SMART Goal Setting: The Basics

Hi again friends!

I Secreted last week that my goal is to buy a house in the next 12-18 months. And part of that goal is setting lots of smaller, SMART goals. I started to write a whole post about the goals that I created for myself in the process of buying a house, but then I got an idea.

Going into this move I’ve got a lot of things that I want to accomplish. I always have a lot of things I want to accomplish, but moving to a new city is a really great catalyst for change, so I’m harnessing it. And luckily for all of you wonderful people, I’m taking you along for the ride and turning my goal setting into a series. This is the first installment.

SMART Goal Setting: The Basics

A SMART goal is one that is Specific, Meaningful and Measurable, Action-Oriented, Realistic, and Timely. If you ask me, a wish, a plan, a hope is nothing if it’s not SMART.

So let’s run through how SMART goals work and how they differ from just making a regular goal. For this example, let’s say your goal is to lose weight. (It is January, after all.)

You make the goal of losing weight. You do some things to work towards this goal. You may or may not lose weight. The end.

A SMART version of that goal looks like this:

Specific: You want to lose 10 pounds.

Meaningful: Your doctor says your weight puts you at risk for diabetes and you want to avoid that.

Measurable: Pounds are a unit of measurement, so that’s easy.

Action-oriented: You are going to workout 3/week for one hour. You are going to eat 5 servings of veggies/day.  (Measurable steps!)

Realistic: 10 pounds is not 100 pounds, so it’s not too difficult, but it’s also not 2 pounds, so it is a challenge.

Timely: You want to lose this weight in 10 weeks and you will check in on your progress every other week. That gives you a deadline and set times for progress checks.

 You follow this plan and at the end of the 10 weeks you see how much weight you lost. The end.

At the end of both scenarios, your success is not a given. Success is never a given, no matter how badly you want it, but you know that since you’re still reading. But SMART goals give you a fighting chance, because they give you a few tools. (I refuse to use the phrase “setting yourself up for success” because this is not some bullshit seminar about how to fill out college applications.)

-Planning and forethought. A lot of times we jump into a goal because it’s something we want, but without really examining it. The process of setting up your SMART goal forces you to think through things, identify obstacles before they arise, and really dig deep to see if you are motivated enough to achieve this goal.

-Manageable chunks. Most goals, at least the ones on my list right now, are huge and scary and overwhelming. So rather than sitting here blankly, trying to evaluate every move before I make it to see how it will effect my ultimate goal, I divide these big goals into chunks, each with their own game plan.

-Motivation. Maybe this is a sign of a personality flaw, but I have a hard time with motivating myself when I’m working towards a big or long-range goal. Each step is so small and the goal is so big that it can feel like I’m not moving forward. So having a clearly laid out plan with regular check points, or a bunch of goal chunks, gives me the opportunity for lots of small victories that keep me motivated to reach the next small victory.

So now you have the basics of why and how to set SMART goals. I’m working on a few more posts about setting up my goals, so let me know if you have any questions about SMART goals.

Cheers, Kara