At this time of year we start thinking up our new years resolutions. These generally involve things like “loose weight”, “save money”, “exercise more”, “eat less”, etc etc. I hate to break it to you, but your new years resolutions are doomed to fail if they are as loose as those statements. You may as well loosen that waistband and keep chowing down on those Christmas tarts because you’re not going to get anywhere. However, don’t despair, there is a way to set goals and aspirations for the New Year. You’ve just got to get SMART about it.
Much like business goals your personal goals can benefit from some structure around the what, why, who, when, and how of achieving personal success. Making your new years resolutions SMARTer will give you a greater chance of success. So what is SMART? And how can you apply it to New Years resolutions? SMART is an acronym (if you didn’t get that already) and stands for Specific, Measurable, Aligned, Realistic and Time bound. Here is how you can apply it.
Specific goals are well defined. You need to identify exactly what it is going to take to get you to your goal. I’ll use the weight loss goal as an example. What are you going to do to loose weight? Maybe go to the gym more? How many times a week/month are you going to go to the gym? It can help to break it down into steps or tasks that need to be completed. This is where measurement starts to become helpful.
You need to measure the success of your goals. How will you know you’ve lost weight? Scales/measurement? What is your target? What are your milestones? You may also want to think about how you want to reward yourself when you reach some of your measures.
In a business context aligned refers to how well your objective is aligned to overall business objectives. Alignment is still relevant in a personal context but think a bit more internally. How does your goal align with your personal values? To thrash out the example I’m using (just because it seems to be the common one bounced around at new years), why is it important for you to loose weight? Is it to feel better about yourself? Feel healthier? What is your overall purpose in this goal? If it aligns to a positive affirmation of yourself you may have a better chance of achieving it.
Is your goal realistic? My objectives this year (2011) were not entirely realistic and my sanity and a couple of my goals went out the window as a result (try organizing a wedding, writing and masters thesis and working, or a similar combination, and you’ll understand). They have to be realistic or you simply wont achieve them. Ask yourself, whether you have the time, and resources to achieve this goal? Is it physically, mentally and emotionally possible? For example, your weight loss goal, are you in the right headspace, or are you going to starve yourself to get to your goal? Time frames help make your goal more realistic.
Every goal should have a time frame. It helps you to measure the goal, make is specific and make it realistic. Time frames also allow you to allocate resources and balance up your goals against each other (making completing all your goals more realistic). Your time frame is the period in which you think is realistic to accomplish your goal.
I’ve given you an overview of how to set SMART goals for your personal life but there are a few more tips I can give on how to make these goals really work for you. Firstly, focus on positive goals rather than negative ones. You’ll enjoy achieving them more and enjoyment is conducive to success. This is simply a matter or wording. Turn something negative like “weight loss” into a focus on some exercise that you enjoy, maybe your goal is to dance, run or take up a new sport instead? Loosing weight then becomes a happy byproduct. Secondly, put your goals somewhere where you can see them. Some people like using pictures or lists. You just need to be reminded of them. Lastly, review your goals on a regular basis. How are you tracking? Do you need to adjust them? Have circumstances changed? Are they still realistic? When you’ve achieved the goal, review what went well and what didn’t before you set (or adjust) your next set of goals.
If you want to achieve something in 2012 then really think about how you define your goals for the year. If you keep you goals airy fairy then your achievement of them will be equally so. ‘SMART’ is not just a way to define business goals but also give your personal life a clearly defined direction. Now is the time to think about what you achieve in the New Year both personally and professionally.
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