Goals are desired results which a person plans to achieve. A famous quote by Elbert Hubbard states that “many people fail in life, not for lack of ability or brains or even courage, but simply because they have not organized their energies around a goal”. According to the YouTube video “Writing SMART Goals,” the presenter explains the importance of setting SMART goals. The Five attributes that define SMART goals include; specific, measurable, agreed upon, realistic, and time-based. SMART is, therefore, derived from an acronym and is utilized by successful organizations.
SMART goals define what one wants to do and how one is going to achieve it. A specific goal should be clear enough for a colleague or friend to understand it. A measurable goal means that one can accurately track their progress to judge if the target has been met. Agreed upon implies that the set goal is attainable and not too ambitious. Goals should be realistic in terms of money, time and opportunity. Targets should also have realistic and clear deadlines (YouTube, n.d.). Well-written goals are easy to manage and provide a clear road to success.
The presenter also discourages using the following words: try, end of the year, shortly, should, could, probably, and ASAP. A word like “shortly” is vague and could be detrimental to goal setting because it is not time-based. “Shortly” could be used to represent a few minutes or hours up to several days, months, or even years (YouTube, n.d.). Therefore, when setting goals, vague or immeasurable words should be avoided.
I have a cake business in London, and to increase the number of my customers by 40%, I have decided to open two shops still in London by 31st December 2020. This is a SMART business goal because it is measurable since it requires two shops to be opened, and should be executed by 31st December 2020, making it time-bound. The benefits of setting SMART goals include: being able to allocate a reasonable time-frame to a project, it prevents being overambitious which leads to unattainable goals and letting one know when they have achieved their target. Working with SMART goals is motivating because it provides clarity and direction in a business or organization.
SMART goals are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-based. The advantage of using SMART goals is that they prevent individuals or businesses from being too ambitious which leads to unattained targets. In addition, they are motivating since they offer a clear direction towards success. Moreover, with SMART goals, people get to know when they have achieved their target, which inspires the goal setter. It is, therefore, imperative to learn how to set SMART goals.
Reference
Projectsmart. (n.d.). Writing SMART Goals [Video]. YouTube. Web.