Do You Set SMART Goals?

A key part of achieving your goals rests in the goals themselves. They can’t be too lofty, or too simple, and it’s smart to give yourself reasonable deadlines. Here are some guidelines to follow as you create your strategic business plan:

         Specific
         Measurable
         Attainable
         Relevant
         Timely

Specific – A specific goal has a much greater chance of being accomplished than a general goal. Be precisely detailed.  Make sure the goal is specific to one item.  Use the categories of financial, production, career and personal as a way to keep focused specifically on what you want to achieve.

EXAMPLE:    A general goal would be “Make more money.”  A specific goal would be “Make $275,000 in net profit in this fiscal year.”

Measurable – Establish concrete criteria for measuring progress toward the attainment of each goal you set. When you measure your progress, you stay on track, reach your target dates, and experience the exhilaration of achievement that spurs you on to continued effort required to reach your goal.

To determine if your goal is measurable, ask questions such as……How much? How many? How will I know when it is accomplished?

Attainable – When you identify goals that are most important to you, you begin to figure out ways you can make them come true. You develop the attitudes, abilities, skills, and financial capacity to reach them. You begin seeing previously overlooked opportunities to bring yourself closer to the achievement of your goals.

You can attain most any goal you set when you plan your steps wisely and establish a time frame that allows you to carry out those steps. Goals that may have seemed far away and out of reach eventually move closer and become attainable, not because your goals shrink, but because you grow and expand to match them. When you list your goals you build your self-image. You see yourself as worthy of these goals, and develop the traits and personality that allow you to possess them.

Relevant – To be relevant, a goal must represent an objective toward which you are both willing and able to work. You will accomplish what you value most.  But be sure that every goal represents substantial progress. A high goal is frequently easier to reach than a low one because a low goal exerts low motivational force. Some of the hardest jobs you ever accomplished actually seem easy simply because they were a labor of love.  Your goal is probably relevant if you truly believe that it can be accomplished.

Time-Oriented – A goal should be grounded within a time frame. With no time frame tied to it there’s no sense of urgency. If you want to lose 10 lbs, when do you want to lose it by? “Someday” won’t work. But if you anchor it within a timeframe, “by May 1st”, then you’ve set your unconscious mind into motion to begin working on the goal.

Once goals are set you have a clear understanding of what you want, and your mind can wrap around it. It is then much easier to set a path to make those goals happen!