Table of Contents
- What Are SMART Goals? How to Create Effective SMART Goals
- Dos and Don'ts of SMART Goal-Setting
- Examples of SMART Goals to Set For Your Career
What Are SMART Goals? How to Create Effective SMART Goals
The SMART Goal Acronym:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Relevant
- Time-Bound
Specific
- Who: Who is involved?
- What: What do I want to accomplish?
- Where: Location?
- Why: What's the specific reason, purpose, or benefits for accomplishing the goal?
- When: What's the time frame?
Measurable
Enjoy the ride!
Attainable
Relevant
- How does it relate to your personal or professional goals?
- How can it feed into bigger and better future goals?
- How is it pushing you, or your company, forward?
- How does it tie in with your short and long-term goals?
Time-Bound
Dos and Don'ts of SMART Goal-Setting
Specific
- DO ask questions that help inform why you're setting this goal.
- DON'T set goals based on someone else's perception of success. Make sure you focus on your own framework for success.
Measurable
- DO create criteria to measure progress towards your end goal.
- DON'T fixate on every piece of data or checkpoint. One missed deadline does not undo your progress so far.
Attainable
- DO create smaller goals that feed into a long-term large goal.
- DON'T be afraid of the big, bodacious goals. Work your way there. You can do it!
Relevant
- DO set goals that will challenge you to learn and grow.
- DON'T set goals that will completely disrupt the rest of your workload.
Time-Bound
- DO create a padded timeline with a fairly solid target date that can shift.
- DON'T give yourself too much leeway so that the goal moves further and further out to the future.
Examples of SMART Goals to Set For Your Career
1. Learn a New Skill
- Specific: I want to learn how to code to be eligible for more job opportunities. I am going to enroll in a class to teach me the skill.
- Measurable: If I take this three-month course, I should be able to achieve this goal within the next 90 days. The course will require weekly check-ins, assignments, and skill development lessons to keep me on track.
- Attainable: The course requires five hours every week. I will work on my courses for one hour before work on Monday-Friday.
- Relevant: With this skill set, I can apply to job positions in the field.
- Time-based: I will enroll in the course this week so I should finish three months from my start date.
2. Achieve a Title Promotion
- Specific: I want to achieve this promotion, so I will work on developing my skills, managing my team, and networking with leadership.
- Measurable: I am creating a checklist of items to work on each week, including scheduling lunches with leadership, check-ins with my team to get feedback, and enrolling in management skills.
- Attainable: I will spend 10 hours a week on advancing my leadership skills at work. This feeds into my workday.
- Relevant: Even if the promotion takes longer to achieve, developing these skills will help my professional development.
- Time-based: I want to ask for this promotion by the end of the year, giving me six months to develop a strong case for a promotion in job title.
3. Make More Money
- Specific: I want to make X amount of money. I have already conducted research on the market rates and discussed the KPIs I would need to achieve.
- Measurable: Having discussed the KPIs I need to achieve, I have worked out a schedule for meeting (and exceeding) them.
- Attainable: Based on my performance over the last year, I can put in extra effort and create new solutions to exceed KPIs, and report my success when asking for a raise.
- Relevant: Working towards getting a raise will increase my performance and enhance my resume. Even if I don't get the raise, I can choose to progress at a different company.
- Time-based: I have set a weekly percentage increase in my KPIs to track and achieve in order to ask for this raise in three months.
4. Build My Own Business
- Specific: I want to own my own business where I can put my passion to work in order to serve an under-recognized market. I can use my existing skills and develop new ones at my current job.
- Measurable: I created a business plan with financial details. I know how many clients I would need or how much revenue I would need before I could confidently go solo.
- Attainable: I know that launching my own business won't be easy. I will be starting on a freelance basis while I develop my skills further, engage in networking, and explore any unexpected detours that will likely arise.
- Relevant: Working towards owning my own business will also develop my leadership skills and other skill sets, which I can use even if my career path changes.
- Time-based: I want my business venture to be my sole source of income within two years.
5. Build a Strong Professional Network
- Specific: I want to network with professionals I admire in my field. I want to connect with people who share my goals and values instead of those who seem to make a lot of money.
- Measurable: I want to connect with 5-7 admired professionals authentically.
- Attainable: Since I don't want to bombard people with cold emails, I am making an effort to engage online, attend industry events, and use my personal network to meet new people.
- Relevant: The effort to build my network will also help my confidence at work and in my professional career.
- Time-based: I would like to build this enhanced network within six months.
6. Become More Confident
- Specific: I want to increase my confidence to share my ideas at work, ask for what I deserve in my career, and inspire others like me to do the same.
- Measurable: I want to read books on confidence, enroll in a course on confidence, start networking online with admired professionals, then try networking at events with confidence. I will track my confidence wins in a daily journal.
- Attainable: I will work on my confidence each week which gives me plenty of time to build this skill.
- Relevant: Increasing my confidence will help me on my professional journey.
- Time-based: I will continue to work on my confidence. My goal is to feel comfortable approaching strangers at a networking event I am attending in eight months.
7. Focus on My Mental Wellbeing
- Specific: I want to focus more on my mental well-being to decrease my stress and anxiety. I want to improve my mental well-being by incorporating movement into my life, meditating, journaling, and reflecting more.
- Measurable: I want to ensure that, week over week, I have more "good days" than bad or stressful days. I'll be keeping a daily journal to track my progress.
- Attainable: In the workplace, I want to take my lunch outdoors when possible, create boundaries with my energy, learn how to say "no" more often, and share my ideas more often.
- Relevant: By focusing on my mental well-being, I will be a more engaged, positive, and successful employee.
- Time-based: I want to feel more balanced by the end of the quarter.
8. Enjoy My Career + Retire at a Certain Age
- Specific: I have been working since age 14. I want to work hard, do fulfilling work, and aim to retire by age 65.
- Measurable: I want to challenge myself at work without burning out, making a difference, and enjoying my entire life. I also need to save X amount of money to retire financially by age 65.
- Attainable: I want to remain employed and engaged. I never want to stay at a job I hate in favor of saving money. I want to balance my career decisions with both of my long-term goals in mind.
- Relevant: I want to work in a career that fulfills me without taking away all work-life balance. By keeping this top of mind, I can enjoy my career and use it to challenge myself.
- Time-based: I want to have a huge retirement party on my 65th birthday.
9. Achieve Better Work-Life Balance
- Specific: I am burnt out from years of grinding at work. I want to prioritize my home life and find gratitude for the things I have besides work.
- Measurable: I want to spend X fewer hours at work every week. I want to leave my devices unplugged for X minutes every day.
- Attainable: I want to redirect my energies to things that feed my mental health. Instead of working for X hours a day, I want to prioritize moving, being outdoors, and spending time with loved ones.
- Relevant: By prioritizing my mental health, my personal and professional life should improve. I hope this will make me feel less guilty, less stressed, and more fulfilled.
- Time-based: I want to feel less burnt out by the end of this season.
10. Become a Thought Leader in My Industry
- Specific: I want to become one of *the people* associated with my expertise in my industry. By being a thought leader, I can develop my confidence, share my skills, and become more of a leader in my community. I can help more people by becoming well-known for sharing helpful advice.
- Measurable: I aim to spend 20 hours a month networking, sharing advice, and writing my blog on my expertise.
- Attainable: Since this goal feeds into my current career, I can use work and off-hours to expand my influence.
- Relevant: I can use my new influence and connections to increase the bottom line at my current organization.
- Time-based: I understand this could take time, so I would like to give myself three years to be considered a helpful voice and resource in my community.