“If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or objects.”
-Albert Einstein
Personally Meaningful Goal + Deadline + Plan + Consistent Action = Fulfillment.
Today we are going to know about SMART goals and their importance in our everyday life. We will also learn about how to set up a SMART goal.
Definition of Goal:
Goal is a place/position or a result that you want to achieve within a fixed timeframe.
This is how the dictionaries define goal. In reality, it is something that helps you to transform your dreams into reality. Literally, it is the driving force of life. It gives us short-term motivation and life directions for long-term vision by boosting our motivation and self-confidence. Consequently, there has been so much discussion concerning setting or achieving a goal, etc.
Goals can be as simple as playing guitar, being a photographer, doing good in a class test or winning a competition and as difficult, as it sounds, starting up a company, maintaining a healthy lifestyle, learning a foreign language, or scoring 8.9 (out of 9) in IELTS.
Therefore, the KEY POINTS are:
- An aim/purpose or the desired result.
- A fixed timeframe.
- The driving force of life.
What is a SMART Goal:
A SMART goal is a goal set according to the SMART criteria. SMART is an acronym that helps you bring structure and reasonableness into your goals and objective. In other words, applying SMART is a smart move in setting a goal. SMART gives criteria to guide in setting up a goal.
The further discussion ahead will give you a clear idea about SMART goals.
How to Set Up a SMART Goal?
If you break down SMART Goals, it becomes easy to set up a SMART goal. That is what we are going to do in this segment.
Is my goal attainable?
Is it reasonable?
Are my objects certain?
Are my milestones clear?
A SMART goal answers all these questions. It helps you bring down your goal close to reality.
SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely. Now I’m going to describe SMART goal using the goal of ‘Travelling all the countries of Europe’.
Specific :
What exactly do you want? You must know what you are trying to achieve. Therefore, it must be specific, well-defined, unequivocal, and unambiguous. The goal of ‘Travelling all the countries of Europe’ is very well-defined. You know exactly what you want.
Measurable:
Can you easily determine your progress towards the goal? You must be able to measure your progress. There must be some specific criteria that measure your progress towards the achievement of your goal. For instance, your ultimate target is to travel to all the countries of Europe. So you know how many countries are there in Europe. When you visit one-third of the countries, you know how much progress you made. You have to go for two-third to achieve your ultimate target. So it’s measurable.
Attainable:
Are you able to put in the efforts required? Is it achievable and realistic? Your goal must be attainable and not impossible to achieve. Otherwise, if you don’t believe it attainable, you yourself will be demotivated and there will be no ultimate target actually. Back to the mentioned goal, traveling all the countries, if you have enough resources, is attainable.
Relevant:
Is it relevant to your beliefs and interest? Does it excite you? Your goal must have bearing with your belief and interest. It must excite you. If it is relevant to your life purpose you will feel motivated and achieve it easily. You like traveling since your childhood, so the goal of ‘traveling all the countries of Europe’ is relevant for you.
Timely/Time-Based:
Do you have a clear deadline? Because without a deadline, you have no goal.
Goal (No Deadline) = Aim or Dream.
Goal + Deadline = Objectives.
You must have a starting date and a target date. Without a deadline, it will just float out in space. So you want to travel to all the countries before you turn 45 (years). Actually applying SMART helps you not to overrate your goal, and move towards it efficiently.
So why waiting? Set up a SMART goal right away… If possible share your experience concerning SMART goals with us in the comment section.
