S.M.A.R.T Goals

"I want to improve" 

That's a very broad statement, not a very smart goal. It's like saying I want more money.

Let's talk about S.M.A.R.T Goals

I set SMART goals all the time. Whether it's for a personal reason, or for a professional reason, it is so important to set smart goals.

Do you know what a SMART goal is?

Is that goal hard to reach? 

It's not usually a lack of effort, it has more to do with a lack of structure. Structure in how you actually set those goals. When you're setting your goals, think about the acronym S.M.A.R.T. 

A SMART goal is specific thing, it is measurable, it is attainable, and actionable. It is realistic and relevant, and it is also time bound.

Alright, so I'll go into each of these little letters and what they need. Let's think about actually setting a goal.  These letters will make your goal more achievable, rather than broad statements. So for example,

"I want to lose weight."

"I want to get more healthy."

"Oh, I want to lose 10kgs"

Isn't that more specific than "I want to lose weight?"

Anyone can lose weight, but how much do you want to lose?

S=specific.

A goal is harder to reach if you don't make it specific.

Let's look at  the five W's?

Who, what, when, where, and why, do you want to set these goals.

For example, if you say, "I want to be rich."

What is rich? Rich, for me, is different to what rich is for you. What is rich for you?

If you make it more specific, like "I want to have $5 million in my bank account. By the time I'm 50 so that I can retire."

That is specific.

If you make it vague and open ended you will never hit your goals.

M=measurable.

There are a  couple of things that you need to look at in regards to the M.

It has to end with a true or false, a yes or no, or a number.

If you look at something...have I achieved it? Yes or no? Or will I get there? Or is it true or false? Or is it a number like five? I want to lose at least five kilos in 10 weeks. 

So you've given yourself a number. So that's where measurable, measurable comes in. Is  it either true or false? Yes, or no? Are you able to assign a number to it? That has to be part of your goal.

A=attainable.

The next letter A in smart is attainable, actionable. So is it attainable? 

What you want to do is look at the step by step actions that you need to take to get you to your goal.

For example, if you want to be rich, what actions do you need to take to earn your $5 million or save your $5 million? If it's huge, you need to then break that down into smaller baby steps. 

“In the next six months I want to have 20 new customers that will be generating x amount of income within 12 months and I'll have enough to be covering what I need.”

If you want to lose five kilos in 10 weeks, is it attainable? What kind of actions do you need to take?

I need to be walking five hours a day.  I need to go to gym. I need to eat healthy, I need to fast. 

Whatever it is, it needs to be an attainable goal and you to be able to actually do it.

If you have to climb a mountain and you're scared of  heights, then it's not attainable because it's not an action that you can do to achieve that goal.

R=realistic.

It's got to be real, it's got to be relevant to where you are right now. 

Say you want to retire by the time you're 50. But then your goal is to buy a Porsche. That's a good goal. But is it relevant if you want to retiree by the time your 50? Having $5 million in the bank. That is realistic and will help you retire.

Think about the actual items that you want relevant to the end goal.

T=Time.

Time bound. Pretty much is what it says it is time bound. It has an end date. For example, if you were to run in a marathon until you win.

You're running right now and you pass a check point. Have you won? You don't know. You pass another check point and if you haven't like me, like I'm still running, have I won?

But if you run a marathon and you want to be the first to cross the line within X amount of time.

You have got to be specific, it's got to be measurable.

Specific, I want to run 5 kilometres, I want to come first and finish within a certain time.

It has to be attainable. What actions are you going to take?

Are you going to train three days a week or five days a week?

You need to be able to break that goal into small steps to get you to your goals.

Your goal is to break it down.

You don't want goals to be an event. An event kind of happens but there is no ending.

You want your goals to be something that you take action and then you evaluate and then you revise that.

You don't want to lower your goals to make them so achievable that it's easy.

A goal is making you get out of your comfort zone. You need to push yourself to get ahead.

It needs to be relevant to what you want in the future. Your goals also need to be flexible.

Not everything goes to plan.

Things change. You never know what's going to happen this week to the next.

If you quit, nothing goes forward. You need to focus on moving forward, putting yourself out of that comfort zone and also being okay if it doesn't all go to plan.

If everything went to plan it would be so easy. But not everything goes to plan.

Everybody has dreams, every single person has dreams that they want to achieve. And a lot of the time the words they use are like "someday I will somehow get to travel around the world."

"One day I will be able to afford any house".

What is that going to do to you? You cannot wish and dream. Things are not going to happen. You need to turn those dreams to goals. You need to get your head out of the clouds and you need to stop wishing. And you need to start taking action.

Set your goals, then take action. And then allow yourself to re-evaluate and reset those goals. 

If you're not quite on track. Don't pull yourself down and quit. Get it done, just get it done! And then re-evaluate, review and try again. Because you'll never move forward.

Today's words of wisdom. Make sure you set SMART goals. 

Take action.

But then don't pull yourself down if it doesn't happen. Get on back up, re-evaluate and set those goals again.

Even if you don't hit that goal that you set, when you look back, you will be in a better position than where you were if you never set that goal.

What are your goals?

Leave a comment below and let us know.

... and remember,

"Never let anyone dull your sparkle".

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