SMART Goal Setting: How to Set Goals and Achieve Them

65% of the planet does not even write goals down. They are not even in the game!

 

If you look at your to-do list, and say, “I’ve got a pretty good to-do list,” know that just to write a pretty good to-do list gets you into the top 35% of the population.  To actually write it as a very solid list of goals, and actually be comprehensive, and start writing it as a plan, begins to move you up the ladder of success.  (Most start from nothing written down, or something in their head, and you must realize that they might write down their grocery list, but they don’t write down the greatest things that they need to do in order to grow their business, health, or relationships, for example.)

 

Therefore, holistically, whether it’s your health, your love, your spirituality, your career and business –

1. Write it down.  Be really honest with yourself and assess, what have you written down today?

2. You are now in the top 35% because you have it written down, even if you just have a to do list with no plan written.

 

To get up to the 90th percentile, it is still a to-do list, but it is very comprehensive, it is very detailed, and it has complete information.  At the 90%, people get very powerful as well because they have consistent discipline to SCHEDULE their steps and goals as well.

 

In order to break into the top 10%, you need to go into a format that is known as S.M.A.R.T. Goals. S.M.A.R.T.  stands for Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, and Time-base.

 

So, to say that, “I am going to grow my business,” is not S.M.A.R.T.

 

To say that, “I am going to create an extra $10,000 in revenue in Q3 with $5,000 coming in August and $5,000 coming in September,” is S.M.A.R.T.  It’s specific, you can measure it, you can actually act on it. You know what you need to do to generate $10,000 of business. If it is realistic or not, you get to decide that, and there are time-frames to it.

 

To write that down, now leads to the next step where you are writing down S.M.A.R.T. sub-steps to that, to say, “okay, I am going to get a marketing brochure.  It will be produced by August 10th for the new promotion,  and it is going to cost me nothing because I am going to self publish it,” or, “I have budgeted $500 to print it,” or, whatever.  Next, “I am going to mail it, I am going to send it here, I am going to do this with it.”  You begin doing all of the sub-steps necessary to create the top down goal approach that is S.M.A.R.T.

 

If you do this, you are now in the top 10%.  If you do it well, and you do it comprehensively in the areas of your life that you are really focused on, even better!