Setting SMART Goals

By smart goals, we mean setting goals and targets which are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely as well as tangible. Jotting down your goals on a piece of paper and evaluating them regularly can bring you closer to them at a much faster pace than you would have ever expected or imagined. Now let’s study the basic criteria required for setting down a SMART goal.

A goal should be specified in clear cut terms, should be straight forward and should emphasize on what you want from them. It should be able to answer three basic questions which might be lingering in your mind- what exactly do you want to accomplish, why do you want to achieve it, and how would you do the needful? If your set goal can provide answers to these three basic queries in an easy and understandable language, be rest assured that you have laid down the right foundation towards achieving your goal successfully.

A goal should be measurable in terms of achievement and success, over time and with consistent effort. A measurable goal would provide you with an easy analysis of how much have you managed to acquire in a specified time period. Weighing and measuring your progress from time to time will enable you to be focused on your target and stuck to the track, thereby adding on to your excitement and enthusiasm when you find yourself nearing your ultimate goal.

Opportunities give way to attainment of future goals. Developing and evaluating the right attitudes, skills, abilities and financial capacities to attain that goal takes you a step ahead towards achieving that goal. However, to experience that joy of success and achievement, it is very important to lay down goals which are practically attainable. Your commitment should stand erect for something which is humanly reachable and not for something which is out of reach, so as to keep you motivated on your path towards success.

When you set a goal, you have to weigh and analyze it from different perspectives like the skills that it would demand, whether the project would be congenial with the overall strategy of the organization and does it gel with the ultimate goal of the enterprise as a whole and so on. To be more precise, a goal should be realistic and achievable with some consistent effort put into its fulfillment, as against being illogical and unrealistic.

A time limit, set for the successful attainment of a goal, provides you with a zeal and purpose to work more effectively and efficiently so as to complete your targets well within the specified time period. Timely completion of goals is very crucial to maintain continuity in your plan of action, or else it would not take much time for a goal to become vague by losing its authenticity and urgency. Also, a tangible goal, which can be felt and experienced with any one of the sense organs, is more specific, measurable and attainable, as compared to an intangible goal.

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Authored By Akash Chander, Principal Coach

© The Orange Academy 2012

The Orange Academy provides coaching & mentoring services; and leadership training & development services. Our clients include several of the best known companies across industry sectors, where we work with some of their senior-most executives. We are headquartered in Bangalore, but work with clients all across India and overseas.

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