How to Set and Smash Your Goals!

Every meaningful feat ever achieved first began with goal setting. In the words of Zig Ziglar:

“If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.”

You cannot possibly aim at something you have neither identified nor singled out. Focus. Streamline your target. Concentrate.

Whether it’s a personal goal, a life goal, a business goal, or a financial goal — you have to set a goal first. Regardless of what you may want to achieve in any area or aspect of your life, the starting point is goal setting. Not just any goal — a SMART goal.

The SMART acronym for goal setting is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Reachable and Time-bound. Meaning that a SMART goal setting incorporates the criteria listed. For this to be largely relatable, let us focus our discussion on setting a SMART goal for your business. It doesn’t matter if it is a short-term goal or a long-term goal. The same rule applies.

SMART Goal — Specific

“All successful people have a goal. No one can get anywhere unless he knows where he wants to go and what he wants to be or do. ” — Norman Vincent Peale

If you don’t know where you are going, how would you know when you get there? I once stopped a cab. He asked for my destination and I literally said “Anywhere”. He gave me a quizzical and almost disdainful look. I was carrying out an experiment!

The more specific your goals are, the more likely you are to achieve them.

Let us assume your goal is to make money online. Now, this is way too broad a goal.

A more specific goal would be “I want to make money online through affiliate marketing”.

However, that’s not enough. It has to be measurable.

SMART Goal — Measurable

If you can’t measure it, you equally won’t be able to manage it. How would you successfully monitor your progress if you cannot gauge or evaluate it? Set your goals. Be specific with your goals. Even more, make sure your goals are measurable. Without quantifiable metrics, you will not be able to track your advancement per time.

A specific and measurable goal would be “I want to make $10,000 from affiliate marketing”

SMART Goal — Achievable or Attainable

Reassess your current capacity, capability and available resources in achieving the goals you set but do not be limited by them.

If you want to make $10,000 from affiliate marketing, you cannot possibly be going at the same pace you did to make your first $1,000.

If your goal is 10k, it would be achievable or attainable if you are ready to give it what it takes.

SMART Goal — Realistic

I don’t know of any goal that cannot be achieved. However, without a workable plan of getting the technical know-how, time, resources, capacity and leverage you need to achieve an overarching goal, your efforts would not be realistic.

Do not dream of collecting a thousand litres of rainwater if you cannot get a thousand-litre capacity container outside when it’s raining.

As such, a realistic goal is subjective.

SMART Goal — Time-Bound

Someone said, “Goals without deadlines are but weak longings.” It’s never enough to set a Specific, Measurable, Achievable and a Realistic goal, it has to be time-bound! A beginning and an end have to be clearly identified.

A SMART goal for making money online would be “I want to make $10,000 from affiliate marketing by the 30th of Next Month”

Not just a deadline, you need to have a timeline! Lack of understanding of the difference is the one towering reason why some people’s goals will forever remain as dreams and mere wishes.

A deadline is the last day stipulated to achieve a goal. A deadline is a date or time before which something must be done. Deadlines create a sense of urgency. Deadlines can motivate, as well as paralyse one.

A timeline is when you split your work into milestones or in a sequential timeframe.

Your goal has to be broken down into milestones. Each milestone has to be broken down into the smallest units of indivisible tasks. And these tasks have to be orderly and arranged.

What should I do first? What am I supposed to do next? What tasks have to be done before I can jump to the next?

Karen Casey said, “One part at a time, one day at a time, we can accomplish any goal we set for ourselves.”

A timeline is an orderly and timely arrangement of your milestones and tasks in such a way that would allow you to know and do exactly what you ought to do per time in order for you to achieve your overall goal before the stipulated deadline.

Set your goals and hit them! From our SMART goal example, create yours. And create a timeline to achieve it.