SMART goals

I have been lucky enough to have worked in several places where the company brings in a lecturer to help teach you how to do your job better. The one that worked the best for me (at least the one that I remember the best today) was the person who taught me about making SMART goals.

I always thought that making goals was as easy as saying "I will loose 15 pounds". Well, it is and it isn’t. That is a great goal. But it needs more to be a SMART goal. There are 5 components to a SMART goal.

     Specific
     Measurable
     Achievable
     Recordable and
     Time bound

To make your goal, "I will loose 15 pounds", a SMART goal it just has to include those 5 things.

Maybe "I will loose 15 pounds by Thanksgiving Day, by sticking with my daily Points Targets and adding a 15 minute walk each morning before work. I won’t dip into my 35 extra (flex) Points, instead I will earn those points back with my Points Booster."

Is this goal Specific? Pretty much! I’m saying how I will achieve my 15 pound weight loss, by sticking with my daily Points target and adding 15 minutes of exercise.

Is this goal Measurable? You bet. I weigh in at each meeting and measure my weight. I also record my Points in my tracker.

Is this goal Achievable? I think so. 50 pounds by Thanksgiving probably isn’t, but 15 is reasonable. That’s approximately 2 pounds per week.

Is this goal Recordable? It’s recorded in my WW book each Saturday!!

Is this goal Time Bound? Yep. I gave myself the deadline of Thanksgiving day. That is 7 weeks from now.


I think that there are two other important parts to making a goal. The first is to share it. Tell someone who supports you what kind of goal you set and how you plan to reach the outcome. The second is to review it. You should have it written somewhere you will look at it to remind yourself that you actually have a goal that you are working towards.


Does anyone else have some tricks you use to write or reach a goal?