Have you ever set goals and worked hard to achieve them, only to find yourself struggling with motivation?
It’s a common experience…
Many people struggle to achieve their goals. And it’s often not because we lack the knowledge or skills. But rather, it’s the type of goals we set and how we organize ourselves around them.
Working smart is just as important as working hard.
Meet SMART Goals: the acronym that can help you to set more effective goals.
What you will learn in this article is what SMART stands for, why it’s important for success, and how to set SMART goals yourself.
So let’s dive in!
What is a SMART goal?
George Doran, Arthur Miller, and James Cunningham, first introduced SMART goals in 1981 in an article titled: “There’s a S.M.A.R.T. Way to Write Management’s Goals and Objectives”.
The idea of this SMART framework is to help you set more effective goals by stating the objective in a clear and meaningful way. And the acronym serves as a mnemonic to help you do so.
Depending on who you ask, there are quite some variations of what the acronym SMART stands for. None necessarily better than the other. What matters most is your situation.
That said, here is the most common definition of SMART (+ a popular alternative):
- Specific (or simple)
- Measurable (or meaningful)
- Achievable (or assignable)
- Relevant (or realistic)
- Time-bound (or timely)
We will get more in detail on each of these in a minute. But let’s first take a short look at why SMART goal setting is important to achieve what you want.
Why are SMART goals important?
The purpose of goal setting is to clarify your objective, figure out how to move forward, and keep you focused along the way.
And just like the theory of goal-setting, the SMART framework helps you to do exactly that.
By following the SMART framework, you set Specific and thus clear goals. Measurability allows you to track progress and stay on track. Achievability and Relevance ensure that you stay motivated. And Time-bound creates a sense of urgency, which reduces procrastination.
In other words, remember the acronym SMART if you want to set more effective goals to boost your chance of success.
How to set SMART goals?
Goal setting is the process in which you plan for success. And to set the most effective goals, you need to keep the SMART framework in mind.
Let’s see exactly what that means.
1. Specific
The more specific your goal, the more focused your energy and efforts will be. This increases motivation and reduces the chance for you to become distracted.
Here are the two most important questions to get specific:
- What do you want to achieve?
- Why do you want to achieve it?
Understanding the what and why is essential for you to know if you want to stay consistent. If the answers don’t inspire you to take action, I urge you to take another look at your goals.
Other questions you may want to use are: who is involved, where will it take place, with what do you want to achieve it, which method do you want to use, and how do you want to realize it.
Example
Say you have the ambition to become a freelancer so that you can travel around the world. That is already clear, but it can be more specific.
For example, I want to become a freelance social media marketeer so that I have the freedom to travel around the world and live a more adventurous life.
2. Measurable
Making your goals measurable, helps you to stay motivated and focused. It also provides good feedback that you can use to make adjustments. And finally, it’s just exciting to see the progress that you make.
Here are some questions to think about:
- How many XX do you need to succeed?
- How much XX do you need to succeed?
- What will you need to do to achieve your goal?
Example
To make the travel goal measurable, you need to know how much you need to earn every year as a freelancer to fund your journey. For example, a revenue of 4K per month. You can then specify this number further into 6 clients of 1K per month, or 12 clients for $500 per month.
3. Achievable
It’s good to have big and audacious goals. But if you only set unrealistic goals, the first setback will inflict doubt and increase the chance of procrastination. Challenging yet realistic goals build the confidence that you need to succeed.
Here’s what you will need to consider:
- What are the steps you need to achieve this goal?
- Do you believe that you can make it happen?
- Do you have the tools and resources available to make it happen?
By assessing these questions beforehand, you are less likely to give up after you hit your first roadblock or setback. And if you set challenging goals, that will happen inevitably.
Example
If you want to become a freelance online marketeer, the question is if you have the skills and confidence to make it happen. If so, you’re good to seek some clients. If not, you need to keep in mind that you will have to develop these skills first.
4. Relevant
Your goals will only be effective if they are meaningful to you and the timing is right. To increase your chance of success, you also need to understand why it is important to you.
Ask yourself this:
- Is the goal meaningful to you?
- Is this the right moment to pursue this goal?
- Does the goal line up with your bigger dreams and ambitions?
Example
Pursuing a freelance digital marketing career does allow you to travel around the world. So that part of the equation looks good.
The other question you should ask yourself is if you enjoy marketing. Or do you just want to pursue it as a means to an end? If it is the latter, you might want to explore some alternatives.
5. Time-bound
Adding a deadline is a great way to fire yourself up because it creates a sense of urgency, which moves you into action.
And it just takes one simple question:
- By when do you want to achieve this goal?
Though the question is simple, you may wonder what the best time range is to set for yourself.
The answer: it depends on the goal.
If you want to learn a new skill, you may want to learn the basics within 3 months to create some urgency. But if you are still in college and want to become a millionaire, you want to give yourself more than 3 months to keep it realistic.
It’s a good idea to set big goals and then break them up into smaller chunks:
- Audacious life goals: stretching from 10-50+ years.
- Long-term goals: between 1 and 10 years.
- Short-term goals: between a month and a year.
- Micro-goals: on a daily or weekly basis.
If you have a long-term goal, it’s a good idea to break this up into smaller goals. At the very least, you want long- and short-term goals to create a crystal clear plan.
But only if you ensure that all these goals follow the SMART acronym of course.
Example
You already have the digital marketing skills but 0 clients of your own. You decide that your goal becomes to have 6 clients paying 1K each per month by the end of the year.
If that would be your long-term goal, your short-term one could be to get 1 client every 2 months. And as a micro goal, you want to reach out to five prospects every day.
SMART Goal Examples
You now understand what SMART stands for and why it is important. We also already covered one example while explaining how to set SMART goals.
Let’s look at some extra examples so that you get a good idea of how SMART works.
Example 1: Turning a side-hustle into a full-time income
Say you work in the Financial sector but want to pursue your passion in photography. You already have some followers on social media and you want to take it more seriously.
The goal is to quit your job and become a full-time photographer.
- Specific: you decide you want to focus on family portraits. And you also figured out that you will need to earn 4K in revenue per month to quit your job.
- Measurable: a family portrait package sells for $400 each, which means you will need to sell 10 of them each month.
- Achievable: you’re confident in your abilities to achieve this goal, and some people you know already do something similar.
- Relevant: photography is your passion, so it’s relevant to you.
- Time-bound: you decide that you want to quit your job within the next 12 months.
The final goal: to be able to sell 10 family portraits per month within the next 12 months so that you can quit your job.
Example 2: Losing weight
One of the most common new year’s resolutions is to lose weight. So let’s say that you want to get rid of some extra pounds.
- Specific: you want to lose 20 pounds and decide to work out 5 times per week for an hour.
- Measurable: you want it by summer, which starts in 5 months. This means you need to lose about 1 pound every week.
- Achievable: you have done this before and feel certain that you can achieve it.
- Relevant: yes, because you’re going on a singles trip this summer and you want to lose those pounds to boost your confidence a little.
- Time-bound: you have 5 months before the summer starts.
The final goal: to lose 1 pound per week for a total of 20 pounds within 5 months to look great for summer and the singles trip.
Example 3: Developing a new skill
Coding is a high-income skills and increasingly more in our lives. So you decide that you want to learn some code and test it by building a dashboard to keep track of your finances.
- Specific: you like the designing part of your dashboard and JavaScript seems to be the best programming language for you. You want to make a simple dashboard showing your income versus the expenses.
- Measurable: you found a complete course on building dashboards with Javascript, which has 24 different modules.
- Achievable: you did a couple of searches online to find out that this should be very achievable and you feel confident that you can.
- Relevant: you are very eager to learn this new skill, so yes!
- Time-bound: you want to do it within a year.
The final goal: Complete a dashboard of income versus expenses with JavaScript by finishing 24 modules of the course within the next 12 months.
Even SMARTER goals
Though less widely known than SMART, the SMARTER framework was built on top of it to include some extra reminders.
So what do the E and R stand for?
- Evaluate
- Revise
These additions to the acronym happen after the fact. This means that while SMART focuses on goal creation, the ER-part focuses on refining the goal as you go.
This is good to remember because you will not achieve all goals straight away. Life happens. And sometimes you need to learn from your mistakes and adjust your course.
By evaluating and revising your goals throughout the process, you can refine them to ensure that you stay focused and motivated.
So if you feel disconnected from your goal, make sure to look at the ER acronym so that you can work even SMARTER.
Closing Thoughts
Goal setting should clarify what you want and how to get there. And to make sure you set such effective goals, you should make use of the SMART acronym, which stands for:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Relevant
- Time-bound
SMART goals increase your chances of success. But you can make them even SMARTER by Evaluating your goals based on feedback and Revising them if necessary.
If you want a digital personal goal-setting planner that focuses on the SMART principle, then I highly recommend Goals on Track. Finally, if you want to gain cutting edge research, strategies, and tips, view these best goal-setting books.
And if you want someone to keep you accountable so that you can achieve your goals, make sure to sign up for the newsletter below!