SMART Goals for the New Year

Charting a new course for career, academic, or personal success requires an actionable plan — and the key is spelled out in these five steps.

A new year can be a time of new beginnings, stoking a hopeful sense that the clean 12-month slate stretching before us can be filled with fresh achievements. Whether the goals involve career or academic success, a healthier mind and body, improved relationships — or all the above — it takes an actionable plan to make them happen this year.

So, forget setting hollow New Year’s resolutions that dry up by Groundhog Day. Instead, draw up a solid blueprint that clearly defines what you want to accomplish, a realistic path forward. But before you get started, try reviewing the previous year’s accomplishments and how they were achieved, then identify how to build on them this year. What would your new goals look like? How will they fit into your life?

After some self-refection, it’s time to begin setting clear goals and making a 12-month action plan for success the SMART way, ensuring that they are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-sensitive. That’s the proven and popular SMART system first devised by business consultant George T. Doran and published in a 1981 issue of Management Review magazine.

He believed in promoting simple, effective methods to help businesses and individuals achieve their goals by focusing their intentions in a tangible way for maximum results. Through the decades, the SMART blueprint has proven to be a helpful tool for making your goals, and maybe dreams, come true.

Let’s take a closer look at every element of Doran’s SMART system.

Specific

Making a goal as specific as possible is key to getting it done, so start by pinpointing and focusing on a highly specific area that you want to improve on and avoid any generalities. If it’s too vague or general, it’s easy to lose your way; specificity is the guiding light on your path.

For example, instead of just saying you want to learn new skills to advance your marketing career, think hard about the exact type of skills and tools that can best improve your prospects. Are they hard skills or soft? What’s the best way to acquire those skills? If continuing education is your goal, do research on which avenue to pursue. An advanced degree? A certificate program? Learn on the job? Get specific and outline your plan.

Measurable

Now that you have a specific goal, it’s time to define a quantifiable metric to track and measure your progress along the way. If increasing productivity in your company is the goal, set a range of growth, like 10% to 20% annually or per quarter. If you want to train for a new career by gaining certification in that field, determine how much time is needed to accomplish the goal, then map out a schedule to make it happen.

Making your goal measurable allows you to track progress and adjust accordingly. So, if you want to lose 25 pounds, figure out a reasonable plan. Five pounds a month? Five every three months? Write it down and use descriptive words like increase, decrease, or hold steady.

Achievable

It’s great to shoot for the moon if you know you can reach it. In other words, now that you have a specific goal and roadmap to get there, make sure the goal is achievable — not easy, mind you, but pragmatic. A SMART goal should be challenging but not so difficult that it is most likely unattainable.

For instance, if you’re employed full-time and want to take university courses to earn a master’s degree or a certificate for career advancement, it might not be within reach if you plan a full-time class schedule as well. Taking a couple of online courses a quarter might be a more reasonable expectation. Which brings us to R.

Realistic

Is it the right time in your life to pursue this SMART goal? Does it seem to be a good fit or is there a more manageable path forward? Keep in mind that any worthwhile endeavor requires time and great effort, but it must be kept within reason to avoid frustration, so ask yourself if you’re really prepared to complete this journey.

Do you have the proper bandwidth available? To set yourself up for success, your goals must be realistic, so be sure that they are attainable within the framework of time and resources you have available. If you’re seeking to launch a new career, don’t expect to start off in a C-suite position.

Time-specific

Set a tight, solid deadline for completing your SMART mission — it’ll help keep you on track, provide a powerful motivational tool, and give you something tangible to work toward. But make sure your deadline and overall timeframe are within reason — not too tight as to be overly stressful and not too far off so that you lose focus and interest along the way.

A lack of a firm deadline makes it far too easy to keep putting off the end game; it’s like running a race with no finish line. Take stock of your current schedule and adjust expectations accordingly. After all, it’s the SMART way to turn your dreams into reality.