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Rustle Up Some SMART Goals

Today’s post is a quick and easy guide to goal setting. Have a goal you’ve been meaning to flesh out? Just can’t seem to get yourself motivated? Fear not! Today we’re going to be outlining SMART goals: what they are, why they help, and how to set one that’s right for you.

A SMART goal is one that is specific, measurable, aggressive, realistic, and time-bound. Essentially, it’s a process to make a goal easier to manage and achieve. This process of setting up clear expectations can direct focus and increase goal commitment. And when goal setting, that commitment is essential to goal realization (Bauer & Erdogan, 2014). Specific goals with some form of measurement help to reduce ambiguity and give you very clear feedback as to whether you are on the way to meeting that goal (Locke 2009). SMART goals can be effective both on an individual level and within an organization.

So let’s say your goal is best expressed in the sentiment “I’d like to do more writing.” Hooray! You’ve taken the first step in charging ahead with that ambition. We’ll use this as an example of a goal to work with and frame in SMART goal format.

Specific – A goal that you set needs to be specific. This will help to keep it from feeling vague and overwhelming, and let you focus in on what exactly you would like to focus your attention and efforts on. For the above goal, a more specific version might look like “I’d like to complete my first young adult novel.” (We’ll worry about publishing later.)

Measurable – Your goal needs to have some way in which you can measure progress towards your outcome. It’s also really important to make sure that the way in which you measure your progress is an accurate reflection of the task at hand. You wouldn’t measure writing progress by, say, the number of pencils you burned through. Although it may be related, ultimately it’s not quite a reflection of the quantity or quality of work that is being produced. Keeping track of your progress can be a major help in boosting your confidence that you can actually achieve your goal. For a budding novel writer, a good way to measure progress might be by the number of chapter drafts completed and edited.

Aggressive – Make that goal aggressive! This doesn’t mean you turn your novel into a gritty crime thriller, but rather that the goal you set should reflect some level of ambition and commitment. There should be just enough heat to keep you hammering away, excited about the progress you’re making. It also helps reduce procrastination by setting you up to take your goal seriously. So rather than giving yourself, say, a ten year time frame for a rough novel, kick your butt into gear with “I want to complete my first draft in one year.”

Realistic – The key here is to make this goal challenging, but you want to be sure you haven’t set yourself up for failure with an impossible goal. That means the goal needs to be within your control to achieve and take your personal abilities into account. An unrealistic goal might be “I will write a novel that will be on the bestseller’s list” because a lot of what goes into that particular success is beyond your direct control. It depends on the market, advertising, your publisher, distribution, and a host of factors that are out of your hands. (You could, however, focus some efforts on maximizing the marketing campaign for your book, to increase the likelihood that it will end up on the bestseller’s list. This might involve incorporating a host of action items such as researching marketing trends, meeting with a publicist, blasting social media, etc.) Focus on setting a challenge that with some effort you can achieve. Our goal above – completing a novel within one year – is certainly ambitious, but not out of the realm of possibility.

Time-Bound – Ideally, your goal should have a timeline to it. This can be for certain actionable items you wish to achieve (maybe finishing one rough chapter each week) but also for your end goal (having a completed first draft of the novel by the end of the year). I find it can be helpful to use a productivity app such as Trello or GoogleKeep to keep track of targets you need to hit on the way to goal completion.

After rephrasing the original ambition, our new SMART goal might look like this:

“I would like to complete the first draft of my young adult novel within one year. I will measure my progress by producing one chapter every week, and then subsequently by editing one chapter each week.”

This goal is now specific (first draft of novel), measurable (as measured by weekly chapter production and edits), aggressive but realistic (challenging while still within your control), and time-bound (within one year). Creating a SMART goal will not only help you to see the path to victory more clearly, it will help you to find actionable steps you can take to make a visible a dent towards completion. For an extra accountability boost, share your goal and timeframe with a trusted friend – not only will this help to keep you from procrastinating, but you just might inspire them to create their own SMART goals. Good luck, and stay SMART!

 

Bauer, T., & Erdogan, B. Organizational Behavior. Flatworld Knowledge. ISBN Equivalent: 0-9820430-6-6-16701.

Locke, E. A., Editor. (2009). Handbook of Principles of Organizational Behavior, 2nd Edition. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN:9780470740941.

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