SMART Goals | A Practical Guide to Achieving your Dreams

 What is a SMART Goal?

A smart Goal is a framework or a program for setting what you want to achieve in a particular time whether it will be a short-term or a long-term goal. It can be personal or professional goals. The more specific you are in identifying your goals, the better you can create a realistic objective based on your ability to work on it every day. This will lead you to create a constant and consistent activity, the more you become comfortable with the task, the more you can add to your capabilities. To measure what you can and what you cannot do, so that the program you will be doing will be more realistic and attainable. Remember to work smarter rather than work harder. This does not mean you will not be putting more effort into your program, but you need to make a better decision on how to do things right. The end results should be the deciding factor in your process.  

It would be better to achieve smaller daily goals towards the bigger goal.

You can break down your goals into different types as follows:

Types of Professional Goal:

1. Skill Development Goals - There are two types of skillsets: the soft skillset and the hard skillset. Both skill sets are key elements in determining what you want to attain. Soft skill is a skill that is geared towards personality development. These are the behavioral and interpersonal skills that have a significant impact on individuals' ability to effectively interact with others, particularly in handling challenging situations. A hard skill set is a technical skill required for a specific job or task acquired through education. A certain level of skill is needed to achieve your professional goal. Like learning new software to help you improve your career development. 
2. Project-based Goals - This type of goal is about improving a specific project handling and scheduling system. The earlier you can finish the job, the better without compromising the quality of workmanship. 
3. Performance Improvements Goals - are based on what you are doing constantly. Repetition is a good training ground to develop a more efficient system. The better you can perform the task effectively and efficiently.
4. Leadership Goals - This is part of a hard skill set which is specifically gaining more knowledge and skill in handling people. How you can improve to effectively communicate and delegate command responsibilities to your subordinates.
5. Personal vs. Professional Goals

Timelines for SMART Goals:

1. Short-Term Goals - weeks or months
2. Mid-Term Goals - Months or Years
3. Long-Term Goals - Thinks Years or even a Decade

Goal Examples

• SMART Goals - 
• Long-Term Goals-
• Short-Term Goals -

What are the Challenges Faced when setting Goals?

Lack of Clarity

Poor Time Management

Lack of Resources and Support

Loss of Motivation

Not accounting to External Factors

What are the Strategies to Achieve SMART Goals

Set Manageable Goals

Continue Learning

Take Advantage of the Flexibility of Remote Work

Mind your Words and Thoughts

Cultivate Resilience and Mindfulness for Long-Term Success

What are the tools needed to achieve your Goals? 

Goal Planner

One of the Best tools you need to achieve your goal is to have a Goal Planner. A goal planner is a handy tool that you can record your goals and action plans then monitor progress. It can be daily, weekly and monthly basis so that you can develop a habit. 

 

This will be your guide to help you get organized. Writing down your goals and break down it into smaller tasks makes it easier for you to stay on track and focused. This will develop a sense of accountability and responsibility where you can become systematic in your approach. This will also help you allocate time wisely and effectively ensuring you work toward your goal consistently.

How to use a Goal Planner?

Just in case you don't know what is inside a goal planner, here's an example of what you can see inside. 

 Goal Setting Monthly Worksheet - This is one of the pages inside the Goal Planner. This is a specific guide to help you get organized. It is better to have this handy guide and write your goals for each month. As discussed earlier, this will set a small task you want to achieve every month. 

Starts with your Major goal for the Year. To help you stay focused on your goals, the starting point is your ultimate goal. 

Then on the second box, write your most compelling reason why you want to achieve this goal. The deepest why will give you the motivation and inspiration to achieve what you want to achieve.

The third column helps you list down the possible problem you might encounter along the way. Anticipating this will help you create a solution. 

The last one will be your Action Plan. This is now the program you can set for the whole month leading towards achieving smaller task for this particular month. Together with the checklist at the bottom.

Repeating the whole process for the following month creates a habit that will become your discipline. Keep doing it till it becomes automatic. Consistency is the key to achieving your Dreams. When you develop that certain discipline, you are not only achieving your Dreams, but it is also changing your Character. 

Selfcare Weekly Checklist - This is another page inside. Basically, a checklist to remind you of what you need to do for the day within a week. It can help you develop your skills personally and professionally.

The self-improvement checklist at the bottom is just some of the items you can consider listing. It is rather a self-awareness aspect of monitoring your progress. This will prevent you from procrastinating. Use this as a guide not as a means to punish you. Our main goal is to help you make a SMART Goal.

 This is the Goal Action Plan. The GAP (Goal Action Plan) is the missing link to your plan and your end goal- your Dreams. The GAP between is the "A" - The ACTIONable Plan. Plan without Action is Dead. What will keep you going is your action plan. With those that you have written from the first two pages, this page will give you even more specific task every day. This is where the battle begins. 

The most challenging part is your discipline and determination. Many fall short of this. Some have a good start but poor finisher. The goal is to help you start good and smart and to end up with a good result at the end of the year. 

This will help you develop a good management of your time. You can identify and prioritize your action. Actions that will produce result and actions that don't.  At the end of the day, you will gain so much using this tool. The next page is an assessment page where you can review your past actions and think of ways you can improve your system.

Make it a point to start your day with your daily planner and end it with self-reflection. 

• How well did you perform following your goals and action plan? 

• Have you done the best way or is there new discoveries on how to do it better?

•  Is there any problems you encountered? 

• What Solutions did you do? 

You can write as many questions as you can to do a self-assessment to prepare you for the next day. 

 

Where can you get Goal Planner?

This Goal Planner is available at Amazon. You can get this here.

This is a 126 pages Goal Planner that starts on July 2024 to June 2025. If you are aiming to start your Goal setting for July, you can avail this now. 

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