Goal setting doesn’t have to be overwhelming when you understand how to create achievable goals. Effective goal setting is a major ingredient in the sauce of success. Today, we’re going to walk you through the commonly used goalsetting framework of SMART Goals, created by George T. Doran. This framework is widely known across a variety of businesses from major corporations to solopreneurs and can be easily applied to all types of businesses and goals.
SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Applying each of these criteria when creating a goal ensures that you’re setting a good, quality goal and reduces the chance of overwhelm. Let's get into it!
Specific
When identifying a goal, be specific. Don’t say “I want to make more money this year.”
Instead, say “I made $65,000 in revenue last year and this year I want to increase that by $15,000 for a total of $80,000 in revenue.”
Measurable
Make sure that your goal is one that you can track and measure with data to prove your
progress. This is easy with numbers however if your goal is something like, “I want to improve the quality of my work-life balance” decide how you’ll measure that. Maybe that looks like a hard stop from work at 5 pm every day and 3 home-cooked meals with your partner a week. Use your measurements to track results and make adjustments if needed.
Assignable
This is particularly relevant if you have a team. Who will be responsible for accomplishing the objective? Is it you? Are you outsourcing? Is it a department project or something assigned to one team member? Once you’ve assigned the task make sure that expectations and timeline are clear.
Realistic
We believe in shooting for the stars, but you’ve gotta learn how to get to space first ya know? Small accomplishments lead to bigger ones, and they build confidence and momentum too! If you’re not sure whether a goal you’d like to set is realistic and achievable, take a step back to #2 and consider how you’ll measure it. If it’s a revenue goal, look at your prices and products or services. Is what you’re currently offering and the capacity you have enough to get you to your new goal? If not, make goals around what needs to change first.
Time-related
Give yourself a deadline! A lack of urgency has a high tendency to kill great concepts. Make sure everyone involved knows when the goal is set to be achieved and create benchmarks for when progress will be evaluated. This is important because sometimes even the best-laid plans need to go in a different direction and with tools like measurements and benchmarks, you’ll be able to reevaluate and pivot before it’s too late.
With these goal setting skills in hand, there’s no way you wont do big things in 2025 and we’re so excited to cheer you on!
Comments