Do Your Goals Pass The “SMARTA” Test?

Paul McKenna in his book, Change your life in 7 days explains that there are three steps to a wonderful life.

Step 1. A clear direction (your dreams). Or what I

called your mission and vision.

Step 2. A well-aligned compass (your values)

And

Step 3. Milestones you can visit along the way to your ultimate destination (your goals). This is what we are going to explore in this blog – your goals….

Paul McKenna writes that less than 3% of us write down our goals. We don’t like to plan our destiny instead stumbling through life, leaving things to chance and then deep down feeling like something isn’t quite right with our life. As J

ohn Wooden the American college basketball coach was known for saying, “If you fail to plan, plan to fail”.

I would love to share some key attributes that support me in designing my goals and may help you to design yours!

You may have heard of the acronym S.M.A.R.T, when talking about goal setting. This concept originated by Peter Drucker in 1954 in his book, management by objectives. Some authors have added additional letters, giving additional criteria to SMART i.e. SMARTER Evaluated and reviewed or SMARTA ie Accountable.

My favourite is SMARTA. So, let’s understand SMARTA!

SMARTA Goals

Specific

Write down exactly what is to be achieved. Is it clearly defined and easily understood? Does the goal answer; what you want to accomplish, why this is an important goal for you, and how you intend to accomplish the goal?

Measurable

The goal needs to be measured to ensure you can check the

progress of the goal at certain check points and at the end of the goal. It helps you to stay on track and gives you the motivation of achievement that encourages you to keep on going!

Achievable

Your goals need to take you out of your comfort zone and get you excited to accomplish them. They should be challenging. But at the same time as being challenging it needs to be realistic for you.

Relevant

Is it effective, is it related to your dream, vision, mission and values. Is this goal right for you?

Time-Bound

Very simply, your goals can not be open ended, you need to ensure every goal has an end date. As well as a end date, it’s a good idea to set some short-term milestones along the way to help you measure progress.

Accountable

Who can you share your goal with? Is there some-one who can support you to become accountable for your goals and check in regularly with. I have had success since joining a goals club. The support of the individuals in the club is invaluable. They have supported me to keep accountable and on track with my goals?

I have summarised all these steps into a neat worksheet for you to use and apply to your goals. Please send me an email and ask me for the worksheet and I will send it to you. Best of luck in designing your awesome goals!!