Goal Week - Setting Goals

I hope you enjoyed yesterday's post by Amy from A is for Ampersand.

Now that you have a journal to keep all your goals in, we can get started with setting them!

Now that we have a place to set them let's talk about how to set them.

For those goals that are important or require more planning, I use a simple guide to write. 

High school was the first time I was exposed to planning & setting goals.

I believe it was part of reading the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens

which is exactly like the effective people version but has a cooler cover!

None the less, I learned this great strategy to write goals

S - specific

M - measurable

A - attainable

R - realistic

T - timely

I am not quite sure where the 

original source for these are from

so if you know, please tell me!

This is how I think about goals when I start to set them.  I really like the S in Smart.

From experience, being specific is the most important part.

You can't just say 'I'm going to eat healthier'

You have to be specific: 'I will eat 3 fruits & 3 veggies a day'

The M in Smart is the next part.  You have to be able to measure or grade your progress.

'Over the next two months I will eat 3 fruits & 3 veggies a day'

Now this you can measure.

If you are visual person, writing this down is not the primary way you will remember to do this

Draw up a cute chart & post it on the fridge

or

Outline it in your journal

or

Make a check box for it on the side of your day planner

or

Track it on the side of your blog

Here is my visual goal setting from my 20 before 24 journal:

A goal has to be within your reach. That's the A in Smart - attainable

It also has to be realistic, the R in Smart.

You have to be able to reach it by means you are capable of & with in the measurable time frame.

Which brings us to T in Smart - timely.

I think this is significant because it makes you breakdown your goals into smaller chunks.

So if you have that overall goal of eating healthier,

you can break it down into smaller goals like:

'Over the next two months I will eat 3 fruits & 3 veggies each day'

'Over the next two months, I will pack my lunch 2x a week'

Over the next two months, I will walk the dog 15 minutes longer 2x a week'

Now it's not so scary!

I know that loads of people are familiar with this goal setting strategy

but I like to use it visually to see the progress

instead of just putting it down on paper, you've got to draw it out!

On Thursday, we'll talk about organizing goals & staying on track

What strategies do you use to set goals? 

How do you keep track of yours?

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