SMART Goals

Happy New Year to our readers. I hope that you had a restful festive season. Our blog today is about goals.

Cambridge Dictionary defines a goal as "the act of stating clearly what you want to achieve".

Oxford Dictionary defines a goal as the object of a person's ambition or effort, an aim or desired result.

It is important to start the year with the clarity of what you want to achieve this year. Goals can be for your career, family, finances, health, basically all of life. Sometimes it can be overwhelming to create goals for all of life, but I learned to start small, I learned to start first in the areas I am struggling with and then move to the areas that I need improvement in.

George T. Doran came up with the concept of SMART goals, the concept was outlined in 1981. And we will be exploring the principles and lessons of SMART goals. Doran’s method was originally used in management and the concept has since been applied to other areas.

SMART goals

Table copied from Tability website.

1.        Specific

·        Your goals need to be specific and clear. What exactly do you want to achieve by the end of the year? This year’s goals can also be a continuation of the goal that you want to continue with from last year.

2.        Measurable

·        If you cannot measure the progress of your goals, you are likely not to achieve the goal. Make sure that you have measures in place for the progress of your goals.

3.        Achievable

·        If your goal is impossible to achieve it might overwhelm you and discourage you from achieving it. If your goal is too small, it might also demotivate you from achieving it. Make sure that your goal is something you can achieve.

4.        Relevant

·        Your goals need to be relevant to the direction you are trying to take in life.

5. Time-bound.

·        Time is so important because if you don’t achieve your goals by the time you set, you can always reflect and restart with new lessons you learned from the first trial.

Enjoy your time with setting your goals and please let us know how you are doing with your goals.