5 Easy S.M.A.R.T Steps that Accomplish Goals Fast

S.M.A.R.T Goals is a goal setting technique that helps you set and achieve your goals in a smarter way, by monitoring and tracking your progress. 

The technique was created by George T. Doran who published it in his book New Strategies for Business Planning: The S-M-A-R-T Approach published in 1983

The basic idea behind the technique is to break a goal into 4 components which are: specific, measurable, achievable and realistic.

S.M.A.R.T stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound goals and it is one of the most popular goal setting techniques.

It has been proven to work time and time again in various settings across the world, such as business environments or personal life settings like weight loss or exercise routine maintenance.

These components work together to create a goal setting strategy that is practical and effective. One of the best attributes in setting goals is in creating goals that are achievable and help you increase your progress momentum. In this comprehensive guide, we will embark on a journey of discovery, exploring the SMART steps that can help us achieve our goals rapidly and with precision. From the clarity of specific objectives to the accountability of measurable outcomes, these steps serve as a practical guide to supercharge your goal achievement process. Whether your goals are personal or professional, whether they are monumental or incremental, adopting the SMART approach will empower you to turn aspirations into concrete results swiftly and with undeniable success.

 

 

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Tools to Manage Goals

In the process of trying to achieve your goals, remember to be kind and give grace to yourself. Most of the time, we do not reach success in one try but with constant readjusting and reworking the framework. Below are some of our favorite tools and tips 

 

Master Your Motivation

A Practical Guide to Unstick Yourself, Build Momentum and Sustain Long-Term Motivation

• How to declutter your mind 
• 25 simple yet powerful strategies to regain your motivation 
• How to method to boost your self-esteem and turbocharge your motivation
• a powerful framework to build momentum and sustain motivation long-term, and much more.

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Whatever it Takes 

Graduated broke from college and become a serial entrepreneur who has closed over $100M in sales 

• How to master your habits
• How to Transform Your Mind
• How to Transform Your Relationships
• How to Change Your Life for the Better
• How to Break bad habits and form empowering ones

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75 Success Secrets

This book dives into the different levels of success and how to best achieve successful results. The most important aspect is to understand your vision of what success truly means to you

• Easily written to apply it into daily life routines
• 75 common but often complicated success secrets
• Summarizes lessons or secrets of success from many sources
• The secrets are practical, like master keys that anyone can use to unlock

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Law of Attraction Planner 

This planner allows you to carefully craft your your process

• Daily, Weekly, Monthly Planner
• 12 Month Journey to Increase Productivity
• Life Organizer, Gratitude Journal, Habit Tracker
• 248 pages of life transformation; 45 journal pages

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Advantages of Creating Goals

The S.M.A.R.T Goal technique helps you to create goals that you are able to achieve and also obtainable within your reach or bandwidth.  There is a greater sense of frustration or sometimes failure, if you set your goals way to high and then fail to accomplish them., below are some advantages in setting your goals

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Advantages of Creating S.M.A.R.T Goals 

There are different types of goal trackers, which work best with different types of goals. Below are some of our favorite points of creating goals and using S.M.A.R.T Goals Framework. 

• It helps you with structuring your focus
• It provides you the ability to create objectives
• It helps you evaluate your strength and weaknesses
• Save time, as you follow along the goal outlined timelines
• It keeps you focused or zoned in onto that one specific action item

 

Disadvantages of Using S.M.A.R.T Goals 

Just like with any tool, there are cons of using this system, and below we have highlighted what you may need to focus on and improve when using the system:

• if goals not well defined, it can be disheartening
• if not correctly used, you might feel pressured
• if you over schedule your goals, there is is high chance of you will likely miss deadlines

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What is S.M.A.R.T Goal

As stated above, SMART is a goal tracker and has been analyzed, tested and has achieved the recognition that it truly does help with managing and tracking goals.  Below is what it stands for and how to apply to your own personal goals

• Specific: Well defined, clear, and easy to understand and follow  

• Measurable: your progress to achieving the goal should be measurable by a metric or criteria 

• Achievable: your goals should be achievable and not unattainable

• Realistic: is this goal within reach, realistic, and relevant to you

• Timely: the should have clear start date and end date

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How to Use S.M.A.R.T Goals Framework

As stated earlier, this is a goal tracker tool that helps you to keep organized and truly have an overview of how your goal is performing. Many people use this system to help them manage their goals, but it is important to help them keep on track. There are so many challenges and failures that you are likely going to experience if you want to achieve anything, and this system helps to keep you focused and hopefully navigate toward success. To keep things uniformed, we are going to use one example throughout to showcase how the goal progresses.

For instance, if you are going to start a business, you should research and confirm that it is within your capacity and the likelihood to actually achieve the goal. Do not start goals that are clearly hard for you to achieve as this will lead to failure and worse, loss of time and even money. Below are the steps that we would take to start a business using this S.M.A.R.T Goal Framework

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Research 

This is not part of the S.M.A.R.T Goal Framework, but it is so important to initiate. You need to research your goal in order to get an understanding if you  are likely to achieve the goal, if yes, then progress. Becoming an overachiever has qualities that will help you conduct your research.  Some factors to include for our business example in the research phase are: 

• What kind of a business it is  
• Do you need to have employees 
• How much does it cost to start the business
• Is this a seasonal business or year round business
• What is the best time of the year start the business

NB: for our business example, our research phase is detailed from type of business, start up costs, how many employees, listed requirements to open doors, management and operations. The full business cycle is researched in this phase. That is why it is so important to start with your research phase as it will guide the other goal segments

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Specific

Goal Objective: It should be well defined, clear, and easy to understand and follow  

There are many ways to research your goal, but in this phase is where you define exactly what the goal is. It has to be so specific that someone who has no knowledge of your goal can easily understand the objective. A well defined goal is much easier to track, adjust and manage, because you can easily create goal posts or milestones for it. Some tips to consider when it come to being specific about your goals

• Step 1: Define what the goal is  – for our example its starting a business
• Step 2: Create phases – divide the whole process into phases and required action items  

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Measurable

Goal Objective: your progress to achieving the goal should be measurable by a metric or criteria 

In this phase you need to address how you can measure your success or failure. There has to be a measuring metric, for it to be classified as a goal. Goals that do not have well defined metrics are extremely difficult to achieve. Usually, this is when you put in a lot of effort, but no progress is being made or you feel like you are working in circles, this is mainly because the goal may not have outlined deadlines. One of the best ways to overcome these issues is to create daily productive habits that help you move towards your goals. Below are some tips to consider on how to measure your goal: 

•  list deadlines for each phase, when they need to be completed
• How many customers do you need to be profitable 
• How much outputs / sales is considered successful in your niche 
• Which are your best / worst selling months of in your business
• What is your rate of investment to be considered successful

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Achievable

Goal Objective: your goals should be achievable and not unattainable

Dreaming big and going for your dream is certainly a positive mindset and is truly encouraged. But for your dreams to come true you have to plan for them and input strategies that can actually help you to turn your dreams into reality. The best way to do this is to break your dream into smaller goals. In this phase, break that dream into smaller goals that are easier to achieve. You want to follow your dreams with the least path of resistance. The more you break down your goals, you may find them much easier to accomplish and they are no longer such a big mountain. Some tips to consider in this phase

• How to register a new business 
• Acquiring of new business licenses 
• Setting up website and the back office
• Setting a team or hiring freelancers 
• Number of products/ services to sale 

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Realistic

Goal Objective: this phase is determining if the goal is within reach, realistic, and relevant to you

One of the biggest drawback in goal setting, is when we aim so high and making the goal unrealistic or hard to achieve.  There are levels to success, make sure you clearly and honestly state which level you are currently at. Goals that are not realistic, are hardly achievable and usually not within your reach. Do not over inflate your abilities or be so hopeful about the future that you knock down all reasonable logic. Yes, being hopeful is great, but your goals need to have levels they first need to achieve. To drastically achieve success is all based on what kind of a plan you implement. Some points to include in our business example:

• is creating the products / services achievable
• is there a support system to help with business
• do I need additional skills or need to hire someone
• are the outlined goals in each business phase achievable  

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Timely

Goal Objective: the goal should have a clear start date and end date

In the process of aiming to achieve goals on time, it is best maintain an abundant mindset. This should be clearly stated in your research phase because having a goal that misses deadlines is certainly hard to handle or end in failure. Clearly state the deadlines on when the goals should be achieved whether it’s within a week, month or year. To make it more organized, also indicate who is responsible for that specific goal. If it’s just you, indicate which category that goal is tied to. This will certainly help you in managing your daily tasks and will also increase productivity, below are some tips for our business example

• 2 months:  create a website 
• 2 months : create marketing content 
• 3 months:  find a supplier or distributor
• 4 months: create products or service and selling price points

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Conclusion

There are many tools or system to use that track and monitor goals. The S.M.A.R.T Goal Framework has been successful for our different types of goals, especially when it comes to meeting our deadlines. If you are to create your own goal tracker, make sure your goal is specific, know exactly what is expected in each phase, how you measure success or failure and set out clear deadlines.

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