Business principles in personal life: #1 SMART goals

Published in

GlobalizeIT LTD

4 min readNov 13, 2019

Our Dreams become Reality, when we first, give ourselves permission to Dream, wildly and without limits. Then we turn those dreams into Goals, which are the Bridge between the Imagination and the Reality we create for ourselves.

You could say that the whole human endeavor is geared towards setting and achieving goals. Goals are part of every aspect of life: how you conduct your relationships, what you want to achieve at work, the way you use your free time, the idea you want to build, etc… Everything comes down to priorities, and what you would like to accomplish in every aspect.

Setting Goals is by far one of the most important things anyone, who wishes to accomplish anything in life, must do. Without setting goals or objectives, life becomes a series of chaotic happenings you don’t control. You become the plaything of coincidence.

There is a strategy that can allow you to set up goals in a simple way. A strategy so simple and strong that can lead you towards success, just because it will force you to consider every possible factor that may influence your actions and your results. This strategy is called SMART goals!

What are SMART goals?

The SMART acronym stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound goals that is commonly used in business, but you can also use it in your personal life.

SMART goals are smaller intentions that help you “ladder up” to the big goal you set when you identify your purpose. Creating smaller steps on your way to massive results will help you focus your energy and giving you the opportunity to measure your progress.

Now that we’ve clearly defined SMART goals, it’s time to dive into a little more of the theory and meaning behind the acronym and give practical examples. We’ll also look at how SMART goals can be used to improve both your personal and professional life.

How do you write SMART goals?

Wondering how to get started with SMART goal setting? Let’s look at the questions you should ask yourself so you can set proper goals!

Specific: What exactly are you going to do?

Consider the “W” questions:

What do I want to accomplish?
Why is this goal important?
Who is involved?
Where is it located?
Which resources or limits are involved?

Measurable: How will you know if you are succeeding?

Address questions such as:

How much?
How many?
How will I know when it is accomplished?

Achievable: How will you implement the goal?

Answer questions such as:

How can I accomplish this goal?
How realistic is the goal, based on other constraints, such as financial factors?

Relevant: Does the goal connect to your overall objectives?

A relevant goal can answer “yes” to these questions:

Does this seem worthwhile?
Is this the right time?
Does this match our other efforts/needs?
Am I the right person to reach this goal?
Is it applicable in the current socio-economic environment?

Timely: When will you achieve the goal by?

When?
What can I do six months from now?
What can I do six weeks from now?
What can I do today?

Examples (Business and Personal)

#1. Let’s say you have your own business and you want to grow it. In order to stick with your goal and achieve it, consider it with the SMART goals lens.

S — “I will gain four new clients for my business.”
M — “I will measure my progress by keeping track of how many new clients I gain while maintaining my current client base.”
A — “I will gain four new clients as I currently have four available spaces in my client scheduling diary.”
R — “Adding clients to my customer base will allow me to grow my business and increase my income.”
T — “I will have four new clients within three months.”

#2. Now let’s look at your personal life and consider that you want to improve your English. How you will set your goals? Let’s see…

S — “I want to improve my English so I can pass the TOEFL exam with more than 90 points and apply for university in the USA.”
M — “I will measure my progress by doing 4 things every day — learning 20 new words, reading 1 article, listening to educational audios for 30 minutes and practicing speaking for 15 minutes.”
A — “I will free 2 hours a day so I can study at home and apply for 3 months TOEFL exam course so I can take the TOEFL exam on 14 February.”
R — “Applying for the TOEFL course will teach me the specific type of the exam and will improve my English.”
T — “I will grow my English vocabulary with 1800 words and take my TOEFL exam within three months.”

Conclusion

By applying a small piece of business practice to your life, can change improve your results and help you grow as an individual. This way, you will have focus, an action plan, and basic parameters to measure your actions. This will inevitably lead to a better life and more life and professional success.

… and do not forget to set your goals with a Soul, goals aligned with your Purpose!

In our next article from our series of “Business principles in personal life” we will talk about one great strategic planning technique which will also help you in all of your life directions.