They say that writing down your goals will significantly increase your chances of achieving them but if I wrote down that I want to become a millionaire overnight, I still think my chances are pretty slim. That is exactly what this blog post is about: setting achievable goals you can actually accomplish. (A much more effective method than just writing them down, I’d say.)
I want to introduce you to SMART objectives – a method of constructing goals so that they are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound.
Goals of this nature can be used both in your business and personal life to make sure you achieve everything you want to. Let me explain how.
What does SMART stand for?
There are a lot of variations of the term SMART but from personal experience using it and through my university course, I’ve found these definitions to be the most useful.
S – Specific
Being specific is all about making sure your goals are clear and well defined. When you write them down, you need to be able to know exactly what the goal is about and what you need to achieve.
M – Measurable
This is all about making sure you know when you have achieved your goal. This could be buy using quantities or a clear achievement such as achieving a qualification or a certain number of social media followers.
A – Achievable
This is arguably one of the most important factors of any goal – it needs to achievable. Don’t set yourself up for failure by aiming towards something that is unlikely to happen. Is there a genuine way you can achieve this goal or are you restricted by anything? This could be other commitments or finances for example.
R – Relevant
Relevancy is another key factor when it comes to choosing your goals. You need to understand if it is worth the hard work for you or your organisation. There is no point aiming towards something that is outdated or doesn’t fit in with your overall business objectives.
T – Time Bound
Lastly is the need for your objectives to be time bound. You need to set a date to achieve the goal by so you have a motivation to complete the goal. Is it a short term goal to be completed by the end of the week or is it a longer term goal that will be harder to achieve and so needs to be done by the end of the year?
How can SMART objectives help you achieve success?
So now you know the basis of forming SMART objectives but the reason they are so useful is because of the motivation they provide. Having clear, well defined and achievable goals gives you or your employees something to work towards.
If you are using SMART objectives in your personal life or educational career, like I do, they are excellent for keeping for keeping motivated and having something to work towards. The time bound element is particularly useful for this because you can start planning and working towards what you want to achieve with an end date in mind.
If you are an organisation on the other hand, they can be especially useful for measuring success. If you know that a goal has been met (or hasn’t), you have a clear idea of what your company is achieving and what you need to do moving forward. This could be adjusting future goals to be more challenging or keeping them up to date so your employees continue to strive and achieve something in line with your overall business objectives.
Examples of SMART objectives
For the sake of clarity, I thought a few examples of SMART objectives would be useful when constructing your own.
Instead of new years resolutions, I personally have a list of new years SMART objectives (genius, I know.) Two examples of my 8 goals are:
I will have completed Google Digital Garage by 15/2/2019.
I will start a year in industry placement by September 2019.
If you are a business on the other hand, your SMART goals could sound more like:
To have 30% of all customers leave a positive rating on Trip Advisor between January 2019 – December 2019.
To double our like-for-like sales in June 2019 compared to June 2018.
Hopefully you have found this post interesting and I would love it if you went and created some SMART goals of your own or perhaps adjust some of your old goals to be more SMART.
Leave me a comment if you have any questions and I hope you have a good day.
