SMART Goals

Schools and management across the U.S. have the need to achieve goals and stress working together as a team. The SMART goals mnemonic is designed to encourage students, employees, and individuals to select and obtain goals which will be valuable to them.

The mnemonic SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. By understanding the significance of each of these labels when applied to obtaining goals, students and employees can better complete tasks. A SMART goal should be specific - meaning you know exactly what you want to achieve and how you want to achieve it. Nonspecific goals are hard to measure and consequently hard to stay motivated to achieve. Instead of just striving to be physically fit, consider being more specific about being physically fit. Do you want to run a mile in less than 10 minutes? Then, make that your goal.

SMART goals should be measurable. You might desire to be a better person and to help out your community. How do you measure being a better person or helping out your community? Instead, start a goal to join a nonprofit organization that helps the community and participate in its activities twice a month. Thus, if you do not join the an organization or participate in it twice a month, you know you have failed your goal. SMART goals should also be attainable. If your goal is to make a million dollars in a year, you may find yourself disappointed when you do not obtain your goal, depending on your circumstances. Make goals that push you to succeed, but do not make them impossible or doomed to failure.

Goals should be relevant. If you feel that your job happiness is low and you would like to try a new career, don't make your goal to be to get a raise at your current job. Do not settle for goals that are less than what you want to achieve as long as your goals are reasonable. Finally, SMART goals should be time-bound. By making goals dependent on time, you have the added pressure to achieve them and, therefore, are much more likely to have success. A person can easily procrastinate the completion of goals until they are a distant memory, if they have no time requirement.

SMART goals work just as well in personal growth as they do in school or the workplace.