Do You Have S.M.A.R.T. Goals for 2023?
Why Set New Year’s Goals | Why Most Goals Fail |
Strategy for Setting Up Goals You Can Actually Achieve | Extra Goal Setting Advice
Estimated Read Time 3 Minutes
Did you know that most New Year’s goals fail? By mid-January most people have already forgotten about or given up on the goals they carefully set just a couple weeks before. A recent study cited by WebMDfound that “64% of people abandon their New Year’s resolutions within a month”.
Why Set New Year’s Goals
Growing up we are conditioned to think about new beginnings as a time to set new goals. As adults, we continue this pattern. The beginning of a new year and the end of the summer – a time when the new academic year starts – are times when many of us set new goals. I personally love to set goals and to map out how to achieve them in the new year. It gives me a sense of organization. The act of writing down a goal and progress steps, and then checking of each completed step gives me a sense of accomplishment. Once the excitement of choosing and setting goals wears off, and the habits of normal daily life, plus personal and professional chaos set in, it is easy to lose sight of these carefully chosen goals.
Why Most Goals Fail
I recently read an article that listed 45 reasons why goals fail. While it is hardly news, that most goals fall by the wayside, really looking at the obstacles to achieving a goal and why your goals may have failed in the past is very helpful to succeeding with your current goals. For example, if you had a goal to post an informational graphic to promote your business every day on Instagram, (this was one of my personal goals last year), you will know how easy it is come up against overwhelm and burnout. This year, I assessed that having a rigorous posting schedule didn’t impact my engagement or increase my client base exponentially, but it did take up a lot of one of my most precious commodities – time. This year, I revised my goal to still be present on social media for my business, but to also have a more manageable posting schedule with flexibility of content built in. The same goes for personal goals. It is important to analyze what can cause resistance to attaining your goal and to make an action plan to remove it or to lessen its influence on the outcome.
Strategy for Setting Up Goals You Can Actually Achieve
One strategy for achieving goals is the S.M.A.R.T. goal system. This system helps to analyze each goal in five ways to set you up for success. This system was first defined in 1981 by George Doran. There are two systems that the acronym stands for – the original and an updated version. I think both are relevant to consider based on the goals you’d like to achieve so I’ll include a summary of both below.
Specific – is this goal specific enough to be achievable. For example, developing a complete social media strategy for your business this Thursday, is too broad and too time consuming. However, developing a social media strategy with action and content next steps for Pinterest this Thursday is specific. There should be no doubt in your mind as to exactly what you want to achieve and you should be clear on the resulting deliverables (a plan – for example a list of goalposts to achieve quarterly, a physical creation – for example a capabilities deck to send to prospective clients, learning a specific skill – for example how to use PowerPoint).
Measurable – what does this goal need to accomplish. For example, if your business goal for the month of January is to revamp your website, what does that mean exactly. It’s too broad to be easily measurable. An example of a measurable goal would be to draw up a new site map with a diagram of each of your webpages and the goal of each page. Then your next goal can be how to revamp each page. To stay on track, it’s important to also write out the list of steps needed to reach your measurable goal. If it’s a monthly goal, it may help to have weekly steps to accomplish.
Assignable (original system) – who will work to achieve this goal. In the goal of drawing up a new site map, will you personally do this, or will you outsource to the person who built your website or to the person who will revamp your site. It is also important at this stage to realize that outsourcing a goal is not a failure to achieve it. As the CEO of your life and time, you can choose to delegate to make the best use of your time and energy.
Achievable (newer system) – do you believe that this goal is achievable by the deadline you’d like to set. For example, based on past experience, would setting a goal to read a book each week of the year be achievable? If in the past, you have read one book per month, what would you need to change to achieve this goal – watching less tv, getting up half an hour earlier, reading an eBook on your phone instead of scrolling through Facebook? Are you willing to make the changes necessary to achieve the goal. If watching tv in the evening is important to clear your mind for the next day, and reading a book doesn’t have the same effect, you may have to adjust your goal to reading two books per month to make it achievable based on the time you will have available.
Realistic (original system) – before you set this goal do you have the resources set up to achieve it. For example, if your January goal is to create a complete social media strategy for your company, do you have the time on hand to do the research it will take to analyze your competition, define your own niche, compare platforms, decide on strategies for each platform, decide on content creation, draw up a content calendar, etc. If you break down the steps of your goal do you have sufficient time, budget, support, etc. to achieve it in your desired time frame. If the answer is not a confident yes, then your goal is not realistic and you will become frustrated and most likely fail. Instead, choose a realistic piece of the goal for the month of January and divide it over however long you need to have a realist plan for success.
Relevant (newer system) – how does this goal support to your overall plan for success. For example, if you are hoping to expand your business into the South American market it would make more sense to set a goal for 2023 to learn conversational Spanish rather than conversational Chinese. Obviously, goals for personal enrichment can be focused on the joy of learning, but even here setting goals that will support you overall as a person are important. If the goal doesn’t tie into your overall bigger “why?”, why you choose your career, your current personal life situation, etc., it will be harder to justify spending time on it. When you can see your goals moving you forward and enriching your daily life, you will be motivated to stick with them.
Timely – what is the deadline for this goal. A goal must have a reasonable end point. This is a moment in time when you will assess the progress of the goal and whether you have achieved your objective. To stay on track, it’s a good idea to have a weekly check-in with yourself to see what you have achieved so far and to plan what you can do to stay on track. If you have set a goal for the month of January, Jan. 31 can be a good deadline. If you aren’t as far along toward reaching that goal as you planned to be by then, your goal can become a goal for the next month, but be sure to assess what you need to change to achieve your desired outcome by Feb. 28. Human nature loves to procrastinate, so dividing your goal into smaller pieces with mini deadlines throughout the month is especially helpful.
Extra Goal Setting Advice
Write Your Goals Down
Studies show that writing down your goals – the more specifically the better – leads to higher levels of success. People who write or draw pictures of their goals are “1.2 to 1.4 times more likely to successfully accomplish their goals” according to a recent article in Forbes.
Have a List of Yearly Goals, but Choose Specific Ones Per Month
If you are like me, you probably have many goals for 2023. It’s not helpful to try to accomplish 10 goals at once because it will lead to overwhelm, burnout, and not accomplishing any of them. Instead choose just a couple of goals per month or per quarter to focus on.
Set a Specific Number of Goals for a Specific Time Frame
Break down bigger goals into smaller pieces that are manageable within a specific time frame – like a month or a quarter of the year. I personally like to have three goals for the month – one for business, one personal, and one for another category which may change depending on the month and what I’m trying to achieve.
List Potential Obstacles Honestly and How You Will Combat Them
You hold the power to accomplish your goals. Often, we hold ourselves back or let external problems or situations hold us back. If you are serious about achieving goals and moving your life in a certain direction, you have to recognize what it is that has kept you from achieving a particular goal already. It is poor planning, lack of motivation, lack of time or money, fear of failure, fear of success, imposter syndrome, or something else that you need to face head on first. By listing honestly the potential obstacles that may get in the way of achieving your goal, you give yourself the power to decide how you will combat and overcome these obstacles.
Schedule a Weekly Check-In
Whether you are setting monthly, quarterly, or even weekly goals, having a weekly check-in with yourself really helps to stay on track. You might decide to check in on Friday to give the week a sense of closure, or you might decide to start the week off by assessing your goal progress. If you are dividing your goal up into manageable weekly (or for weekly goals, daily) tasks you should have something to show by the weekly check-in. This eliminates procrastination and waiting until the goal deadline to start working towards it.
Allow Flexibility
Life happens. No matter how well we plan, there will always be changes. Accepting life as it comes and gracefully being flexible is a huge strength in business and personal life. Sometimes a goal comes up that is more important than the goal you set originally or maybe you have to switch to focus on an unexpected opportunity or challenge. That is what life is about and often we become stronger, better people from what we learn on these detours. Changing a goal or a deadline isn’t a failure, it’s actually a strength because whatever we will learn from the process maybe be exactly what we need to in the end achieve our goals.
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