Are you setting Smart Goals?

Are you setting smart goals?

It often happens that we set unrealistic goals which we won’t achieve and that leads to disappointment and lack of interest to continue pursing those goals. One of the valuable lessons that I learned during my life coach training, was that it is important to set realistic and achievable goals, within a realistic timeframe. The first time, I heard about “Smart Goals,” was during my training at the Life Purpose Institute. We were taught to encourage the coaching clients to set smart goals. Here is the definition of smart goals:

S: specific

M: measurable

A: achievable

R: realistic

T: time-limited

Specific: it is important to be specific about the goal we’re trying to reach as sometimes without knowing it, we might have a vague idea of what we want and in order to achieve the goal, it must be very specific. For instance, if I say that I want to get into better physical shape, I should think about what that means to me. Does it mean to lose weight? If so, how many pounds do I want to lose? Or do I want to gain more muscle? While it sounds simple, it is important to know exactly what it is that we want.

Achievable: the goal must be achievable, otherwise it will lead to failure and disappointment. For example, if I decided to lose 20 pounds within the next six days, it wouldn’t be achievable.

Realistic: the goal should be realistic which is similar to the previous rule. While it is important to be optimistic and believe in possibilities, there are certain goals that are just not realistic.

Time-limited: time plays an important role in goal-setting because if we don’t have a timeframe in mind, we might not have the sense of urgency to get the necessary tasks done and get to where we want to be.

A lot of us have the “all or nothing” approach, which either involves a lot of work for a short period of time or nothing at all, but I hope that these small rules can be helpful with your future projects and setting realistic goals that lead to success.