SMART goals are designed to help you achieve your goals on track and to help you achieve the life that you want. SMART stands for: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely.
SMART goals can support you to create a step-by-step plan to achieve your goals.
Why You Might Give up on Your Goals
~ Fear of failure, change, or success
~ You are not specific about what you want.
~ You are not committed to achieving your goals
~ You lack determination, perseverance, motivation, or self-discipline
~ You let self-doubt override your desire to achieve.
~ You don’t have a step-by-step plan to achieve your goal
~ You have too many goals at one time
~ You feel unworthy of your goal
~ You procrastinate
~ You are not taking responsibility for achieving your goals
How to Set SMART Goals
SMART Goal #1: Be SPECIFIC
What exactly do you want to achieve in your life? Detail as much as you can about what you want to achieve.
Questions:
To help you to get more specific about what you want to achieve, you can use “W” Questions:
Who – Who is involved in this goal?
What – What do I want to accomplish?
Where – Where is the goal to be achieved?
SMART Goal #2: Your goal must be MEASURABLE
For a goal to be measurable means that you need to track the progress that you are making in achieving your goal.
If you don’t have a step-by-step plan on how you are going to achieve your goal, you won’t be able to measure your progress. You won’t know when you are straying from your plan or when you are procrastinating.
Question:
What will be the indicators of my progress towards my goal?
SMART Goal #3: Your goal must be ACHIEVABLE
Start with goals that you know are attainable. If your goal is very difficult to achieve or even impossible to achieve, you will set yourself up for failure. Start small, and climb the ladder to your bigger goals one rung at a time.
Also, if you are not committed to achieving your goal then it is unrealistic to expect that you will follow through. Even if you have the money and resources to achieve your goal, if you don’t have perseverance, motivation, or self-discipline then your goal is unachievable.
Question:
Will I be able to achieve the goal given the resources and tools that I have?
SMART Goal #4: Your goals must be RELEVANT
A goal is a dream that you want to realize for a particular meaningful reason. This is your "Big Why?"
Question:
Why is this goal important to achieve in my life right now?
SMART Goal #5: Have a TIME frame in which you must complete your goal
Setting a time frame will help you to stick to your guns and get it done. It is a good idea to have an “expiry date” on your goals so that there is an impetus to take daily steps to achieve them.
Setting a reasonable deadline for your goals will also help you to structure your daily steps better. Your plan of action will be clearer, and you can move on to new goals sooner.
Setting Small SMART Goals
The great thing about SMART goals is that you can break up a BIG DREAM into many small steps. In this way, every small step that you complete is an achievement. Each small achievement is a cause for celebration!
Breaking up a long-term BIG DREAM goal into smaller SMART goals will help to keep you motivated and inspired. You will be less likely to give up if you celebrate all the small victories along the way!
With love,
Shelley