There are goals, and then there are goals. That is, there are goals that actually take you somewhere – commonly coined as S.M.A.R.T goals – and goals that are too vague and/or unrealistic to be any good.
If you have a dream to fulfill, a vision to go after, there are three principles you need to apply to your goal-setting:
- You must write them down. You will be much more likely to remember them and get in the habit of working toward their achievement if they are on paper.
- You must refer to them often. If you have your list of goals taped to the top of your desk, or stuck to your refrigerator or bathroom mirror, they will eventually cement themselves into your mind like a fly on yellow sticky paper. In other words, they will hound both your conscious and your subconscious until you see them through.
- They must be SMART. This acronym stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely. Some goals experts add “ER” to the acronym, making it “S.M.A.R.T.E.R.”, with the E and the R standing for “evaluate” and “re-evaluate”.
Specific
Goals that are vague and blurry aren’t really goals, but wishes or hopes. A true goal gets exactly to the point of what you want to accomplish.
“I want to be thin” is not specific, and probably will get you nowhere. “I want to lose fifty pounds” is much more specific, giving you a much clearer target to shoot for.
Measurable
An effective goal must be measurable in some way. In the above example, the weight-loss goal is not only specific but also measurable. If you get on the scale and find out that you weigh 200 pounds before starting your weight-loss program, you know that your target weight is ultimately 150 pounds.
Another example: if you say, “I want to make money online,” you could make $5 within your first six months of working an online business, but is that what you really wanted? A much better stated goal would be, “I want to make at least $5,000 a month from my blog.” With a target you can somehow measure, you can not only figure out the baby steps to get there, but also see progress as it occurs.
Attainable
Anybody who tells you that anyone can do anything if they only set their mind to it, has never tried going through a revolving door with a pair of skis.
Seriously, the fact is that not everybody can do everything. If you are blind and want to become a police officer, it’s not going to happen. This is an example of an unattainable goal. If you suffer from vertigo, it’s unlikely your goal of becoming an astronaut is going to happen.
And it’s not just physical disabilities that can limit people’s goals. If you are a horrible writer and you know it – and more so, have no desire to improve yourself in this area – the chances of you becoming a world-class, six-figure blogger are slim to none.
While it’s okay to set big goals that will require a lot of time and effort to achieve, they must also be realistically within your reach. For example, for a single woman who is fifty years old and has no children, bearing ten of her own children in the next fifteen years is more than likely not attainable. But to adopt a few children and raise them may be perfectly attainable for her.
Relevant
Here you must ask yourself, “Is this goal worthwhile?” Perhaps you need an extra $200 to pay off a loan, and you hear that a neighborhood cafe is going to hold a barbecue contest, giving away $200 as first prize. You decide you will enter and win.
That’s all fine and good, but what if you hate cooking and have never prepared a barbecue in your life? This is therefore not a relevant goal.
On the other hand, if you are skilled at making wooden toys for children and love doing it, earning a $200 profit from selling such toys would be much more relevant to you.
Time-bound
Any goal worth its salt has a deadline. “I want to write a novel” is less effective than saying, “I will have completed a novel six months from now.”
Trying to lose weight? Decide on a realistic date for a particular weight-loss goal. Writing down, “I am going to weigh twenty pounds less two months from now” will get you farther than, “I want to lose twenty pounds.” Why? Deadlines get you moving.
And by the way, write deadlines down, too. This provides even more accountability to fulfilling your goals.
Evaluate and Re-evaluate
If you want to be even “SMARTER” with your goals, take the time to look at them occasionally – once a month or a few times a week, depending on how long you project it will take you to accomplish the goal – and decide whether they are still attainable and relevant, and that the deadline you set is still realistic.
Life happens. And typically, these events are unexpected and throw things off.
When I decided to resign from my teaching position almost six years ago from this writing, my plan was to develop a full-time writing career.
Then I became pregnant.
Between feeling horrible and giving birth to a baby who was very demanding of my time and attention – and subsequently feeling called to build an online business around my passion to life-coach – both the timing and the manifestation of my new career completely changed.
Don’t stick with goals that no longer fit your life or new-found values. You are free to change them. Just be sure you continue to develop new ones and move toward them, and that they fit what you feel your life purpose or calling is.
A sample S.M.A.R.T goal
To bring all the aspects of well-written and effective goals together, here is my goal for this website:
By October 15, 2012, I will be making $3,000 per month from my two podcasts and the products I promote and sell on my Free To Live Your Dreams blog.”
Specific? Yes, including the deadline, desired income, and how the income will come about. Measurable? The dollar amount is easily so.
Is it attainable? Yes. The deadline is a year ahead of now, plenty of time to meet this moderate income goal by consistent marketing and content production. It’s relevant, because I love to write, teach, and inspire people to greatness. And of course, I begin with the deadline, meeting the “time-bound” qualification.
So when you begin writing down goals, make them S.M.A.R.T. goals, or even S.M.A.R.T.E.R. What are you waiting for? Get some goals written down, and share one or two in the comments below! 
(P.S. – Want an easy way to keep track of your goals? Check out the GoalTrack software. For the cost of a cup of Starbucks once a month, it’s an investment that will bring you great returns!)
