How to Write a SMART Goal

A good mnemonic to use when writing goals is to write goals that are SMART — or Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Let’s take an example of the goal “In 2022 I am going to eat more healthily” and rewrite it into a SMART goal.

Specific

The first step in writing a goal is to make it more specific; having a vague goal like “I want to eat healthy,” can be confusing and unclear. By making the goal more specific it is easier to prioritize what is most important to you about the goal, and makes it easier to motivate yourself. For example, an alternative to “In 2019 I am going to eat more healthily” that would be more specific would be “In 2019 I am going to eat more vegetables.”

Measurable

The next step is to make the goal measurable; you want to be able have a way to objectify your goal. In other words, you need to be able to answer the questions “how much,” “how many,” or “how often.” Based on the answers to these questions you can further revise your goal; in our example, we could revise it to say “In 2019 I am going to eat a salad everyday”

Achievable

Having a specific and measurable goal is a great start, but often people set a goal that is way too difficult and then became overwhelmed or discouraged when he or she is unable to achieve that goal. Instead, when writing a goal it is important to be realistic with what is feasible with ones current lifestyle and habits. So perhaps after reflecting on what is achievable for us, we might rewrite the goal into “In 2019 I am going to eat a salad at least three times a week.”

Relevant

This letter is one of the easiest to skip, but it is one of the most important! It is common for many people to get caught up in creating goals and having objective results, but none of that matters if your goal isn’t important to you. This is the time when you think back over your goal, and decide whether this is something that matters to you, whether this is something in your life that you want to change. In our example, maybe we reflect and decide that eating more vegetables is something we want to do in the new year because we want to be healthy and able to be active with our family for many years to come! 

Time-bound

The final guideline is that the goal should be time-bound. It is important to make the goal time-bound so that one has a cut off to evaluate the goal, reflect on what has been achieved. and then revise the goal as necessary. The amount of time can vary depending on preference, but the important part is that you set aside the time to reflect, evaluate, and revise. Changing habits and lifestyle is a long-term process so it might take more than one SMART goal to solidify the habit. An example of how we could make our goal time-bound is to revise it to be “Beginning in January of 2019, I am going to eat a salad at least three times a week for twelve weeks.”

Hopefully this helps you while you are planning and constructing goals for the New Year! SMART goals are a great way to get started If you need more help or guidance, check out this website for more information or templates to help you: https://www.smartsheet.com/blog/essential-guide-writing-smart-goals