SMART Goals?  No, SMARTEST Goals!

Robert Heinlein, an American author in the science fiction genre, once said "In the absence of clearly defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until we ultimately become enslaved by it." 

This is so true of many, many people.  We get up, go to work, check our email, get a cup of coffee, answer the emails, make the rounds to all the other offices, check the email, go to a meeting, go to lunch, check and answer emails, make the rounds to the offices, perhaps another meeting, check the email, log off, go home, read the paper, eat dinner, turn on the TV, and go to bed…and do it all again the next day, and the next day, and the next day…

Most people spend more time planning an annual vacation or weekend getaway than they do planning their life.  They talk about goals, they say they are working on goals but chances are they do not even have a written To-Do list for tomorrow.  They are living the life they are given rather than realizing the life they want. 

Unfortunately, most people have no idea at all for how to set goals, track their progress and keep themselves on target for achieving them.  When people talk about goals many are unrealistic when compared to their level of achievement to-date  and some just are not practical.    Goals are serious.  They are the building blocks for a life of success. 

To help you with setting your own goals, follow the acronym for your SMARTEST goals.  Your goals should be:

1. S-pecific
2. M-easurable
3. A-chievable
4. R-elevant
5. T-ime-based
6. E-nriching
7. S-hared
8. T-houghtful

Specific

Goals should be well-defined.  One process you could use is to ask yourself what, why, how and who.  This will get you thinking about the specifics of your goals.  Jack Canfield, well known for his "Chicken Soup" book series, wrote in his book The Success Principles, "Vague goals produce vague results."  And while you are making these specific goals, WRITE them down!  Hey, we are talking about your life here and it is so important you write down your life's roadmap.

Setting a goal of "Lose weight" is not specific.  "Lose 50 pounds by the end of the year" or "Lose 4 pounds a month for the next six months" are specific.  "Get a raise" is no where near to the specifics necessary for a goal.  "Get a raise of $150 per week by April 30th by demonstrating my value to the company by implementing the plan to reduce our expenses by 12%" certainly carries more weight and a more realistic idea of what you want to accomplish.  It puts meat on the bones of your goals.

Measurable

It is vital that your goals be measurable.  By this, you should be about to determine how you are doing with the process of achieving your goals.  If your goal is to lose weight, what is your plan for each week, or if you want to increase your revenues by $250,000 in the next quarter, what does that mean on a weekly or monthly basis?  You have to be able to put numbers on what you want to achieve.  Anything worth doing is worth measuring.

Achievable

Face it.  If you are a man weighing 250 pounds and built like a linebacker, you will probably never be a prima ballerina so forget it.  Also, if all you have ever made is $35,000 in a year, how could you set a goal of making $1,000,000 next year?  You are setting yourself up for failure and it will be the excuse you will forever use for why goals don't work. 

Be realistic.  If you are making $35,000 wouldn't  $45,000 be a more reasonable goal by starting a home business in conjunction with your day job?  As soon as you begin to track your progress on your goals and you haven't made the requisite $83,334 in the first month toward your million dollar goal, it goes out the window, you get down on yourself.  The problem wasn't you, it was the goal was unachievable.

This does not mean you should set creampuff goals either.  Goals are meant to stretch you a bit…to challenge you…to test your commitment and capabilities.  If your goal is to raise your revenue from $1,000,000 per year to $1,000,100, you really haven't set a goal that challenges you and you will lose interest just as quick in that small change as you will in one that exceeds the realities of your situation.

Relevant

Your goals should be representative of your core values.  If they do not meet your moral standards, they are of no relevancy to you.  They should be your goals and not someone else's.  You must manifest your goals so they mean something to YOU!  Your goals must stir a burning desire inside you to drive you toward your success.  If they are not relevant to you, you will not be committed and again, you will be setting yourself up for failure.

Time-based

Your goals must have a beginning and an end.  Time-based and measurable go hand in hand.  You must know the specific date you are going to begin and the specific date you will have accomplished the goal.  Break the goal into tasks.  Along the way you want to have certain tasks completed by a specific time.  It will be easier to accomplish the goal. 

If your goal should take 3 months to complete, then make it three months.  Do not string it out over a year.  Use what is reasonable.  All of your goals should not start at the same time or all end at the same time.  If you haven't started one of these things before, how are you going to start five at one time. 

Be realistic with the time you allow for completing your goals.  Chances are you will under-estimate the time.    This goes back to your goal being specific.  The more specific, the more details you have for your goals, the better your estimate will be.  Also when you review your progress against your time line and you aren't where you wanted to be, maybe you just were not specific enough and did not allow enough time.  If this is true, change your goal.  Add more time.  If you haven't started, that's a different story, your start  time was wrong and you need to change it.  As long as you are honest with yourself, you can make changes…but don't procrastinate…time is not on your side.

Enriching

This is the real reason for setting a goal.  What value is this goal going to add to your life?  Earlier we used the example to increase your annual income from $35,000 to $45,000.  What is your plan for the $10,000?  Is it to go toward a college fund for your child or children and take a family vacation?  That is enriching for you and your family.  Just to make $10,000 more does not add value to your life.  To know how that is going be of benefit to you and your family has real value and achieving that goal is more of an accomplishment than just making $10,000 more than the previous year.

Shared

Why shared?  If you keep your goals to yourself, where is the commitment?  Where is the accountability?  You sit down, write your goals and pour yourself into them to be the SMARTEST goals you can have and then put them in your desk drawer to never be seen again. 

If you share these with the people that matter like your spouse, family, employer, and if you have one, a Master Mind group you significantly increase your chances of actually achieving your goals.  Some or all of these people may be physically involved one way or another with achieving your goals.  Ask the people you share them with to be honest, to ask how things are going,  join in to help or maybe get a monthly update.  This is the hardest part of actual goal setting.  When you share them you are making yourself very vulnerable.  You are opening yourself to criticism, but look at it from the standpoint of accountability and building a team to support your goals. 

Thoughtful

Your goals must be carefully reasoned and thought out.  You need to pull everything together... the specifics, time, relevancy, measurement, etc.  If you think your goal is perfect, you are wrong.  Write your goals, spend the time and effort to do them following these guidelines.  Put them away for a week .    You will be surprised what your subconscious mind will churn up while you are letting the goals "percolate".  Pull them out and review them.  There will be thing you feel you need to change.  Change them!  They will be more realistic and of greater value.

After you have follow these guidelines, do not let anything get in your way.  A final word of advice.  It will be better to have three SMARTEST goals and accomplish one of them than to have 10 and not complete one of them.  Challenge yourself, but do not set yourself up for failure.  Think of the feeling of self-satisfaction you will have when you realize your goal and you can share that success with your family and others.  It will all be worth it.