SMART Goals examples

Last Updated on August 21, 2020 by scottkandh

Develop a commitment to setting goals and objectives with SMARTER goals by shooting for the moon. These are ways to successfully reach your goals, and highlight the importance of setting goals not as expectations but as possibilities.

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S.M.A.R.T.E.R. goal setting takes SMART goals (above) two steps further, forcing you to evaluate and readjust your approach.   All too often, we tend to set our goals, but not put any type of measurement to them. When you don’t measure and track something, it becomes far easier for the mind to trick us into either putting things off or thinking that we’ve come further along than we really have.

Step #1: “S” – Specific

The first step in setting S.M.A.R.T.E.R. goals is to be specific – very specific. The more specific you are about your goals, the better and more able you’ll be to accomplish them no matter what method you use.

When the goal is obscure, it allows the psychology of your mind to override your goals and they’ll be harder to achieve. 

Step #2: “M” – Meaningful / Measurable

The second step in setting S.M.A.R.T.E.R. goals is to set goals that are meaningful enough to get out there and do whatever it takes to achieve them. When your goals have a deep enough meaning to you, you’ll do whatever it takes to achieve them.

Attribute a strong enough meaning to your goals, beyond being just specific about them. Next to your specific goal, write out what that goal means to you and make sure that it’s something important.    This part is in the SMART Goals worksheet under the question “Why?”.  SMART goals must be able to be measurable. 

Step #3: “A” – Achievable or Attainable. 

The third step in setting S.M.A.R.T.E.R. goals is to set goals that are achievable. When setting goals, especially short-term goals (i.e. within 1 year), make sure they’re achievable/attainable.  It just means that you must pick goals that you can achieve in the short term.

Set goals to achieve that you can build on the momentum as they’re accomplished. 

Step #4: “R” – Realistic

Your goals need to be realistic.  State what results can realistically be achieved, given available resources.

Step #5: “T” – Timely

The fifth step in setting S.M.A.R.T.E.R. goals is to ensure that they’re time-bound goals. Set an exact date for when you when you plan to achieve these goals. For example, focus on goals that are in 3-month intervals.

When your goals are time-bound, they’re measurable, and you should hold yourself accountable by measuring those goals on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. How close are you to achieving your goals? How much further did you get from achieving your goals? Without making your goals time-bound and measurable, you won’t be able to see your progress.

Step #6: “E” – Evaluate

The sixth step in setting goals using the S.M.AR.T.E.R. method is to ensure that your goals are evaluated.   By evaluating your goals every single day, you’ll be much more likely to achieve them. Long-term goals (as well as some short-term goals) can easily be ignored if they aren’t evaluated every single day.

Make sure that you setup a system for evaluating your goals and make the evaluation of your goals habitual.  Don’t ignore this all-important step. Your mind has a very clever way of allowing you to ignore your goals by pushing you into emotion-numbing behaviors when those goals aren’t closely evaluated. 

Step #7: “R” – Readjust

The final step in setting goals with the S.M.A.R.T.E.R. method is to re-adjust your approach. If, for example, you find yourself pursuing a goal but continuously hitting a brick wall, readjust your method and techniques. For example, when a plane has a goal of flying from LAX to MIA, it must constantly evaluate its progress and readjust its approach to ensure that it reaches its target. The plane constantly evaluates and readjusts until it arrives in MIA. You should be doing the same for your goals.

Below is a SMART Goals worksheet that you can use to write out all of your information.  It’s a pretty daunting task at first, but by putting the pen to paper and writing out your objectives your well on your way to achieving those goals.