Be SMART About Setting Your Goals

Whether your goals are personal or professional, make sure you write them down--and make sure you write them down in a way that's SMART. I'm not just talking about intelligence here: by ensuring that your goal meets the criteria of a SMART goal, you'll maximize your ability to achieve it.

But what is a SMART goal?

SMART is an acronym that, depending on who you ask, stands for all sorts of different things--all of them focused on making your goal more achievable. Here with the Goal Setting Queen, we use SMART to mean the following:

S is for Specific - A vague goal, like "I want to be a better student" or "I want to improve my business' online presence" doesn't do a very good job of motivating anybody. What's your definition of better or improved, and how are you going to know when you've reached it? Make sure that your goals are specific so that you know what you have to do, and how you're going to do it.

M is for Measurable - If you can't measure your progress on the road to achieving your goal, how are you going to keep yourself from getting discouraged? Ensure that your goals are measurable, so that you can see what you've done and what you still need to do.

A is for Achievable - The point of setting goals is, of course, to achieve them. Goals should be challenging, but certainly not impossible!

R is for Written - This one is a bit of a cheat, but it's important. You really do have to write down your goals, and make sure they're written down in a place where you'll see them often. The act of writing a goal makes it more concrete in your mind, and reading it all the time will remind you to work towards it!

T is for Time-Based - Be sure to set a deadline for your goal. Saying that you'll accomplish your goal "someday" is vague, and as you know, we don't like vagueness and neither should you. If you don't have a deadline, what reason do you have to work on making any progress? Procrastination is the death of many a good goal.