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S. M. A .R. T. Goal
Setting
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Goals should be SMART:
SPECIFIC
MEASURABLE
ATTAINABLE
REALISTIC
TIMELY
Setting Goals
At this point you have gone through the task of assessing yourself and
exploring areas of interest to you. It is now time to set some career goals.
Why should you set goals?
The process of setting and achieving goals will help you concentrate better,
move forward with more confidence and have less stress. Why? Because you
know where you are going and, if you know where you are going it is easier
to get there.
By setting goals and measuring their achievements, you are able to see what
you have done and what you are capable of doing. The process of reaching
goals and seeing your accomplishments gives you the confidence to set and
achieve even higher goals.
We all set and achieve goals every day without even thinking about it.
However, to achieve those things that we really want to achieve – our
priorities, we should take some specific steps to clarify our priorities. By
examining what our priorities are, we can respond to the “little things in
life” in a way that supports achieving our priorities. In other words,
what we ultimately want to achieve in life is influenced by the decisions we
make on a daily basis.
How do we go about deciding what our goals should be? Start by brainstorming
all of the areas of your life that are important to you and write down what
you would like to achieve in those areas. If you are in a partnership you
will want to have joint goals and individual goals. Some potential goal
areas are:
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• Artistic
•
Career
• Community Service
• Education
• Family
• Financial
• Physical/Health
• Pleasure/Travel/Recreation
• Social |
You may have other areas that are
important to you – write them down and some of the things you would like
to achieve.
Once you have written down the things you would like to achieve
in these areas, prioritize them. You might want to take several passes at
your prioritization list and re-prioritize until you are satisfied with the
end result. Make sure the list of achievements reflects the kind of life you
want to lead. Do these accomplishments fall in line with your principles,
values and reward criteria?
If you aren’t sure your goals fall in line
with your values, try this exercise (not for the faint of heart).
Take
several pieces of paper (index cards will work) and write down your values
– one value per paper or card. Strive for 15 to 30 values. It may take
some work but you can come up with at least 0 values you hold. Now sort the
cards from your highest priority to your lowest priority. Make several
passes at this to ensure you are satisfied with your priorities. Now number
the cards from the highest priority to the lowest priority. Give the cards
to a close friend (spouse will work) and have them sort the cards based on
how you behave. You may be surprised and/or disappointed. The way you
perceive yourself and your behaviors may be very different from how others
perceive you. It is very important to view this exercise as a learning
experience.
It would be best if you could discuss this exercise with the
person doing the second sort. Be aware you may become defensive. Try to stay
away from defensiveness and learn from this exercise.
Once you are satisfied
with the list, write a goal around each of those desired accomplishments.
When writing goals there are a few guidelines that should be followed:
Goals
should be conceivable.
This is probably obvious but sometimes we need to
know that the outrageous is okay. Start big! This guideline simply says you
should be able to think it up.
Goals should be believable and achievable.
Is
this goal something you believe you can do? There are times when we either
limit our options because we never realistically considered the possibility
or maybe “overshot” our realm of possibility. Don’t be overly negative
or positive however, if you don’t believe you can accomplish the goal, you
won’t. You must be able to believe you can - it may be a stretch but you
have to be able to believe it.
Goals should be measurable.
You should be
able to tell when you have achieved your goal. If you include dates or
specific criteria in your goals you will know when you do or don’t achieve
them.
Goals should be stated with no alternative.
“I’ll try to do…”
is not a goal. If you want something enough to make if a goal, don’t give
yourself an alternative. Goals should be something you want. Not your
parents or friends or anyone else you love and respect.
Goals should be
something you want.
Some recommend going one step further and say goals
should be something you are passionate about because if you don’t have
passion for it just make it something you would do some day and leave it at
that. Goals need to have value to you to make them work pursuing.
Goals
should be controllable.
Your goals should be something you can do without
relying on someone else to make it happen for you. It may take work and
positioning or a stretch on your part; however, your goals should always be
something you can control.
Once you have ironed out the goal write it down.
Research shows visualizing your goals assists in making them happen. You
want your goal to be written in a way that lends itself to visualization. In
order to make the goal more visual for you the following should be applied
to the written goal:
Goals should be stated in the present tense.
By writing
your goals in the present tense you are creating a “present vision” for
yourself, making the goal more believable by allowing yourself to “see”
yourself doing it right now.
Goals should be positive statements.
You want
to be able to think about this goal on an ongoing basis. It is more
difficult to visualize something not happening than something happening. For
example, if I say don’t think about elephants flying, what is the first
thing that comes into your head? I’m willing to bet it’s something
similar to Dumbo!
Goals should be precise.
There is the story of the man who
was walking along the beach in Malibu during the 1973 gas crisis and found a
genie in a bottle. He wished for a foreign car dealership in a large,
metropolitan area thinking he could “make a killing” selling small, high
gas mileage cars to former big car-loving, urban Americans.
He ended up with
a Chrysler dealership in Hong Kong.
Your goal statements should be able to
answer the questions who, what, where and when in vivid detail.
Now that I’ve
given you all of these guidelines let me give you an example:
I am
successfully managing a $5,000,000,000 portfolio at Goldman Sachs in New
York by the year 2005.
OR
I am using my creative genius to market 5 new and
exciting products for Johnson & Johnson by the year 2002.
In addition to
committing the goal to paper, you should tell someone – tell everyone what
your goals are. By telling people what your goals are, a couple of things
can happen. They can encourage you in your pursuit of your goals and they
may be able to help you achieve your goals.
Visualize yourself achieving
your goal
Take a few minutes every day to go over your goals in your mind.
See yourself achieving them and reveling in your success. By doing that you
remind yourself what your goals are and area able to make decisions that
will take you toward your goal on a daily basis.
Making a Plan
Once you have
set your goals, written them down, told your friends and began visualizing
them every day, you need to make some plans to achieve them.
In order to
make a plan for achieving your goals here are some questions to ask
yourself:
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• What skills do I need to achieve this goal?
• What information and
knowledge do I need?
• Do I need help, or assistance, or collaboration
from
anyone else?
• Are there resources I need?
• What can slow me down or stop me?
• Am I making any assumptions? |
Once you have this information you are able to
set intermediate goals that will ultimately lead to achieving your main
goal.
Achieving
your Goal.
Achieving Your Goal Once you have achieved your goal allow yourself to
revel in your accomplishment and success. Reward yourself appropriately.
Then take a look at your goal and apply a bit of analysis. Was the goal “too
easy”? Did it take too long to achieve so that you almost gave up? Did you
learn anything about setting goals? What should you do differently next
time?
Then sit down and plan your next goal or tackle an existing goal that
was a lower priority.
Failure
If you fail to achieve your goal you also need
to take a look at how things went on the road to failure. Was the goal too
difficult? Did you try your best? Did you lose your passion for the reward
the goal would give you? Were you missing a key skill or piece of
information? What did you learn to assist you in setting achievable goals?
Then sit down and start the process all over again.
Keep in mind that your
goals might change, especially if you have set “lifetime” goals. As you
mature and go through lifecycle changes you may find it necessary to adjust
some goals, or eliminate them altogether. That's okay. Take the time to
evaluate as necessary and to write new and more effective goals. The Career Services Center provides a number of tools for assisting you in
your Self-Assessment:
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