What are S.M.A.R.T. Goals?

I first heard of S.M.A.R.T. Goals when I was in grade-school. I remember that it occurred to me as complicated and took a lot of effort to do. It wasn’t until a few years ago, while repeatedly doing treatment plans with clients when I started to truly understand what S.M.A.R.T. Goals were and how to think of them.

Below is my run-down of what S.M.A.R.T. Goals are:

“S” Stands for SPECIFIC

It isn’t specific enough for me to say “I want to be happier”. It is a bit too broad and can even occur like a mystery to me. To get to a specific goal, first I would need to ask myself, “What does that look like in real life?” Which when I ask myself, I can tell you my happiness looks like coming home and enjoying my time alone. Next I would need to ask the follow up of what am I doing that I am enjoying my time alone? To which my answer is: writing, reading or going for a walk with my pup. Can you see it? My specific goal is one I can actually PICTURE myself doing.

“M” Stands for Measurable

Measurable is being able to first assess how many times you currently achieve your specific goal and second then ask yourself how much you want to increase those times you want to do something. Using my example above, 1) I currently enjoy reading after work 2-3x a week and would like to increase it to a solid 3x a week. 2) My writing I do 1x a week and would like to increase it to 5x a week. And 3) I currently walk with my pup 1x a day for 5 days in the week and would like to increase it to 2x a day for 5 days in the week. Note here that It’s important that this measurability is then checked with the following letter.

“A” Stands for ATTAINABLE

Something being attainable is something that I feel like I can do, no problem. In fact, when I teach others to do this — I repeatedly ask them: does that goal occur like “Yes, I can leave this room, can and will do it today?” It has to occur as plain, simple and easy to do! Otherwise, it just means we need to break it down into smaller pieces.

1) I currently enjoy reading after work 2-3x a week and would like to increase it to a solid 3x a week

Yes, this is definitely something I can and will do today.

2) My writing I currently do 1x a week and would like to increase it to 5x a week.

This feels a bit daunting to me. I barely carve out one time a week to write so 5 seems like a lot. What feels like I can and will do it today is: 2 times a week. So the breaking down to smaller pieces adjustment I’ll make is:

My writing I currently do 1x a week and would like to increase it to 2x a week.

3) I currently walk with my pup 1x a day for 5 days in the week and would like to increase it to 2x a day for 5 days

This definitely feels like a pie in the sky kind of goal to me. My schedule being what it is, 2x a day is unrealistic. I’ll need to adjust it, but I can’t go lower than 1x a day, that’s counterproductive to what I want. So the breaking down to smaller pieces adjustment I’ll make is:

I currently walk with my pup 1x a day for 5 days in the week and would like to increase it to 1x a day for 6 days

“R” Stands for RELEVANT

What Relevant really means is: IT MATTERS TO YOU. There’s no point in having goals that don’t matter to you. and yes, if doing something you don’t necessarily like to do because it makes your partner/friend/etc. feel loved is a motivator, guess what IT MATTERS TO YOU :) For my examples, my writing time matters to me because I want to write a book, reading time matters to me because it helps me feel nourished in my mind and I enjoy it, and walking my pup (though not always my favorite thing to do) is good for my pup and I want my pup to be happy. I also get to walk each day, so that’s pretty cool too. If it doesn’t matter to you, this is a great opportunity to ask yourself, what does matter to you. When you’ve got it, take that thing that matters to you through S.M.A.R. onto….

“T” Stands for TIME-BOUND

I used to get M & T mixed up a lot. So just in case you’re with me on that: in terms of measurability, we’ve been able to identify how many times we currently do our goal and how many times we want to do them. Time-Bound is different and is the real, feet to fire, stuff. We now have to ask “When do I want to check in on my progress by?”

I currently enjoy reading after work 2-3x a week and would like to increase it to a solid 3x a week — I’d like to check in about this again in 3 months.

My writing I currently do 1x a week and would like to increase it to 2x a week. — I’d like to check in about my progress for this again in 1 week and then again in 3 months.

I currently walk with my pup 1x a day for 5 days in the week and would like to increase it to 1x a day for 6 days — I’d like to check in about my progress for this again in 1 week and also again in 3 months.

And, for one last time, I re-read through those goals and ensure that they occur as YES, I can and will do this today. Once they do, then there you have it :)

S.M.A.R.T. Goals are an excellent way to ensure we make progress towards the things we want most in life.

If you or someone you know have found this helpful and/or you’ve had a different experience with goals I’d love to hear about it — feel free to email me directly at cynthia@iamlivingfully.com