Think SMARTer, Not Harder
The ins and outs of SMART goal-setting
Anyone who has worked on a project of any kind knows how stressful it can be. There can be so many moving parts, and it can be overwhelming to envision the final product before you have even begun working.
I have written about micro goals before: small, actionable steps that help you live a life aligned with your values. Micro goals can also help break down a large project into more manageable objectives. However, it is understandably also stressful to add creating these goals to your already long to-do list.
One strategy for creating these smaller goals is SMART goal-setting, especially if you would like your goal-setting process to be structured. Goals following SMART principles can also help you continue to make progress in moments when you lack motivation.
What is a SMART goal?
SMART is an acronym for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Depending on who you ask, a few of these words may differ slightly — attainable instead of achievable, realistic instead of relevant, time-specific instead of time-bound, and so on. Either way, these qualities produce goals that facilitate easy-to-track progress.
Let's use the example of “be more fit” to illustrate how to transform regular goals into SMART goals.
Specific: Is your goal clear?
“Be more fit” is a very general goal that can be interpreted in many different ways. How do you define ‘fitness’? What is your current state of fitness, and how exactly would you like to improve upon it? To specify your goal, it may be helpful to focus on one aspect of fitness. For example, maybe you want to improve your arm strength and decide on the following specific goal: “Do 20 pushups per day.”
Measurable: Is your goal trackable?
While “be more fit” cannot be measured in any meaningful way, pushups are countable.
Achievable: Are you reasonably able to meet your goal?
If you haven’t done pushups in a while, 20 pushups a day may be an unrealistic goal, at least to start out. You can always start with a smaller goal and gradually increase its difficulty over time.
Relevant: Does your goal align with your values?
If you value your health and physical well-being, doing pushups may help you make progress toward the life you want to live.
Time-bound: Does your goal have a definite deadline?
All good things must come to an end — goals included. An endpoint can help maintain motivation and provide an opportunity to reassess your goals. For instance, maybe you do 20 pushups per day for two weeks. After two weeks, you can reflect on how it went and decide whether to stop, continue, or adjust the pushup amount and/or frequency.
When SMART goals help
Creating specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals can provide much-needed structure for goal-setting. SMART goals are especially useful when the outcome you want to achieve is clear and easy to quantify. Hence, productivity goals and health-related objectives may be well-suited for SMART goal-setting.
SMART goals can also help maintain motivation because they are realistic, value-aligned, focused both in scope and time, and able to be checked off a checklist.
When other strategies may be more effective
As tempting as it may be to apply SMART principles to all goals, there can be downsides. The structure and rigidity of SMART goals may not suit everyone or every type of goal, especially goals that rely on creativity, out-of-the-box thinking, or risk-taking.
You are also in danger of missing the forest for the trees. SMART goals are necessarily narrow and short-term, which can mean forgetting the broader aim behind your goals.
Finally, SMART goals may encourage abinary view of success and failure. Going back to the pushup example, if you manage only 10 pushups a day instead of 20, that may feel like complete failure because you set a specific goal that you felt was achievable and still did not reach it. However, if 10 pushups a day is any measure of improvement from the number of or frequency at which you did pushups before, it seems harsh to call that ‘complete failure’.
The truth is, progress often isn’t linear or straightforward. Setbacks are a normal part of self-improvement, and while goal-setting can make the process easier, they do not guarantee easy progress. As difficult as it can be, self-compassion can be a great tool for managing setbacks and resisting the urge to categorize your life into ‘successes’ and ‘failures’.
Setting goals inevitably looks different for different people across different situations. Some issues related to goal-setting may only require relatively simple and practical tweaks. Others may be more complex and rooted in neurodiversity, perfectionism, overwhelm, burnout, or other mental health issues.
As a therapist, I support people with setting goals and the inevitable mixed progress that comes with working toward them. I would be honoured to sit with you through life as we know it and collaborate with you to work toward what life could be. You can book a free 15-minute consultation with me by completing my contact form here.
