SMART - Goals

This was the third lecture for the module, and today we discussed on setting up on Personal Goals. Setting up a goal in personal life and in career is a very important thing when it comes to achieving cetin wants and needs in life. Why do we need to set up goals? "Life's a long journey" to be successful in this journey a person should know at least where are they heading to. Setting up goals will help to figure out the direction to make a successful life journey (Nikitina, 2010).

Benefits of setting personal goals can be listed as follows, as Nikitian (2010) explains:

• Clear and focused direction giving a sense of security and purpose.
• Maximum use of time.
• Enthusiasm is high for what you want.
• Moving steadily towards and achieving the results you really want and ultimate success.
• Boosted self-esteem, confidence and belief in your ability to make things happen and feel in control.

There are several techniques in setting up goals, in our lecture we discussed on SMART goals. Where SMART stands for:

S – Specific

M – Measurable

A – Attainable

R – Realistic

T – Timely

Breakdown of the words itself gives the meaning of the framework.

Specific

A specific goal has a greater chance of accomplishment, have a great emphasis on what want to achieve. To set a specific goal one must answer six "W"s (Top Achivment, 2011).

• Who:      Who is involved?
• What:     What do I want to accomplish?
• Where:    Identify a location.
• When:     Establish a time frame.
• Which:    Identify requirements and constraints.
• Why:      Specific reasons, purpose or benefits of accomplishing the goal.

For example; Instead of setting a goal to lose weight or be healthier, set a specific goal to lose 2cm off your waistline or to walk 5 miles at an aerobically challenging pace (Stanford University, 2013).

Measurable:

Establish concrete criteria for measuring the progress towards the attainment of the goal. " If you can Measure, you can't manage it" as the statement says choosing a manageable goal which is within the capability and limitation of a person (Stanford University, 2013). To determine if the project or the goal is measurable, ask questions such as: How much? How many? (Top Achivment, 2011).

Example;

"I want to read 3 chapters (or 100 pages) of my book on my own before my birthday" shows the specific target to be measured. "I want to be a good reader" is not as measurable (Stanford University, 2013).

Attainable:

Enriched with all the resources to complete the project or the set goal. Develop the attitudes, abilities, skills, and financial capacity to reach them.

Goals set far of the capability and the capacity will make a person to give up on the goal will stall back.

Realistic:

Realistic mean "do-able" where the learning curve is not a vertical slope, skill and resources needed to accomplish the goal (project) are available (Stanford University, 2013).

As further explained by Stanford University (2013) the goals should be able to achieve with some effort rather being it too difficult or easy.

Timely:

Time must be measurable, attainable and realistic. A goal should be grounded with in a time frame. If no time frame is attached to the goal or the project the interest on it will be too vague thinking it can be started at anytime later (Stanford University, 2013). Further as Top Achivment (2011) stats by anchoring the timeframe into the goal/project it sets the unconscious mind into work on the goal.

With this lecture I learned to set goals in my life and to achieve them within my capability enhancing my skills. And to achieve long-term goals setting up a series of short-term goals will help to achieve the long team goal very easily. For example; graduating the BIT degree with a first class by 2015 involves setting up short-term goals like scoring 15-credit point for each module in every semester.

Further Reading

Nikitina, A. (2010) Personal Goal Setting, [Online], Available: http://www.goal-setting-guide.com/personal-goal-setting/ [9 November 2013].

Stanford University (2013) SMART Goal Setting, [Online], Available: http://studentaffairs.stanford.edu/oae/schwab/goal-setting [10 November 2013].

Top Achivment (2011) Creating S.M.A.R.T. Goals, [Online], Available: http://topachievement.com/smart.html [10 November 2013].