Setting Achievable Goals

I always have had goals, various things I would like to achieve in my life, however, I never really sat down to create immediate goals. One part of starting a business should be to set forth what you hope to achieve from  having said business, for instance some immediate goals. Lately I have been feeling like I am simply living day to day with no expectations of what tomorrow will bring. I would like to change that. One thing I am going to look into is a visionary board or vision board I think it’s called. My friend Angie Strader has one and she said it has been a fantastic motivation for her!

When setting goals it’s best to use a technique called SMART (see image above). The SMART technique was actually something I learned while taking business courses for my Bachelors Degree in Business Administration (currently taking a break on this degree). I personally believe setting goals are important for life as well as business. Setting goals for yourself will allow you to feel successful and happy when the goals you set forth are achieved. So let’s get started on setting some goals today;

1. Be Very Specific About Your Goal: Using questions such as WHAT are you going to do, WHY is this important to do at this time in your life? HOW are you going to accomplish this goal?
2. Be sure your goal is Measurable: Set a specific date or time frame to achieve this goal. If you can’t set a date on it, then you will not gain the satisfaction from achieving said goal. Basically your goal should have a specific time attached to it, another reason to be very specific in goal setting.
3. Attainable goals work best, meaning do not set forth to lose 30lbs in one week, it will NOT happen and a goal must be Specific, Measurable and something you can achieve within your lifetime so that you are able to feel the success behind said goal. Keeping goals attainable means you will better be able to feel happiness and move forward in a positive direction.
4. Be realistic in goal setting, this is not be confused with an easy goal, but simply a goal that you have the ability to complete. So if you have a broken leg and been told you can not run anymore, setting a goal to run a 5K within 3 weeks of this broken leg may not be realistic. This is not to say you don’t want to stretch the power of what you can do a bit further to make the goal challenging, simply be certain your goal is do-able.
5. Be sure that your goal is time-bound, which means you have set a realistic, attainable goal that can be completed within a specifically noted time frame! Thus creating a way for you to feel the happiness and satisfaction that comes from completing said goal!

So in a nutshell, be sure each goal you set is going to be SMART, a SMART goal is a perfect goal!

Make it a Happy Day!