George T. Doran came up with a mnemonic to help you evaluate your goals. It is SMART. Each of the letters is meant to remind you of something to consider when making your goals:
S - Specific
M - Measurable
A - Attainable
R - Relevant
T - Time Bound
Specific - This means that the goal should be clear. You can ask the questions, Who? What? Where? & Why? to help you clarify the goal.
Measurable - This means that we should have some way to determine that we are getting closer to the goal and that the goal has been achieved. Usually this means associating a number with the goal. If your goal is "I want to be happy." You could try something like, "I will laugh, 3 times this week."
Attainable - This means that the goal is something that is reasonably in our reach. The irony is that harder goals are often easier to achieve than easy goals because they provider greater motivation. Be aware that there are goals that may be unlikely for you to achieve. For example, if your goal is "I want to be able to hold my breath for 1 hour underwater.", it might not be very attainable.
Relevant - This means that that goal should be about something important to you. Your goals should provide significant emotional response for you, when you think about and work towards them.
Timely - This means that the goal should have an end point. Try and find a way to limit your goals such that you can be motivated to take action now to achieve the deadline.
When I think about this, I realize that some of my goals are not following these criteria. I will review my goals and see how I can update them to be SMART.
How about your goals, are they SMART?
S - Specific
M - Measurable
A - Attainable
R - Relevant
T - Time Bound
Specific - This means that the goal should be clear. You can ask the questions, Who? What? Where? & Why? to help you clarify the goal.
Measurable - This means that we should have some way to determine that we are getting closer to the goal and that the goal has been achieved. Usually this means associating a number with the goal. If your goal is "I want to be happy." You could try something like, "I will laugh, 3 times this week."
Attainable - This means that the goal is something that is reasonably in our reach. The irony is that harder goals are often easier to achieve than easy goals because they provider greater motivation. Be aware that there are goals that may be unlikely for you to achieve. For example, if your goal is "I want to be able to hold my breath for 1 hour underwater.", it might not be very attainable.
Relevant - This means that that goal should be about something important to you. Your goals should provide significant emotional response for you, when you think about and work towards them.
Timely - This means that the goal should have an end point. Try and find a way to limit your goals such that you can be motivated to take action now to achieve the deadline.
When I think about this, I realize that some of my goals are not following these criteria. I will review my goals and see how I can update them to be SMART.
How about your goals, are they SMART?
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