cholesterol if your doctor orders a blood test. You can easily measure your blood pressure at home or at the drug store. If you have a scale you can measure your weight or measure the inches you have lost from your waist. Maybe your goal was to work out more. How would you measure that? You could perhaps measure the minutes per week you spend working out or the number of days you work out per week.
Selecting a goal that you can measure is a great way to help you stay on task. It is easy for you to see if you are making progress or if perhaps you need to put in a little more effort into the process.
Actionable
What is actionable? Actionable means that YOU can actually do something to make a difference. Maybe your goal has to do with your happiness. More specifically you want to be happier at work. In order to make that measurable you have created a 1-10 happiness scale that you answer every day to keep track of your happiness. Now if part of your goal is that your co-workers will be nice to you and that you won’t have to stay after work late, would that be actionable? Do you have control over your coworkers and the amount of time you spend at work?
Sometimes in life, we don’t have control over everything. Oh, how I wish I did!!! As the old song goes it is important to know what you can control and let go of the rest. This applies to our goals as well. We need to only set goals that we actually have control over.
Relevant
This one seems obvious as well. Of course, our goal should be relevant. You would be amazed at how much effort and work you put forth on things that are not relevant. Some questions to ask yourself. Is this important to me? Will it matter in a month? How about in a year? Will it matter in 5 years? Is it worth the effort required to obtain it?
I think it would be really cool to be an astrophysicist. My goal can be specific, graduate with a degree in astrophysics. I can even measure it by keeping track of my grades in the classes I would take. But if I sit down and ask myself does becoming an astrophysicist have anything to do with being a counselor? Absolutely not! Do I want to change careers? Not likely. Is all of the studying and money for another degree worth the effort? Probably not at this point in my life.
It is important that we make sure our goals actually meet our needs and are worth our effort.
Time-bound
Last but not least we need to ensure our goals are time bound. This means that we have a deadline. Are you one of those people that is a procrastinator and gets things done right at the very last second or do you work ahead? I personally like to get things checked off my to-do list and then I feel so great later when I don’t have to mess with them. Most people usually have a tendency to push things off to the last second. This is one reason we need time-bound goals.
The other reason for time-bound goals is so that we actually accomplish them. Maybe my goal is that I want to lose 10 pounds. This is an excellent specific, measurable, actionable, and relevant goal for me. If I put no timetable on it, then how will I ever get it done? Maybe I will lose 10 lbs in 50 years when I decide I don’t really like eating anymore. Or maybe I will think oh I will do that next year or next month or after the holidays.
Instead, I will say that I want to lose 10 pounds in 10 weeks. That gives me a measurable time frame and an end date for my goal. I am also able to break it down along the way to see if I will be meeting my goal. Am I working hard enough? Do I need to change my strategy? Broken down my goal is simply that I want to lose 1 pound every week for the next 10 weeks.
Life Happens
This is a great way to keep me on track. Remember that you are human and life happens. Sometimes our priorities change and our needs change. While your goal is written out to help you achieve it, it is not written in stone. It can easily be changed and adjusted. You are the author of your goal. That means you have the ability to change it at any time.
I would love to hear what some of your goals are and your plans to achieve them, comment below!
Are you adding your goals to your to-do list? Check out this post, What to do about your to-do’s.
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