Are you familiar with SMART Goals?
Would knowing how to use SMART goals help you in 2022?
Setting goals is a topic that comes up every new year. Goal setting may be something that has or hasn’t worked for you in the past.
I’ve gotten off track with my goals before, too. It helps me to write down my goals. In addition, it also helps to carve out some time to focus on them.
If you are like me, you may have the best intentions, and then a few weeks in, you’ve forgotten what you want to accomplish.
Do you want to begin 2024 with some new tools to achieve the goals you set for yourself and your family more successfully?
When you are concerned about your child and your family’s well-being, it can help to use SMART goals, which give you a clear indication of whether you’ve accomplished the goal or not.
Maybe you haven’t heard of SMART goals. Here is an explanation.
SMART stands for
- Specific: Your goal has to be precise. For example, instead of saying “I want my family to get healthy” or “I want to travel more.” Nail it down; the more specific, the better. Try “I want to lose 15 pounds of fat” or “I want to connect with my friends once a week.” Vague ideas don’t work. Ask yourself, what do you want to accomplish?
- Measurable: If your goal is not measurable, how will you know if you’ve achieved it? Make sure your goal is trackable. For instance, “I want to feel better.” How will you know if you are doing things consistently to reach this goal? Are you going to exercise three times a week, practice taking a breath when you feel anxious four times a week, or walk five times a week? Remember, choose a measurable benchmark you’re trying to reach so that you know you’ve achieved your objective.
- Attainable: Work towards a goal that is challenging but possible. How achievable is the goal, and is it within your abilities to affect the outcome? Your plan must be actionable, meaning that you can take action to meet your goal. It can’t be dependent on other people’s choices. For example, your goal can’t be that your son or daughter remains sober for three months because you can’t control that. Figure out the steps you need to take to get to your goal. If you’re trying to lose weight, an action might be to run for 30 minutes every morning.
- Realistic: Do be honest with yourself. You know what you are capable of doing. Your goal must be realistic, or else you won’t accomplish it. Is the plan aligned with your values (what’s important to you)? It can be ambitious. For example, if you want to work on exercise, you can set your goal to go to the gym three times a week for three months.
- Time-Bound: You must put a deadline on your goal. Don’t push towards a goal you might reach “someday.” Choose an end date when you want to complete your goal, and then work backward to plan the actionable steps to get you there. For example, my daughter-in-law wants to get back into running. My son gave her a gift card to enter a race in March, so she can plan her training routine now. Then, she’ll be ready when race day arrives.
Now you might be thinking about your goals for your child. As a parent, change begins with you. If goal setting is something you want to try this year, choose something you want to accomplish for yourself that will feel empowering and motivate you to continue moving forward.
You can only control what is within your power.
Here are some examples of actions steps to reach your goals:
- If you tend to be a person that is often late, be on time seven times over the next two weeks.
- Have the family sit down to dinner together four nights this month.
- Set out your workout clothes the night before you plan on working out three times a week.
- Take a walk outdoors four times this week.
- Plan a fun outing with the family once each week.
- Meet a friend for coffee or some other fun activity once each week.
- Go out to dinner with your husband or wife three nights this month.
- Do something nice just for yourself (hot bath, read a book, engage in a hobby) two times this week.
It is helpful to know your destination as you move forward. When I talk to parents, I often ask the magic wand question: If you could wave a magic wand and your life would be just the way you want it right now, what would that look like?
The more you know what you want for your life, the better the chances are that you will achieve it. Each goal is a rung in the ladder that leads you to the next challenge in your life. There is no endpoint, as we are all a work in progress.
Roger Love, a well-known voice coach, uses the word DREAM to set goals. If you don’t know about Roger, he has several programs to help you with your singing or speaking voice. Since I speak to groups and parents, I’ve found his program to be helpful with tips to improve my voice and presentation skills. He is engaging and has a good sense of humor, which makes his programs fun.
Here is his DREAM acronym to help you set goals:
- A dream come true list: Make a list of about five dreams that you want to come true. If you are not excited about your list, continue working on the list until you are. When you are excited and ready, go to step two.
- Reasons: Pick one or two dreams that you can accomplish next year. Write down as many WHYs as you can beside each dream. For example: Why do you want it? WHY will it help other people? Why can’t you afford NOT to achieve this dream?
- Experience: What experiences, resources, skills, qualifications, connections, or practices do you need to put yourself in a position to make your dream a reality?
- Actions: What actions will you take and when will you complete them in order to stay on track to achieve your dream?
- Milestones: The milestones are what you will work towards on the way to your dream. They are the little or big wins, and the action steps that you will do. Be sure to reward yourself for each milestone, no matter how big or small. Buy yourself some flowers, or make your favorite meal. Rewards will keep you on track to achieve your dreams!
With each new year, we have a clean slate. We can choose to rehash the past or find new ways to feel better about ourselves and the situation with our child.
When you set SMART goals for yourself and dream big, you will have evidence that you have made progress toward a better tomorrow.
Thank you for reading. I know you have many options on content. Don’t forget to sign up for the Sunday newsletter with information and inspiration to help parents. Sign up now.
And consider getting access to my online course, Regain Your Hope, an online course that gives you an action plan to help your child. Know that your child can change. Love, Cathy
