SMART goal setting tips to help transform your life . . . one goal at a time!

SMART goal setting starts with understanding the "SMART" acronym:

S - Specific

M - Measurable

A - Attainable

R - Relevant

T - Timebound

Each of these is detailed below:

SPECIFIC

Be very specific about your goals. The following table illustrates a poorly written goal that is not specific, and a well written goal that is.            

MEASURABLE

Goals need to be measurable in terms of knowing whether or not you have achieved your goal or not.   A goal that says “I want to lose weight” is not measurable.  A goal to lose a total of 25 lbs is. 

ATTAINABLE

Your “Target” goals need to be attainable.   Your “Outrageous” goals do not.    Select Target Goals that any reasonable person, specifically you, will say that with dedicated effort and time, the goal is an attainable goal given your current circumstances in life. 

If you currently have a 65% average in your Senior year of High School and want to go to University to be a Veterinarian or a Doctor, its not realistic to think you could attain that goal due to the high entrance averages required for these programs, typically 90%+.   

As an outrageous goal however, if you are passionate about this, definitely write it down.  

RELEVANT

Smart goal setting needs to be relevant to your life.  To use the above example of being a Doctor, if you currently have very little interest in the medical field and want to be a Doctor because of the high-income potential or your parents wanting this for you, I would suggest to you this goal is not relevant to who you are as a person. 

Choose goals that are relevant to you and the life you want to live. 

TIME BOUND

The time component of SMART goal setting is to be time specific by saying when you will accomplish your goal.

In setting Life Goals, because of the longer-term nature of these goals, the aspect of time achievement will likely be longer term than if you were establishing goals with a shorter horizon.     It is best to establish goals which are a balance of short, medium and long-term goals.  

If all your goals can be accomplished within the next year then you are setting your goals too easy.   If they will all take a “lifetime” to achieve, then they’re too difficult.  

This guide will help you set goals which are a balance of goals you will accomplish within the next year, 5 years, 10 years and within your lifetime.

Goals need a timeline to create a sense of urgency to get them done.   Without a firm due date that you commit to, your goals will drift.  

You don’t need to worry about doing this for all 100 Goals right now.  Pick the most important top 5, 10 or 20 that you will be serious about achieving and give them firm due dates.

Some of the goals you set will have a recurring time frame, meaning that you want to commit to achieving them annually or each decade.

Check out the following poster for how to write a goal . . . 

Smart goal setting takes work!

The 100 Life Goals on this site are high level goals and will take effort to turn them into SMART goals. It would be impossible to create SMART goals that would apply to your situation and that is where you will need to do some work.

Purchase the 100 Life Goals Book and you can write your personalized SMART goals at the bottom of each page, as the book is written in guide book format.

Request the goal setting worksheet to complete your goals in microsoft excel, my absolute favorite tool in the world!  I use Microsoft excel for virtually all my personal needs, whether it is . . . . 

• Recording my goals
• Tracking my cash flow
• Tracking my net worth 
• Recording my expenses for our rental properties

Using Microsoft Excel for SMART goal setting makes it easy for you to write, customize and track your achievement of your goals.  The beauty of Microsoft Excel is that the tool is the number one spreadsheet tool in the world and will continue to be so for the next decade or two, meaning that the time you put into learning and developing your goals will be as readily accessible in 20 years from now as today.

The power of "G  O  A  L  S"

The smart goal setting system developed and promoted at 100 Goals Club is focused on:

G iving back to those less fortunate 

O ptimism for living your best life and becoming a person who lifts people up

A ction taking to achieve the goals you deem most important 

L eadership to lead yourself, family, friends and work colleagues or employees

S uccess oriented living as a result of living a goal inspired life

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Last updated: January 25, 2020