I love setting goals. It can be a really therapeutic process, and having a checklist to measure your progress can be equally motivating.
Nobody hits ambitious goals overnight, even when it seems to look that way. Every person and business you might perceive as an "overnight success" had to build a path to achieve their career goals.
Goals keep you on track, give you a little push, and can act as a "finish line" to work towards. However, some goals can seem too massive or unyielding to pursue. For these goals, it's smart to make them smart.
How can we make our goals SMART to achieve them realistically? SMART is an acronym that can help you break down the toughest goals—and achieve them with hard work and real intention.
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
First, let's break down the acronym and commit it to memory!
The SMART Goal Acronym:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Relevant
- Time-Bound
When setting personal goals, we recommend following the SMART guidelines to make sure you avoid getting discouraged and actually reach them. We all know how easy it is to feel defeated, lose our motivation, and give up on ourselves.
Here's how to make your goals extra SMART.
Specific
General goals tend to get lost in the busyness of our daily lives. When you get specific with your goals, you’re much more likely to accomplish them.
The more specific you get with your goals, the easier it will be to build an actionable plan to achieve them.
To get started, consider the five W’s:
- 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?
Getting specific with your goals is also the easiest way to root out goals that might be unattainable or irrelevant. In this first step, we can make sure we are setting goals that align with our own values and our own definition of success.
For example, suppose you're a content marketer for a publishing company. The company aims to bring in $1 million in revenue this quarter. As a content marketer, revenue is not really in your wheelhouse, but attracting a new audience might be! You can build your goals in alignment with the company's while keeping them specific to your skill set.
Measurable
There are tons of cliches about the importance of the journey, for good reason. As professional humans, we can tend to get stuck on a desired end result.
Before we know it, we forget to enjoy the journey in favor of obsessing over the bigger picture. And worse, once we achieve this big bodacious goal, it feels pretty empty.
Establish criteria for measuring progress on each goal you set. Ask yourself: “How will I know when my goal is accomplished?”
Keep your current workload in mind when building new goals. Measure your progress accordingly. Sometimes, your daily progress might feel too small to register, but keep an eye on trends, KPIs, and progress over the course of your efforts.
When you measure progress, you stay on track. Create check-in points, key performance indicators, and milestones in between your starting point and your desired goal. Celebrate your milestones and take some of the pressure off your long-term career goal.
Enjoy the ride!
Enjoy the ride!
Be as present as possible while navigating your career path.
Attainable
The achievability of your goals is very important.
When you focus on only the goals that are most important and most attainable to you, you’ll be that much more likely to accomplish them.
In addition, you’ll develop the exact abilities, attitudes, and skills to reach them.
Think of it this way: you can reach almost any goal when you plan wisely and within a realistic timeframe. Soon enough, the goal that seemed far away is within reach!
Set a goal that you’re willing and able to work toward. Attaining your biggest goals happens when you purposefully grow and expand to match them.
Relevant
Ideally, your professional goal shouldn't serve one small purpose.
Think about how this goal relates to your other goals.
- 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?
If your goal isn't relevant to other goals you have, it might be difficult to dedicate the time and energy needed to see it through. Your goal can (and should) be aspirational, but make sure that you can really make substantial progress.
If you're setting goals but not reaching them, you may need to scale back. Relevant goals feed into the rest of your life. They help develop the motivation to reach other goals.
For example, suppose your long-term goal is to achieve a promotion. To make your short-term goals relevant, ensure they feed into your big, long-term goal. By breaking up your goals, you're more likely to achieve a collection of goals that feed into your professional and personal development.
Time-Bound
Time management skills are important in the workplace and in setting goals.
Every goal should have a time frame. Without one, you have no sense of urgency to accomplish your goal. Time-bound boals prevent you from falling into the "someday" trap, where you never achieve the goal because there's always tomorrow.
But if you anchor your goal to a timeline, then you’ve set your unconscious mind into motion. A deadline is a huge motivating factor when working toward a goal.
Assigning time constraints will help you achieve consistent and significant long-term progress that you can watch unfold on your calendar.
Dos and Don'ts of SMART Goal-Setting
Goals, especially long-term goals, are subject to change. If the CEO position you coveted in your late twenties doesn't seem as appealing once you reach your mid-forties, it doesn't mean you've failed.
Goals can change. That's why it's so important to set smaller achievable goals. You never know the changes your career plan may undergo.
I never worry about changing my goals. Life happens, and it’s fine to adapt, so long as you use your best judgment.
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
Now that you're familiar with the acronym for SMART goals, let's profile a few smart goal examples you might be interested in setting for yourself and your career.
The following ideas are professional development goals made SMART by applying our new favorite acronym. Use this framework to set detailed performance goals attached to a target date.
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.
What goals do you want to set in the next few weeks or the next year? How can you make them SMART in order to achieve them? Let's go get those goals!
You'll Also Like:
- 6 Types of Goals to Set + Achieve (That Will Change Your Life!)
- 15 Short-Term Goals to Get You Through This Month
- Goal-Setting for Perfectionists (+ Free Goal-Setting Worksheets)
