Realize your dreams - set SMART goals

Diary by Nikolay Frolochkin

We all have dreams. Big dreams. The thing is, big dreams are difficult to realize. What you really need is a plan. A list of SMART goals that will help you to make that dream into reality. So, what is a SMART goal and how will it help you?


The acronym "SMART" has multiple variations, but I will explain it with these words:

Specific
Measurable
Agreed upon
Realistic
Time-bound

Not all of these words will be equally important, but they will help you to better define your goal. Let's go a bit deeper into each word.

Specific
When setting a goal, be specific. "Living healthier" is a nice idea, but what exactly does it mean? I would say that "living healthy" is actually the big dream, and you need to break it down into smaller steps. An example could be "Drink more water."

Measurable
OK, we have a more specific action now, but "more" is still quite vague. "Measurable" is about numbers. So here you could say "Drink 8 glasses of water a day". It can also be about a clear done/not done goal. If your goal is specific enough, it should be measurable.

Agreed upon
This one is more important when setting goals in a team project, as this focuses more on "the stakeholders should all agree on the goal", but it's always good to ask yourself: this goal that I'm setting, am I willing to go for it? An example could be: you want to lose weight. You could take weight loss pills, but if you don't want to do that, this is not really an option for you, so you can discard it based upon this criterion.

Realistic
Double-check that the goal you are setting is realistic. "Make a trip to the moon next summer" might be specific, measurable, agreed upon and time-bound, that doesn't make it realistic, meaning that I can not make it happen. (Who knows, maybe in a few years, but definitely not next summer. :) )

Time-bound
I've mentioned it before and I'll mention it again: we humans are driven by deadlines. Sometimes, your house/room is a mess, and you never feel an urgency to clean it up. You tell yourself "oh yeah, I have to clean", but when you come back from work/school you are tired and the cleaning up can wait. Then your mom/friend calls you and wants to come over, and suddenly you have all the energy you need to make sure your space is presentable.
OK, long explanation, but the same goes for goals. As long as the timing of your goals is "some day", it will not happen. Say you want to accomplish something within a day/week/month/year... and it will be done.
An important side-note here is to keep your time frame realistic, but also a bit challenging. We humans will take all the time we are given, so if you think it's realistic to achieve a certain goal this month, don't give yourself a year for it, but also don't try to accomplish it within a week.

A few more examples to get you started:
"Get out more"----> "Go outside for a walk at least 15 minutes every day"
"Lose weight" ----> "Lose 1 kg within 30 days"
"Travel the world" ----> "Visit Japan next summer"
"Be more social" ----> "Join my colleagues for a drink at least once a month."


As I said, there are multiple ways of defining SMART goals, and this is only a basic introduction. You might want to break goals down even further and get more specific in the process you will go through to achieve the goal. "Visit Japan next summer", for example, is still a pretty big goal that you might want to break down into smaller bits like "Book the flight", "Book the hotel". Don't get lost in the rabbit hole just yet though. ;-)

I hope this helped you to think about your dreams and how to set your goals in order to achieve them. What are some of your SMART goals? Leave a comment! :)