Goals. Many people write goals every time they start a new year. They are called resolutions. And it is a running joke that people break resolutions frequently (and pardon the pun for "running joke" as many resolutions are around exercise and weight loss).
Let's examine goals and resolutions. No. let's just examine goals.
Goals are easier to achieve when they are smart goals - Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. SMART. Even large goals can be broken down into smaller goals based on the SMART formula.
Specific: a goal should be specific not general. Be clear and decisive what needs to be achieved.
Measurable: make sure your goal can clearly be determined when it is achieved. Don't say "better" - say "10% over last year better." Don't say "get fit" - say able to run one mile in under 9 minutes three times a week. (specific and measurable often work together).
Attainable: don't set yourself up for failure. If you are a couch potato and eighty pounds overweight, the right goal for you may not be losing fifty pound in six months. Make your goal to lose five pounds in three months. If you lose five pounds in one month YEA! then set the next attainable goal. Meanwhile, you are achieving goals and succeeding wildly, making for a much better mindset.
Relevant: your goals should be relevant for you. Do not set goals for yourself to please someone else, unless that directly relates to what you need to be successful in the endeavor. Choose goals that matter. Sure you can set a goal to knit thirteen socks in one month...but do you know how to knit, do you wear hand-knit socks, does this satisfy something in you or achieve something that matters?
Time-bound: this one is pretty self-explanatory and included in examples above. Set a time limit. Call a goal achieved, partially achieved, or failed. Then reset.
My goals are to finish my PhD. This might not even be smart, much less SMART. I am one of the few who wants a doctoral degree in order to earn less money....I am an attorney now and I want to teach, or be involved in education in some forum and felt I needed a PhD to do so. I have completed all my coursework and been approved in most part for my dissertation topic. But I am changing methodology for the study. Thus, I am breaking down the dissertation process into SMART chunks. First, I need to complete the methodology proposal by this May. Then I need to get permissions and arrange for the study. Then I need to write. write. write. revise. revise. revise. It's a long process. My long-term goal is to complete the dissertation in 2015. By breaking it into SMART goals, I just might be able to do it.
This blog is another goal. I have committed to posting one entry per week for three months. I have heard that it takes three months to form a habit, so I am trying to form a habit.
Another goal - as with so many others is to lose weight. My goal is specific to a size, as opposed to weight, but the process is the same. This is another large goal that I have to break down into smaller goals, including activity, food, and some other things.
I have personal goals, professional goals, goals at work and at home, goals purely for me and goals involving others. But in every case, I am working on SMART goals. Periodically, I will come back and report on the goals - part of my blog goals - and you can keep me honest here.
Put this into practice for your own goals. Hold yourself accountable and see how it works. Any goal fits into this systematic process.
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