Every person starts each New Year off with fabulous goals. By mid-to-late January, intentions slip, and people get busy in their regular routines. It can be difficult to retain the focus necessary to achieve your goal.
This, year, by defining your goal in a way that uses the features of a SMART goal, you can help to achieve your goals, making it your best year yet. Doesn’t everyone love to complete their goals?
After defining your goal in a SMART way, break down the goal itself into smaller stages or steps, that are easily actionable.
You can do this !
Until your goal has been refined into smaller tasks, it may take you longer to get there.
For my fabulous Goal Planning Worksheet, click here to signup.
Identify the general Goal
For example, your goal might be any of the following, or any other goal that is important to you:
- Save or supplement an emergency fund
- Stay afloat
- Reduce Debt
- Retire Early
- Change living situation
- Move to a new place
- Send a child to college
- Earn a college degree
- Update your bathroom, or do renovations
- Invest in new appliances – a new refrigerator, or washer/dryer set
- Pay for a new water heater or furnace
- Change to renting from owning or vice versa
- Purchase a new or used vehicle
- Hire a tutor
- Pay for additional schooling
- Buy music lessons
- Save for a vacation
Additional Goals to look at here.
Make your goal, a SMART goal
Specific,
Make your goal as specific as possible – leave no detail out. Describe it so it is clear in your mind.
How much money do you need to save or make?
Measurable
You must make it measurable, so you know when you have achieved it. If it is intangible, it will be harder to reach your goal. How will you know you have reached your goal?
Achievable / Attainable
Achievable describes that the level of the goal can be reached within the time window (see T)
Each goal or plan is made up of many smaller steps that make up the bigger steps under the goal.
Realistic / Relevant
The goal is realistic for you to achieve as dependent on your capacity and ability to get the work done.
We all have a limited amount of time in the day, and a limited capacity for effort in the time frame. Can your goal be realistically achieved in the time window? Is the goal relevant to you?
Time-Bound
You are setting a specific time-window in which to get the work done to complete the goal. Typically, this can be annually, quarterly, monthly, daily.
By when can you achieve saving the amount you’ve specified (in S)?
Examples of SMART Goals
By August 31, 2023, I will have saved or obtained $1,000 to put towards the purchase of a new washer/dryer for my home; by setting aside a portion of money from my bi-weekly paycheck.
By June 30, 2024, in 18 months, I will have saved $10,000 in my bank account, to put towards my college education.
In 4 years, by December 31, 2027, I will have completed a college degree at [specific name of] College in [Degree program].
Current Situation
Before you jump into where you are going, you should document where you are now – what is the current situation you are in? This will provide the starting point from which you will be able to measure your progress.
If you are starting with any of the situations to raise money or to make money, you will need to look at your budget and your balance sheet (your assets and liabilities) e.g. how much money, if any you may have saved or available to you (if any), and how much money you owe (if any).
Your Future: Identify Big Steps that need to be completed
The more specific you are in the Step above, when you are defining the SMART Goals, the better you will be able to both visualize the goal in your mind, and to identify what steps you will need to take you there.
If you are unfamiliar with the steps, here are some ways to help with identifying what steps to take:
- Brainstorm – write down a list of all steps you think you will need to take, group them and prioritize them
- Break down the goal, into smaller steps
For example for Saving Money, a step might be to identify places in your budget where you can reduce costs, to save some money; or identify an extra income stream so you can put aside some of your new income.
There may also be dependencies on other people, identify those
Identify who may be affected if you stay the same, and who will be affected as you make your changes.
Prioritize your Tasks
For this to be fair, you should identify the criteria by which you will order your tasks. Then you can use this criteria to weight and prioritize the order in which you will work on the tasks to move towards completion. The criteria allows the prioritization to occur in a non-biased way.
The most important task can sometimes be the hardest one. If it feels “too hard” to do, it may be too big, so think about if the task can be broken down further into smaller, steps that are more easy to do.
Take Action
If you are a visual thinker, the best way to step forward towards the goal in your head is to get it down on paper. By writing it down, your mind and body engage in the process. Also, you set your mind forward to “think about” how you will get there. When you have it in written form, you can see it.
If you work better by hearing, you could write down your goal and tasks, and read them aloud; or record them on your phone and schedule them to be played back to remind yourself of your goal and steps to take.
If you work better by doing, you may need to write the tasks down initially in an outline format, then, formulate a method to reinforce the steps so you can identify and do them.
Start by doing one of the items you’ve defined as a small task – kickstart your new year – get started now.
Are you ready to get started?
I have a fabulous and FREE Goal Planning worksheet, which you can get via my signup page.
This page was updated January 6, 2023.