Let’s hone in on your goal – Decide on a short-term or long-term goal using these criteria.
MAKE A MISSION STATEMENT!
You can do this multiple times and for various aspects of your life and varying time-frames.
It can be simple to start, like “Consistently stream more.” or “Finish my college degree.” or “Be known as a beauty guru.” or “Become a fitness-oriented person.”
After you finish this exercise, your goal can be re-written, and re-defined based off of the knowledge you’ve uncovered while asking yourself these clarifying questions.
The S.M.A.R.T goal framework is all about creating relevant, achievable mini-goals that help support your overall life objectives.
The acronym stands for:
S: Specific (simple, sensible, significant)
Be clear. Does “increase engagement” mean you want 100 new followers or 1,000? On which platform? What happens when you reach that?
Making your goals small and specific helps you track progress and measure success sooner.
- What do I want to accomplish?
- Why is this important?
- Which resources & limits are involved?
- What tools do I use right now and what should I change?
M: Measurable (meaningful, motivating)
Measure: Every goal needs some kind of metric. “Improve customer service” is a great concept, but it’s not a goal unless you have a way to measure where you are at right now, and what that new improvement will be, and when.
- Which tools will I use to measure change?
- A week from now?
- Every Wednesday evening?
- Every Sunday afternoon?
- A month from now?
- 3 months from today?
- How will I know when it is getting accomplished?
A: Achievable (agreed, attainable)
Attainable: Your goals should absolutely require you to stretch, but they should be within reach if you put in the required work.
- How realistic is this goal, based on my constraints, such as financials or time?
- What tools or helpful people do I have right now to achieve my goals?
- What do I need to improve with the resources I have right now?
- What new resources do I need to obtain success?
R: Relevant (reasonable, realistic, results-based)
Relevant: This is the piece that ties your goal-setting back to larger objectives. If your goal involves increasing your grade point average, for example, make sure you understand how that will benefit you and how you will obtain it.
- Is this worthwhile?
- Is this the right time in my life to work on this?
- Does this conflict with my other efforts & needs?
- Am I the right person to reach this goal?
T: Time bound (time-based, time-sensitive)
Timely: Deadlines keep everyone accountable. Include a time-frame for completion of your goal so you know when to check in on your success. You might also want to include some milestones along the way for incremental check-ins.
- When do I want this accomplished?
- When once weekly will I check-in on myself to see my progress and adjust?
- What can I do today?
- A week from now?
- Every Wednesday evening?
- Every Sunday afternoon?
- A month from now?
- 3 months from today?
The idea is that effective goals embody all of these qualities.