Setting SMART Goals

It’s December, which means that January—a new year!—is around the corner. While you’re probably facing a full schedule with end-of-year activities, whether closing out business or holiday shopping or social and family activities (likely all of the above), give yourself a corner of your mind to start thinking about what you’d like to start fresh with in the New Year.

Here’s something to focus your thinking: start thinking about setting SMART goals.

The SMART approach to goal-setting may be something you already use in your professional life. Whether that is the case or not, in anticipation of a new year, put some thought into it for your personal life.

SMART stands for:

• Specific
  
• Measurable
  
• Achievable
  
• Realistic
  
• Time-Based
  

For example, if your goal is to lose weight in the new year, be sure not to leave it at that. If you’re overweight, “I want to lose weight” is certainly a good goal. It’s just that it could be SMARTer. Let’s make it SMART:

• Specific: Give it a number (e.g. 10 pounds)
  
• Measurable: This can be used in a mathematical formula (Specific + Time-based = Measurable), because anything that is specific and quantifiable, and that has a time-frame around it, can be measured ("lose 10 pounds by June 30" can be measured by getting on a scale on June 30)
  
• Achievable: Is it achievable for you, knowing yourself and your history?
  
• Realistic: Is it realistic, given the timeframe you’ve set and the other things going on in your life? (Some people have enough overlap with Achievable and Realistic that it’s worth it to them to shift the R word to Relevant, which also works—be sure the goal makes sense, given the larger context of your life and other priorities)
  
• Time-Based: Give it a deadline (June 30)
  

So…rather than “I want to lose weight,” the SMART goal becomes “I will lose 10 pounds by June 30.”

Remember the mathematical formula—Specific + Time-bound = Measurable. I can get on the scale on June 30 and see if I’ve achieved my goal. As far as Achievable and Realistic (or Relevant) go, that’s up to you and your wisdom—knowing yourself, knowing the context of your life. For example, if you know that you will be on a work project that will require travel and you can’t guarantee how much exercise you will be able to commit to, and you know that exercise is critical to your weight-loss, you may adjust your deadline accordingly.

The next step, once your specific goal is set, is to develop a plan for achieving it.

For this week, give yourself a corner of your mind to begin thinking about worthwhile goals for you for the new year. We’ll address how to create plans to achieve them in the coming weeks.