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The SMART in smart goals is an acrostic to help people remember the important points that make personal goal setting effective. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound.

These are all critical components of goal setting that will motivate you to achieve the goals you set for yourself. Let’s discuss these goal setting guidelines right now.

Specific. First, you want to make your goal as specific as possible. You want to ensure your goal is detailed and describes exactly what you want.

For example, if you set a goal to own your own home, be specific about it. Don’t just say I want to own a house. Describe what kind of house you want; how big will it be, how many bedrooms will it have, do you want a house with a yard or not, and where do you want your new home to be located? Answer the question Who, What, When, Where, Which and How. The more specific a goal is, the clearer target you set for yourself.

Measurable. Second, when setting goals, make sure you set goals whose progress you can measure. There is a difference between saying I want to lose weight and I want to lose 30 pounds. When you say, I want to lose 30 pounds, you can measure that. You can see your progress as you decrease your weight from 30 pounds, down to 25, down to 20 and so on. This will help you see fruits of your labor and motivate you to keep pushing forward.

Now if you merely said I want to lose weight, well, losing even one pound could constitute you achieving your goal, so you wouldn’t be kept motivated to continue.

Attainable. Third, you want to set a goal that is attainable. Based on current restrictions, such as your schedule, workload, and knowledge, do you belief you can attain the objective you set? If not, then set a different goal, one that is attainable for you in the present moment. By setting unattainable goals, it will only make you feel like a failure for not accomplishing the target you set for yourself.

Realistic. Next, and this is in line with attainability, set goals that are realistic. If you are 40 pounds overweight and haven’t exercised in years, it’d be a pretty unrealistic goal to run a triathlon with 2 months of training. So set a goal you have a realistic chance of achieving. Doing otherwise is setting you up to fail before you even start.

Time-bound. Last and most important, all smart goals must be time-bound. Meaning you should have a dead line or there should be a date by which you plan to have the goal completed. Setting a deadline reinforces the seriousness of the goal in your mind. It motivates you to take action. When you don’t set a time-line, there is no internal pressure to accomplish the goal, so you dilly dally, letting the goal sit in the back burner.

So make sure to set a date for when you want to accomplish the goal by. By doing so, I guarantee you will find yourself motivated to act on the goal sooner.

Well, these are the goal setting guidelines to set SMART Goals. You want to make them specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound.

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