Are your goals S.M.A.R.T.?
No, seriously, are they? Too often, people come up with goals that seem on the surface to be a great thing to shoot for, but they never accomplish them?
Why? The reason is simple: their goals aren’t SMART!
Specific
Great goals are well-defined and focused, providing you with an end-point where you can confidently say, “yes, I’ve met this goal and can now move on to something else.”
Bad
Get more business.
Good
Acquire two new high-ticket clients.
Specificity has a deceptive amount of power over us. When we’re vague and wishy-washy, things tend not to get done. As soon as we have something to aim for, the power of focus kicks in and makes us more likely to accomplish what we want.
Measurable
Not only should you have a defined end-point, you also need a way to tell when you’ve actually made it to that end-point! That’s where the measurable condition comes in. The combination of a goal being specific and measurable means that you know exactly what to aim for and when you’ve met the conditions for success. The trick is to use concrete numbers whenever possible.
Bad
Go to the gym more.
Good
Make it to the gym at least three days each week.
Adding numbers to something makes it much easier to know if you’re progressing, standing still, or falling behind.
Achievable
Now that you know what you want and how to tell when you get there, you need to stop and think about whether or not your goal is something you can reasonably expect to achieve with any degree of certainty. Plenty of goals are both Specific and Measurable, but the likelihood of getting to them is too low to make them reasonable.
Bad
Increase current revenue from $100,000/year to $1 billion/year
Exercise twice per day, seven days a week
Good
Increase current revenue from $100,000/year to $150,000/year
Exercise 60 minutes on Monday, Wednesday, & Friday every week
Keep in mind that this is one of the most subjective parts of goal-setting, because it depends very heavily on your situation. A company that already has an annual net revenue of $1 million might realistically be able to add another $250,000 to that figure. A business that is netting $25,000 per year, however, is much less likely to be able to do the same.
Relevant
Just because you want something, can measure it, and are pretty sure it’s attainable doesn’t mean it’s relevant to your particular situation. Attainability is mostly centered on what you can do, while relevance is about what you should do.
Bad
Remodel your master bedroom, master bathroom, and garage with a budget that only covers one of those options.
Good
Choose your priority and remodel that room first.
Keep the goals that you set relevant to your situation and avoid the impact of “shiny syndrome”, constantly striving for things that don’t improve your life/career just because they seem new and shiny.
Timely / Time-delineated
Lastly, you need to consider the timeline for your goal. It’s going to be great to have the most specific, measurable, achievable, and relevant goal in the world but you’ll almost certainly fail if you don’t add in this last part: when will it be done?
Bad
Increase client revenue by 100%.
Good
Increase client revenue by 20% each quarter, with a goal of at least 70% total increase from January 1st to December 31st of this year.
While both the cited goals may be specific, measurable, achievable, and relevant, only the second one is SMART. And no one got to the top of the ladder just by being SMAR!
Closing
When you take the time to create SMART goals, you can accomplish a lot more than you think possible. Make it a habit to evaluate everything on your Goals list for these criteria, editing your goals until they hit the five points we’re looking for. Once that’s done, it’ll be a lot simpler to break down those goals into smaller tasks, each with their own measurable, timely outcomes. When you have a “To Do” list, all that’s left if to do it. (Yes, I loved that pun and I don’t apologize for it in the least!)