The SMART goal. We’ve all seen the acronym. Some of us even know what all 5 letters stand for. Around our office, we usually sound like this, “Make sure it’s a SMART goal. Specific, Measurable, Alienating… er, oh you know the rest of the thing…”
Actually, here are the real meanings of a SMART goal:
- Specific: target a specific area for improvement.
- Measurable: quantify, or at least suggest, an indicator of progress.
- Assignable: specify who will do it.
- Realistic: state what results can realistically be achieved given available resources.
- Time-related: specify when the result can be achieved.
Making the goal SMART is hard enough, but the hardest part is tracking the goals and being accountable for them. It reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where he is picking up a rental car but they didn’t have a car for him even though he had a reservation. “You know how to take the reservation, you just don’t know how to hold the reservation. And that’s really the most important part of the reservation.. the holding. Anybody can just take ’em”.
Along the same lines, anybody can make a SMART goal. The hardest (most important part) is the tracking of the goal. Anybody can just make ’em!
Do you have a good way of tracking your goals? Can you track regular progress?
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