Making Sure Your Goals are SMART

While this blog covers commercial real estate, investment real estate, and building wealth via like-kind exchange, I would like to take the New Year as an excuse to cover goal-setting in all aspects of your professional and personal life. As New Years Resolutions are set you resolve to take on a commitment that will last you at least a few months. With the fact that many people set unrealistic resolutions for themselves, you should take heed of a standard life coach saying- "the most important promises are the ones we make to ourselves." Seriously, if you can not trust yourself, you lose faith in yourself (equals low self-esteem) and you lose faith in the words and promises of those around you (equally bad). That being said, when setting your yearly goals, make sure they are SMART (to be defined next).

Make sure that your goals are SMART. SMART is an acronym that sports psychologists use to define good goals which are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-anchored. A specific goal answers the questions of who, what, where, when, how (e.g. "Finish the Local 5K on August 22 in less than 21 minutes"). Goals that are measurable let you know when the goal has been achieved and it's time to set new goals (e.g. "Weigh 166 pounds before July 4"). Attainable goals take into account the process you will take to get there (e.g. "Do one hour of exercise, six days a week"). Realistic goals are those which challenge you, but are not impossible. For example, if Betty's training is going well in the first few weeks, it would not be realistic for her to inflate her goal to "Run a sub-three-hour marathon" when her previous best time was 4:15. Time-anchored goals give you a specific end date that is neither so near that you don't have time to reach your goal, nor so far that you lose interest in your goal.

These sports-oriented goals can be crossed-over to your professional life very easily. For job changers it can be, make 3 informational interviews by May 1st with senior executives. For disorganized, busy folks it can be keep inbox to under 50 emails for two months or until March 1, 2010. For the salesmen and saleswomen of the world who have to go through the "No's to get to the Yes's", you can state a weekly goal of 30 cold calls per month with 2 appointments with qualified leads.


So go out there and make promises to yourself that you can keep!Sphere: Related Content