How To Make Ambitious And
Achievable Goals For Great Success
Perhaps you’ve been working extra hard
towards a goal. You think you have the perfect plan, but you just don’t seem to
be making progress. You don’t understand. Now you’re feeling a little tired,
and you want to give up. Tomorrow won’t be any better, anyway.
Perhaps it’s true: you won’t succeed—just
yet.
But the reason you get stuck isn’t that you
don’t have the abilities to do it, or that you’re not putting in enough effort.
Rather, you’re missing the point of goal-setting—you’ve made yourself the wrong
goal in the first place.
To achieve what you want most, what you need is a SMART goal instead.
S-M-A-R-T is a set of 5 criteria to help you
judge whether a goal is good or not. It helps you make better use of your time
and energy, and achieve your goals effectively. Setting a SMART goal is the
first step to success.
When setting a new goal, or making changes to
a current goal, you should ask yourself whether your goal fulfils these 5 criteria:[1][2]
S for Specific
It is important to have a clear idea of what
you want to achieve. That way you can focus your time and energy on achieving
your goal. Also, having a specific goal helps you stay away from distractions.
A simple trick to set a specific goal is to
start with a verb.[3] This
helps you remember exactly what you’re going to do.
M for Measurable
You want to know it when you’ve achieved your
goal. You should also be able to tell how far you’ve come during the process,
and how much further to go. Be specific with how much or how
many about your goal.
A for Achievable
Your goal
should be possible within your abilities. Look at what skills you already have,
and compare them to the skills needed to achieve your goal. If there’s a skill
you don’t have yet, find out whether you’ll be able to learn it.
Make a
plan of the exact things you’ll have to do for your goal, and make adjustments
where you have to.
R for Realistic
Research
into the facts and figures relevant to your goal. Then think about the
resources available to you, such as your budget, time frame, the help you can
get, etc. Ask yourself if your goal makes sense in your situation.
Also, be
realistic about the effort you’re willing to put in. You may want to see if
it’s a worthwhile goal to pursue in itself, or how it will fit in with your
other goals.
T for Time-bound
Think
about when you want to achieve your goal. Setting a time limit adds to your
motivation. Also, work out a timeline to keep track of your progress.
Keep in
mind the total time you have while deciding the daily or weekly
target. It will be a constant reminder to keep you going when you’re tempted to
slack off.
Adapting SMART goal is a bit tricky,
try to start by learning from different examples.
Here’re some
examples of how you can can use the SMART formula to set goals and make them
achievable.
Goal Example 1: I want to be more productive at work.
My
problem: By the end of my work day, I always have lots of pending works still
and have to work over time a lot. I figured that I spent too much time on the
first few tasks, leaving no more time for the rest of the works.
- Specific: Finishing all the tasks
planned for the day requires tasks prioritization as well as effort and
time estimation. Prioritization, and time and effort estimation for tasks
are my weaknesses. In 30 days, I will prioritize tasks efficiently and
accurately estimate each task’s time and effort and do as planned.
- Measurable: By the 30th day, I
should be able to have my task list well-prioritized, with the time
correctly estimated for at least 90% of the tasks. And I will be able
to follow the estimated time and complete all the planned tasks on the
list.
- Achievable: I will set aside
10 minutes every day to organize and prioritize the tasks I should do the
next day. I will also set aside another 5 to 10 minutes to review whether
my estimation of time and effort is correct, and whether I can follow my
plan in completing tasks.
- Realistic: Setting aside around 20
minutes in total each day to plan for the 7 to 8 hours of tasks is
realistic and beneficial to my work efficiency.
- Time-Bound: In 30 days, I should be
good at prioritizing and completing tasks according to my plan, ensuring
my tasks will be done on time without extra working time.
Goal Example 2: I want to start to read more books.
My problem: I often struggle to find the
right words to express my ideas in my assignments. I also have trouble with my
grammar, and make lots of mistakes when I write.
- Specific: I want to read
more books so I can learn more vocabulary and sentence structures to use
in my writing. In this semester, I will read books, take notes of new
vocabulary and sentence structures, and revise them.
- Measurable: By the end of this
semester, I should be able to score at least 8 out of 10 in the ‘grammar
and style’ component of my essays.
- Achievable: I will finish
reading 2 books of at least 300 pages each. I will read 15 pages each day,
5 days a week; and revise my reading notes for 45 minutes on each of the
remaining 2 days of the week.
- Realistic: Reading 15 pages
each day is manageable. Also, reading consistently is an effective way for
me to learn writing skills.
- Time-Bound: I want to see
improvement in grades from 6 to 8 (out of 10) by the end of this semester,
which is 92 days in total.
Goal Example 3: I want to wake up earlier.
My problem: I am always 5 minutes late to
work because I snooze my alarm too many times in the morning and don’t have
enough time to get ready.
- Specific: I currently set my
alarm at 7am, but I wake up at 7:30am. I have to leave for work at 7:45am
the latest, and I need 45 minutes to get ready. So my goal is to wake up
at 7am.
- Measurable: In 1 month, I
should be able to get out of bed without pressing snooze. My first target
is to press snooze only once within the first week.
- Achievable: I can train myself
to wake up earlier by putting my alarm further away from my bed, so I’m
forced to get up. Also, I can set my favorite song as my alarm ringtone so
I don’t feel annoyed by the default sound early in the morning.
- Realistic: I usually go to
bed by midnight. Waking up at 7am means I can get 7 hours’ sleep, which is
enough for me. So waking up at 7am is a realistic goal.
- Time-Bound: I will get up at
7am sharp and stop pressing snooze in 1 month.
Goal Example 4: I want to eat healthier.
My problem: I am overweight. I know what I
should and shouldn’t eat, but I lack the motivation to make the right choices.
- Specific: In order to
practice making healthy decisions, in the next 3 months, I will make plans
before meal times come around.
- Measurable: I want to lose 5
kg in order to get back into the healthy weight range within 3 months. I
will eat healthy meals for 6 days a week, an indulge in a nice dinner on
Sunday.
- Achievable: I can spend an
hour on Sundays to plan my meals for the week. I can look online to see
what restaurants near my office serve healthy options. I can also cook my
own meals at weekends.
- Realistic: I have the
knowledge to make healthy choices, and the ability to cook myself healthy
meals. Also, allowing myself 1 ‘cheat meal’ per week makes my goal
manageable.
- Time-Bound: I will make
healthy food choices over the next 3 months, and build momentum for the
future.
Goal Example 5: I want to spend more time with my family.
My problem: I don’t see my wife and son
enough since I always let work take up my leisure time even when I’m at home.
- Specific: I will spend more
time to chat with my family every day and do fun activities with them at
weekends.
- Measurable: In the coming
month, I will spend time with my family without thinking about work when I
get home. I will spend an hour after dinner to chat with my wife and son
every day, and go out with them on either Saturday or Sunday.
- Achievable: I can switch off
the email notifications on my phone when I’m with my family. I can also
take some time to discuss with my family what activities to do at weekends
when we have dinner.
- Realistic: My job doesn’t
require me to stand by outside of office hours. So having work-free time
with my family shouldn’t be a problem.
- Time-Bound: I will spend
weekends with my family and pay my full attention on them when we’re
together for the upcoming month, and make it a habit.
Break down big goals and take small
steps, and you’ll achieve them eventually.
If you’re
looking for some motivation on achieving big goals, watch this cool doodle
video about breaking big goals down and taking small steps to reach the goals:
http://www.lifehack.org/569162/smart-goals-how-make-your-goal-ambitious-achievable?ref=mail&mtype=daily_newsletter&mid=20170328&uid=687414&hash=707e797f7e757e6d794c856d747b7b3a6f7b79&action=click
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