Are you looking forward to 2017? Anything you’d like to change in your life? Whether you call them New Year’s Resolutions, New Year’s Solutions, or simply goals, many of us want to make changes in our lives.
A common goal making challenge is stating “I want to be a better parent, spouse, or partner” or “I want to lose weight,” without defining how you will know if you are making progress. How do we define “better” parent, spouse, or partner? If we lose one pound, have we been successful?
This year, try making SMART goals – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely goals. The SMART technique allows you to fine tune your goals into something more easily achievable.
For example, many people know I am new to social media and blogging. Although I have written many articles, book reviews, book chapters etc., over my career, blogging is much different.
So, if I want to be a “better blogger” in 2017, what does that mean? Let’s reframe my goal to be a “better blogger” using the SMART technique.
S – Specific. Decide specifically what/why/which I want to improve – being more consistent in blogging, increasing the frequency of blogs, maybe ask what I want to accomplish. Let’s say I want to blog twice per month, averaging approximately 300 words per blog.
M – Measureable. Ask how much, how many, how often. Let’s say twice per month, preferably on the 1st and 15th (plus or minus one day).
A – Achievable. Ask if I have the needed resources, time, skill, or background.
R – Realistic. Determine if this goal is something I can realistically accomplish. Is the goal too high or too low? Envision Goldilocks and her too hot, too cold, and just right porridge. What is just right or realistic for you?
T – Timely. Set a time frame for this goal. A realistic time frame might be that within four months I am habitually meeting this goal.
So, “I want to be a better blogger” becomes a SMART goal of “Within four months, I want to consistently publish a blog of approximately 300 words on the 1st and 15th of each month.”
This is just the barest of outlines for using SMART goals. For more information, search for “smart goals” or “smart goal worksheets.” Google lists over 27 million results. For those of you who are more visual, specify you want to see images (over 4 million hits).
If you have questions or comments, please contact me at drdan@criticalconcepts.org.
Happy New Year!