Setting SMART Goals
SMART goal setting is a powerful tool to help us get everything we want in life. The act of setting goals provides us with focus, and it shapes our dreams. It provides us with the ability to determine the exact actions we need to perform to achieve everything we want in life.
We all need powerful, long-term goals to help us get past the short-term obstacles that life often throws at us. The more powerful our goals are, the more we can act on and guarantee we will be able to achieve them. One of the best ways to create powerful, long-lasting goals is to make sure you create SMART goals.
When setting goals, they need to be SMART, which means they need to be:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
And Have a Timeline
Setting SMART goals will ensure that you have the tools you need to achieve them and that you are successful in reaching them.
Everyone wants to make a difference in their lives and accomplish something big. When you set powerful goals, you can increase your chances of getting everything you have ever wanted in your life. By sticking with your goals, you will be one step closer to being the person that you always wanted to be.
Top Tips for Setting SMART Goals
Evaluate and Reflect
The only way for you to decide what you want in the future and how you’ll get there is for you to know where you are right now and what your current level of satisfaction with your life is. First, you’ll need to take some time to think through your current situation, and then ask whether you’re okay with it or not. Evaluating your current situation gives you an objective way to look at all you’ve accomplished, and it shows you where you are currently, so you can determine where you need to go.
Define Your Goals and Dreams
One of the great things that we've been given is the desire to dream of a better life and the ability to set goals to live out those dreams. Everyone has dreams. They may be right on the surface, or they might be buried deep down inside of you. Take the time to be quiet and reflect on your dreams and determine how you can accomplish them.
Have Accountability
When you share your dreams and goals with others, they have the power to hold you accountable by asking you to keep them updated on your progress. Accountability helps to put some teeth into the process. A goal isn’t as powerful if you don’t have at least one other person who can hold you accountable.
How to Achieve Any Goal that You Set
There is a big difference between setting goals and achieving them. When it comes to setting goals, many of us continue to rely on hope, but to actually accomplish the goals that we've set for ourselves, we need to create a solid plan for success. Here are five simple steps that you can take to achieve any goal you set for yourself.
Step #1 – Make it Smaller
You have to start out big when first envisioning your goal. However, if you want any chance of achieving your goals, you have to transform the big goals, into smaller goals. By setting small goal benchmarks to work toward, the larger goal you've set becomes more achievable because you've created smaller, more manageable steps.
Step #2 – Make it Reasonable
A good goal should stretch you to the edge of your comfort zone, but not freely cross over into fiction. Everybody would love to make a million dollars this year, but it that number isn't one that you can truly wrap your brain around, you'll have to start with a number that stretches you but one that is still believable. Creating smaller, more realistic goals feeds into step one of breaking big ideas into smaller actions.
Step #3 – Make it Known
To achieve your goals, you need to have the right support on the journey. You want to tell those people who are supportive and involved in your success with your goal. They need to have the ability to bolster you when you face challenges. By verbalizing your goal, you also hold yourself more accountable to the goals, helping you reach them.
Step #4 – Make it Trackable
When goals are broken down into smaller benchmarks, it helps to create action plans into smaller events that eventually will have a cumulative effect on the big picture. This is an excellent tactic to help you put some measurements and metrics into the task. Tracking your progress will allow you to see how your overall goal is progressing against each small milestone that you've set.
Step #5 – Make it Fun
Figure out a way to celebrate your victories. Make tracking the progress you make toward your goals fun and meaningful. The more fun you have, the more successful you’ll be in achieving your goals.
The purpose of setting goals isn't merely to achieve them; it's about what you learn throughout the journey. Learn to enjoy not just the destination but also the process of how you get there.
SMART Goal Examples
You can create SMART goals for your personal and professional life, relationships, health, and much more. If you're not sure where to start, I recommend figuring out a habit or two that you can set smart goal(s) around. Here are some varied examples:
I plan to sell 40 products in one month on my blog/platform.
I will walk for 30 minutes after dinner.
I want to lose 5 pounds over the next two months through healthy eating and exercise.
I will do 50 push-ups a day every day for the next month.
I plan to exercise for 45 minutes each day, four days a week by end-December.
I will get a job as a high school English teacher within three months of graduating college.
I will earn a promotion to senior customer service representative by completing the required training and applying for the role before the end of March.
SMART Goal Template
TEMPLATE: "I will [your goal here] by [how you will do the goal]. I will know I am making progress because [how you will measure the goal] for [time goes here]."
A perfect SMART goal template is one that is easy to grasp and flexible enough for tweaks. It should be such that it does not intimidate and should rather educate. The best SMART goal is one that is well thought-out and would truly make an impact toward the bigger goals in your life. The worksheet and flowchart linked below are great tools to get you started!
Click below for a FREE SMART goal-setting worksheet and flowchart that will help you plan your smart goal(s) well for effortless execution.
Tips for Improving Your Time Management Skills
With today's hectic 24/7 lifestyle, we are busier than we've ever been. We talk too fast, and we're always in a rush. We start things that we never finish and are constantly nagged by the thought that we've forgotten to do something. We've filled our lives with time-saving devices in the hopes that will free up our time, only to fill it again with more work, activities, and tasks. All of this is adding to our stress and affecting our health. Here are several tips to help you improve your time management. If you really want to hone your time management skills, consider making a SMART Goal for Time Management!
Create a Time Diary
Take the week and plot out what you do every day. Be honest with your entries. You need to be sure to include everything from the time you spend in the car, to how long you take to eat, to how much time you spend watching T.V. if you don’t know what you are currently doing with your time, you will have no way to make intelligent decisions about how to use your time more effectively.
Learn to Say No
If someone asks you to do something that you really don’t have time to do, politely, but firmly tell them no, and don’t feel guilty about it. One reason why we feel like we are busy all the time is that we don't know how to set personal boundaries effectively. Part of declining to do things is so you have more time to focus on your goals.
Create a Time-Based To-Do List
When you are creating your to-do list, you need to include exactly how much time you expect to spend on each task. When you add how much time it should take to complete a task, it can help you prioritize how to go about accomplishing those tasks. When you prioritize tasks, you tend to focus on those that you can quickly achieve.
Reward Yourself
Don’t let the progress you make, no matter how small, go unrewarded. It doesn't have to be a large reward, but it is important to acknowledge your progress and enjoy your success. Use your time diary to make decisions about how you want to organize and use your time better. As you make progress with prioritizing and saying no, let yourself enjoy your progress.
Learning how to manage your time better will help you reduce the stress in your life. It will also help you find the time to work toward achieving your goals and living the life you've always wanted.
Achieve Your Goals with These Time Management Tips
One of the most useful skills that you can develop in your life is effective and powerful time management skills. If you're not able to manage your time well, there is no way you are going to reach your goals in life. The truth of the matter is that time is the great equalizer of life. It doesn't matter who you are or what you do; you have the same amount of time as the next person. If you’re serious about accomplishing your goals, you need to get serious about learning to manage your time. Here are several tips to help you manage your time so you can achieve your goals.
Set Your Goals the Right Way
You probably didn't know that there is a right way and a wrong way to set goals. If you don't set your goals the right way, you'll end up lacking the proper targets, which will cause you to fall off track. However, when you set them the right way, you are better able to see things through and make sure that you have a compelling reason for wanting to achieve them.
Find a Good System for Managing Your Time
If you want to be successful in managing your time, you have to find the right system to do it. The quadrant time-management system is one of the most effective, as it splits your activities into four quadrants based on their urgency and importance. Your tasks are either urgent, important, both, or neither. You want to focus on the not-urgent-but-important quadrant while staying away from the, neither quadrant.
Instill Keystone Habits into Your Life
Keystone habits are those that not only solicit other good habits but help you to eliminate bad habits too. Focus your time and energy on keystone habits, and you'll start to get much better at managing your time overall by making your habit development process much more manageable.
Eliminate Bad Habits
Our bad habits are one of the biggest time-wasters in our lives. Whether it's binge-watching your favorite T.V. show, playing games, or going out to drink with your friends, those habits will eat up your precious time. Use your time wisely by dropping your bad habits, if you're serious about achieving your goals.
By implementing these time management techniques into your day, you can improve your time management skills and boost your productivity so that you can achieve your goals.
Click below for a FREE SMART goal -setting worksheet and flowchart that will help you plan your smart goal(s) well for effortless execution.