Many of us are driven by our goals, whether we consciously really know what they are or not. We want a fantastic house, travel the entire world, date that cute next door neighbor that smiles at you, maybe even to lose some weight. Either conscious or unconsciously we go through a mental process of setting goals. Let’s take one example. Suppose I’m uncomfortable with my current body figure and that I know I am overweight so I set to myself a goal: “I want to lose weight”. Is that a real goal I’m setting? Yes this can be a real and achievable goal, I could lose a single eight of a pound during the next 15 years and I will be achieving my goal to “lose weight”. However I’m not making it as easy for myself as if I'd set my goal the SMART way.
After the following example you could be thinking to yourself that there is more to a goal than to declare your desire. I first learned about SMART goal setting theory after I began earning a living for the very first time after my university graduation, therefore it was my first “professional job” as to speak. In their way of work, staff is not bound to rigid working hours chained to a workspace, rather they simply let their personnel realize their expectations of them and if they're not achieved following the natural understanding curve time, they would get terminated, that simple. So in order to survive I certainly needed to schedule my everyday responsibilities around those expectations/goals. The different goals my boss wanted me to achieve had a lot in common in between each other. Several days later in an “intro-to-your-work” lecture, the structure of a goal was uncovered to me, and since I personally use it in my everyday life and I advise people to do so.
Whenever you set a goal for yourself it is best to structure it in a way that it can be achieved to your own expectations. In the example above, “I want to lose weight”. I’m merely saying that weighting below what I presently do will be fine. However when I lose One pound I am going to see exactly the same, I won't feel happier about myself, heck, I won’t even know If I reached the goal I set to myself simply because I wasn’t even specific about it. So to stay clear of that, I must create a more specific goal. Here are several suggestions.
SMART is a mnemonic to Specific, Measurable, Realistic, Time constrained
To help you better comprehend the SMART goal setting theory let me use the example we’ve been using in this post: “to lose weight”
SPECIFIC: State exactly what you would like from that goal. I’m being very unclear around the WHAT and HOW of my goal.
Specific Goal: Lose 15 pounds of fat by running every morning and maintaining a healthy diet
MEASURABLE: A professor in school once told our class a management quote that goes similar to “You cannot manage what you cannot measure” You must make sure your goal is measurable. In cases like this we already integrated measurability when we specified our goal; however there are more variables inside our goal we're able to measure
Specific/Measurable Goal: Lose 15 pounds of fat by running 1 hour every morning and eating no more than 2000 calories a day.
REALISTIC: This is actually simple. Make sure you goal is realistic. For example, a while back my sis didn’t want to go get some tacos because she “wanted to reduce some pounds in the next Three days” since she was going to dress in a swimsuit by that time frame. I have to say she was not doing anything to shed weight apart from keeping away from unhealthy foods. Is that realistic? So is my goal realistic? If I am 20 lbs overweight for my average height and I’m under 65 years of age, shedding 15 pounds is fairly realistic. However it wouldn't be realistic if I was on my ideal weight and I want to attain the goal by merely running. You get it?
Specific/Measurable/Realistic goal: Lose 15 pounds of fat by running 1 hour every morning and eating no more than 2000 calories a day.
TIME CONSTRAINED: With your goal you need to set a time period for you to realize it. This way you have to push for the deadline.
Specific/Measurable/Realistic/Time-constrained goal: Lose 15 pounds of fat by the end of December 2011 by running 1 hour every morning and eating no more than 2000 calories a day.
Just to make sure you understand SMART goal setting theory, here are a few examples of SMART goals to set.
Just a goal: Earn a ton of money
SMART Goal: Earn an annual income of $100,000, Nine years from now by establishing my own internet company of import sports equipment in Latin America.
Just a goal: Complete Marathon
SMART goal: Complete the 2012 Atlanta Race in under 5 hours having a strict diet program of 1800 Calories and running each and every week day for one hour and do endurance exercising Saturdays and Sundays.
So there you go the straightforward 4 ingredients you can add to any goal you set for yourself down the road. Remember, should you want to achieve your dreams; it all starts off with goal setting theory.
