It seems the business world nowadays operates on acronyms.   One that you may have heard is SMART goals.  In all honesty SMART goals, make a lot of sense, they help you focus on progress, and in a team environment help keep everyone on the same page.

So what are SMART goals?

S is for Specific.  To define a specific goal you have to answer the questions that a reporter would ask.   Who, What, Which, Why, Where, When,  and How.

Who is involved?  What are you trying to accomplish? Which requirements or constraints are involved? Why do you want to do this? Where will it happen? When will you do it?  How will you make it happen?

A specific goal has a greater chance of being successful rather then a general goal.

For example, "Eat better" (a general goal), is too vague and hard to track if you are successful or not,  where as "Prepare healthy meals and snacks from the health food store at least once a week" (a SMART goal), is specific and sets the bar for success.

M is for Measurable, which is used to establish concrete criteria for tracking your progress.  When you are able to see that you are progressing towards your goal, it is easier to keep on track, and be motivated to keep on track.    Good question here is to ask how will you know you are making progress?  How many times do you need to do something? How much of it will you need to do?

So in the example "Prepare healthy meals and snacks from the health food store at least once a week"  The How is once a week, every week.

A is for Attainable but also can be Agreed upon. If my goal is to go to "the health food store at least once a week", and I don't have any health food stores that I can get to, the goal is not attainable, and the goal might have to be changed to "grow my own food" or "buy organic food".

Agreed upon can be helpful in a team environment, if everyone agrees upon the goal, then everyone can make progress towards the goal.  If the team doesn't agree upon the goal, then accomplishing it may be next to impossible.

R is for Realistic. Realistic goals are goals that you are willing and able to work towards.   So in the example, you have to be willing and able to go to the health food store, and you have to be willing and able to prepare healthy meals and snacks, in order to succeed.   If you are only willing to go to the store, but don't make the snacks or meals, you won't achieve your goal.

T is for Timely or can be Tangible. Timely simply means that there is a time frame.  When are you going to start and when are you going to finish?  Are you going to the health food store once a week for the rest of  your life?   Even if you say yes, set a date when you will complete this goal, and see if you need to revise it.  Setting a date helps create a sense of urgency, and also can help the goal from being so overwhelming that you never start it.

Tangible is a goal that you can experience with one of your five senses.  You can taste it, touch it, smell it, see it, or hear it.    So a tangible goal in the example we have been using, would be tracking your healthy meals for the week once you finish eating them.

SMART goals can keep you motivated, help keep you on track, let you monitor your progress, and also help you make adjustments, if need be, so you can achieve your goals.