SMART Goal Setting : Make Sure You See Success In Your Life

If you want to effectively progress in life, whether it be with work or personal objectives, you need to set goals. Goals help to give you something to strive for, a reason to wake up each morning and continue pushing onwards. Without them you will find yourself with a lack of motivation and no real sense of purpose.

Anyone can set goals, but to truly make them worthwhile and effective you need to make them SMART goals. Below are the characteristics of such goals.

Specific: This characteristic means that you set a definite goal that you are working towards. For example, instead of saying you want to ‘save for the future’, make a specific objective such as saving $100 each month from your paycheck. By having specificity you will have a clear understanding of what you need to do to accomplish your set goal.

Measurable: The next characteristic of a good goal is that it be measurable. This means that you can quantify it so you know when you have achieved your goal. A good example here is with weight loss. If you set a goal to lose 20 pounds, by simply stepping on the scale each week you will see how close you are coming to reaching this goal.

Attainable: Making sure that your goals are attainable is very important if you ever wish to have any luck satisfying them. If they aren’t then you are going to be left with feelings of defeat very early on in your action stage since you will feel you will never reach your goal.

Realistic: Another quality all goals must possess is that they are realistic. If you have just graduated university and expect yourself to have a full time career and a house of your own in one year you are mostly likely going to be disappointed. You need to assess your current situation and see what type of goal is appropriate for you. Remember that goals are a very individual thing and while your friend may be able to achieve one goal, this does not mean you will also be able to.

Timeframe: The last important quality that all goals much have is a timeline. It does not do any good to set a goal if you have no end point in sight. This will just lead to procrastination and you won’t really get anything accomplished. By having a set (but again realistic) date to achieve your goals by you will know how quickly you need to act and will be much more motivated to keep pursuing them on a daily basis. If you find that as you progress through your goal it is taking slightly longer then you thought, readjust the date but also consider your effort. If you can honestly say you are putting for a strong effort then this is perfectly fine. If you haven’t been though then it is most likely your fault that you are not keeping up with the date and you need to find a way to overcome whatever obstacles that are keeping you from reaching this goal.

So next time you set a goal make sure it has all of these characteristics. Even if it is lacking just one you will set yourself up for a decreased chance of success. With everything in place though, as long as you have a good action plan I know that your goal can be yours.