Making S.M.A.R.T. Goals

This post originally appeared on My Life Is Like A Song on September 17, 2008

Goal-setting is a topic I have been thinking about lately.

I used to set goals when I was younger and worked hard at accomplishing them whether in sports, education or business.

I left my career to become a stay-at-home mom. For the past few years, I have gone day to day, week to week, month to month without any real goals (no yearly performance reviews to think about). If my family was happy, I figured I was doing well.

But now that the kids are older, I have more time to proactively plan my days (rather than reacting to deadlines and demands) but my list of things to do, projects and requests from others is overwhelming.

I started an e-course on goal setting ("Someday My Ship Will Come In)...really looking at what I want and where I want to be. The person who wrote the course (Alex from somedaysyndrome.com) made quite a drastic change in his life. He moved from Toronto to the south of France to fulfill his dream. My dream is not so dramatic, especially since I am pretty happy with my life the way it is. I do have so many things that I would love to accomplish, learn or do. Many of these have been in my head for years and I always thought that "someday" I would get to them.

Isabelle Turcotte-Baird, a motivational speaker came to speak at my mother's group yesterday. Her main topic was goal setting and she talked about how she achieved her goal of competing at the Sydney Olympic Games in the triathlon.



She spoke of making S.M.A.R.T. goals. Our goals should be:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Timely

I remember making S.M.A.R.T. goals in business, but I haven't really been using that method in my personal life. Her journey was not easy. She had to overcome some obstacles. She had to understand her limitations and work with them. She had a dream and she put a plan in action to fulfill it.

She also told us that our goals will more likely be achieved if they are written down and if they are shared. She also reminded us that we should break our goals down into manageable pieces.

"Someday" has arrived for me. I am evaluating those things I have in my head and either deciding to act on them or deciding that they are not important enough to me so it's time to let them go.

Isabelle's presentation yesterday was good timing for me as I have been thinking about what my goals are. If I can just figure that out, then I can put the wheel in motion to attain them.

A goal without a plan is just a wish.