How to set a SMART goal
SMART GOAL
Vietnamese version: Phương pháp đặt mục tiêu thông minh
It’s better to know exactly your destination before departing – Vtenglish
Do you have the habit of setting the ultimate outcome before starting to work on something?
I always believe in knowing the ultimate outcome, define what I want to achieve before diving into it. It has been helping myself a lot in my learning as well as working journey, so in today article Vtenglish would like to walk you through the process of setting a goal for whatever you want to achieve in a foreseeable future
What is SMART goal?
The definition of SMART goal was first mentioned in “Manager Review” – T.Doran published in 1981. The structure of a SMART goal:
- SPECIFIC
- MEASURABLE
- ACHIEVABLE
- RELEVANT
- TIME-BOUND
SPECIFIC
To start you need to define exactly what you want to achieve, clearly state what you want in a concise sentence. A general statement or a blur goal will not support you in focusing on it.
For example:
Generic goal: I want to improve my English
In this statement we don’t specify the level of improvement that we want to achieve, do you want to communicate fluently? Or you just want to focus on reading documents? No one knows!
Specific Goal: I’m going to get band 7.0 in Ielts speaking within 6 months.
Here 7.0 in Ielts speaking is a specific statement, this specific number will lead all the activities you do and as a ‘tourguide’ whenever you’re missing along the learning journey.
MEASURABLE
After all your goal statement will be on a paper forever if you don’t start working on it and make it comes true someday. Along the journey you need to follow up the progress, make adjustment if needed, what else more fascinated than watching yourself moving forward every day. In order to track your progress your goal should be measurable.
To make the point let’s return to the above example: “I’m going to get 7.0 in Ielts speaking in 6 months”
It’s straightforward that 7.0 in 6 months are 2 measurable numbers, after every month you should review your progress again, let’s say after the first month do several trial tests and get band 5, after the second one you’re in band 6 but in the third month you fall down again to band 5, realizing something must be wrong. This is the time to review what you’re doing wrong here and how you can adjust it.
Yes, just that simple but a lot of people are not aware, from now on after reading this please don’t forget to make your goal is measurable.
ACHIEVABLE
It’s exactly like it sounds, your goal should be realistic, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t set a goat that’s out of your reach, yes you can but please consider your current situation, your goal and the timebound.
A far-fetched goal even in worst can demotivate yourself, let’s say “I’m going to get 7.0 in Ielts speaking in 6 months” this goal can be suitable for people who have learn EL for a while, they basically can use the language in various of contexts, the 6 months period is the time they further honing their proficiency, correct mistakes and be more familiar with tips in Ielts. It’s not a one-size-fits-all statement for every learner. If you are completely a fresher, have no idea about the language, it’s hard if not say it’s impossible to get the goal in 6 months (my personal opinion only, you still can achieve it if you are among 1% of the hyper talented group). After each month you review and see no significant improvement, yourself will be discouraged and giving up will happen sooner or later.
RELEVANT
For instance, you are a junior engineer, just got a good job and having tons of things to learn on both technical wise and interpersonal wise. Suddenly, on a beautiful day you are having coffee with your friends, they mention about marketing knowledge is crucial in modern life, then you decide you set a goal to achieve the marketing degree and start right now. Meanwhile, you still have too many things to improve with your current professional life. It’s not relevant to do too many tasks and a single timeframe, is it?
So, make sure that you justify the relevant of your goal, Questioning yourself:
- Is it suitable for me now?
- Does it significant contribute to my life now?
- Is it the highest priority of my life now?
- Can I do it in the future, as a long-term goal?
Let’s answer all the above questions then make your choice, again don’t forget the choice is yours.
TIME BOUND
Obviously, having a deadline is always good for our brain, working on a goal without a specific timebound will initiate your procrastination and destroy your plan, at the end of the journey you are about to achieve nothing.
Make sure you have a specific timeframe for your goal, based on that you can track your progress and the feeling of “urgent” aka. the positive pressure that pushs you keep moving on the way of achieving your goal.
LET’S START
I believe that each of us we all have our own dreams, things we want to achieve in life, we always think about, wish it would come true someday and enjoy the moment of getting it. Having said that, it will never automatic happen, you need to clearly define and start to work on it.
Setting a goal is just the first step of the journey, we must start to work on it, improve ourselves along the journey, at the end of the day you might realize that the beauty is not only the final destination, not only the moment that you achieve your goal BUT the memories you had along.
Wish you all the best!
Thanks.
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