Goal Setting: How to Set SMART Goals

Setting SMART goals will put you in the driver’s seat and on the fast track toward living the life of your dreams!

Goal setting is a vital skill that helps people turn ideas into clear plans with achievable outcomes. However, many goals fail because they are too vague or unrealistic. The SMART goal framework offers a simple, effective way to set clear, focused, and attainable goals. The SMART acronym will help you create goals that are easier to understand, monitor, and achieve.

This informative goal-setting tutorial defines the SMART acronym, explains how SMART goals work, guides you through the goal-setting process, and shows how to choose balanced goals to work toward so you can confidently set goals that lead to real progress. Get behind the wheel on the road straight to your dream life with these SMART goal-setting tips!

First, use the step-by-step instructions below to learn how to set SMART goals. The beginning of the year and every subsequent 90-day quarter are great times to make resolutions, commit to healthier habits, and set goals. Next, create a goal action plan by writing down each step needed to achieve your goals. Finally, commit to a regular goal review to keep yourself on track to meet your goals and live the life of your dreams. Set SMART goals to succeed in every area of your life with the step-by-step instructions below! You might also enjoy learning how to Plan Your Daily Routine for Success.

Goal Setting 101

Setting goals involves deciding what you want to achieve and establishing a clear direction for your efforts. Goal setting can help you reach your goals and succeed in every area of your life. When you know what you are working toward, it’s easier to stay focused and motivated to reach your goals.

If this is your first time setting a goal, start with small, simple ones for the best results. Goals don’t need to be huge, life-changing efforts right away. Small, realistic goals are easier to manage and will help you build confidence as you progress. Setting specific, clear, well-defined goals makes it easier to take action because you know exactly what you’re supposed to do.

It’s also essential to break larger goals into smaller, easier-to-achieve steps. Large goals can feel scary and overwhelming, but taking smaller steps towards them often feels more manageable. Each small success builds momentum and demonstrates that progress is possible. Writing down or tracking your goals can help you stay organized and see how much you’ve achieved.

Finally, remember that goals are flexible. If something isn’t working, it’s okay to change or amend your plan. Mistakes and setbacks are standard parts of learning. What matters most is being patient with yourself and keeping on trying. Over time, setting goals will become a powerful skill that helps you grow personally and professionally and improve many aspects of your life.

Related: How to Use The Power of Habit to Change Your Life

Review Prior Goals and Resolutions (if any):

Before setting goals, it’s a good idea to reevaluate any initial goals or resolutions you may have made, if any. If you have never made any goals thus far, you can skip down to the goal creation process in the next section.

Start by getting out any goal-setting worksheets you have so you can review your prior goals. If you don’t have any, you may want to invest in our Dream Life Tool Kit. It includes several printable worksheets, including a goal review, that make accomplishing your goals much more manageable. Follow your dreams and create a life you love with the Dream Life Tool Kit!

Of course, conducting a goal review at regular intervals throughout the year is another good way to stay on track. I recommend doing a goal review as a part of your weekly (or monthly) review and at the beginning of each 90-day quarter, starting with January 1st.

When is the best time to set and review goals?

I like to review and reassess my goals at the beginning of the New Year—and at the start of every 90-day quarter. However, any time of year is a great time to set goals. Especially if you feel motivated to do so. I like to do my annual goal review before or after the New Year as a part of my household rhythms. Although I may get lazy about doing it, I never forget that it’s that time of year!

Since they occur every 90-ish days, the equinoxes and solstices are great reminders to review quarterly goals. Conducting a weekly, monthly, or quarterly goal review can help you achieve your goals by keeping you focused on the action steps and tasks you must complete to reach them. Commit to your dreams by setting SMART achievable goals with actionable steps and conducting a weekly, monthly, or quarterly goal review. Get started today with the FREE QuickStart Weekly Planning Guide and the Dream Life Tool Kit!

How to Set Goals:

Discover how to set SMART goals with this informative step-by-step guide. It includes a detailed, clear explanation for each step with writing prompts and examples for setting SMART goals. SMART is an acronym that helps you turn a general idea into a clear, achievable goal. Peter Drucker coined the “SMART” acronym in Managing for Results:

SMART stands for:

• Specific
• Mesureable
• Attainable
• Relavent
• Time-bound

But before you can set SMART goals, it’s crucial to reflect on your values and dreams. Taking a moment to consider what you want in life and what’s important to you right now will help make your goals even SMARTer. It’s much easier to set goals when you know what matters most to you. Setting SMART goals requires you to understand where you’ve been, where you are now, and where you ultimately want to go in life. Focusing on these key details before setting goals makes it much more likely that you will achieve them.

The first steps of the goal-setting process below will help you with this crucial step. Use the helpful prompts in the next section to take stock of your current life and future dreams. Then use the information you gather and the goal-setting instructions below to set meaningful goals you can strive towards with renewed intention. Don’t wait, scroll down to get started today!

Related: 10 Reasons to Make Rhythm and Routine a Habit

1. Make a list of goal category titles that represent your life (current or future):

Make a list of your current life goal categories. In other words, create a category title for each area of your life that is important to you. Include current aspects of your life and things you would like to manifest, create, or bring into your life in the future.

If, for example, you are single and looking for a relationship, you might add a relationship, partnership, or marriage category. Or, if you are married and want to start a family, you can add a family, motherhood, fatherhood, or parenthood category–or all of the above if you wish. Remember, this is your life and your goals, not someone else’s.

As another example, if you are out of work and looking for a job, you can use a general job category, such as “career,” “business,” “job,” or “work,” as the title for that goal type. Or use the job title, place of work, or business name as your goal category title, such as “teaching,” “hospital,” or “Rhythms of Play” as the goal category name. In other words, you can create goal-setting categories for any area of your life and title them however you please to make each goal more meaningful to you and thus easier to achieve.

I have several examples of these goal or life category titles you can use, combine, or ignore on the list below. Feel free to add or subtract anything you like from the list below to make it perfect for YOU. The idea is to make your goal category titles reflect your morals, values, and overarching life goals — the things you like to do and want to do with your life. Not mine or anyone else’s.

Related: Household Rhythms: Using the Power of Routine in the Home

2. Decide what really matters to you:

Before setting a goal, it’s essential to understand your “why.” Goals that align with your values are easier to stick to and achieve. Goals based on your top priorities feel more meaningful and provide the fuel of desire you need to reach them.

Do a brain dump for each life category:

After creating a title for each of your current goal categories, write each one down on a separate piece of paper (or digital note page). Some people like to put each goal category title at the top of the page to make a list, while others prefer to put it in the middle to create a mind map, as shown in the photo below. Use whatever technique works for you.

Give yourself plenty of room to write, scribble, doodle, and get creative to engage the unconscious mind in the goal-setting process. Once you have these sheets of paper lying in front of you, ask yourself what you care about most right now in every area of your life. Then write down everything that comes to mind.

Now is not the time for fancy goal-setting worksheets. The first stage of writing down goals is messy and imperfect. You want your subconscious mind to co-create your dreams. It is also not the time to pretend that you can work on goal setting in your head. Many people believe that the key to achieving goals is writing them down. Don’t skip this first step, or you will only be cheating yourself!

Choose one life category page at a time to work on and consider each carefully. Or, have them all lying in front of you like a giant game of goal-setting “Whack a Mole,” writing down each task or goal on the corresponding piece of paper as each comes to mind in a goal-setting frenzy like me. I can’t help myself, I’m a squirrel, so I’ve learned to use my ADHD to my advantage. Use whatever method you like best, or that most fits your style.

Write your dreams for each area of your life:

Get your desires, dreams, and goals out of your head and onto the corresponding list or mind map for each life goal category. This goal-setting exercise is not about working until you write the perfect answer to each of the questions below. Nor is it about creating a multitude of goals for each category that feel overwhelming the second you look at them. Instead, it’s about freeing your mind from the perpetual thoughts that burden it, so you can choose the most relevant goals to work towards once you get everything else out of the way. If you don’t know what to write, consider any dreams you have to help clarify what you want most in life right now.

Ask yourself any of the following questions to help clarify your current desires and goals:

• What do you hope and wish for in each area of your life?
• What would you like to happen, or would you like to change, if anything?
• If you could wave a magic wand at this area of your life to make it a dream come true, what would it look like, or what would happen or appear?
• Is there anything you can do (or stop doing) to help or allow this dream to come true?

Finalize your lists:

Use your answers to create a list of goals or things you’d like to do in each area of your life. This is your chance to let it all go, get it all out, and get messy, so don’t hold back; add anything and everything that floats your boat! Include projects you’ve always wanted to start and anything you’ve started that you’d like to complete. All of it–keep writing, doodling, and letting your mind flow.

Focus on putting everything you can think of down on paper until absolutely nothing is left. There is no need to think about logistics yet — or whether any of your goals look too lofty at the moment. You will break these down into more manageable steps later in the goal-setting process. In other words, don’t worry about “how” to reach your goals right now. Just get every single one of them out and keep writing. The “how” will be decided when you create an action plan to achieve your goals.

It’s also a good idea to put your life goal brain dump lists in a file somewhere that you can continue to add to and refer to during your goal reviews. Once you finish deciding on what really matters to you by writing down everything you ever dreamed of doing or expending any energy on. It’s time to fine-tune all your dreams, wishes, and projects into well-defined SMART goals. Use the tips in the next section to get started.

3. Make your goals SMART:

Once you have some initial goals, it’s time to fine-tune them and make them SMART. The goal-setting worksheet in our Dream Life Tool Kit is an excellent tool to help you set SMART goals. The “SMART” acronym was coined by Peter Drucker in his classic work, Managing for Results, over 30 years ago. SMART goals are:

M – Measurable – Decide How You’ll Track Progress :

• Goals must be measurable. If a goal cannot be measured, it is NOT a SMART goal.
• Measurable goals help you measure whether you are making progress toward or have completed the goal.
• Measurable goals also let you see progress and know when you are improving, which helps keep you motivated to continue.
• You need to be able to assess whether or not you are making progress toward that end for it to be measurable.
• Determine which numbers or signs indicate progress.
• Example: “I’m going to exercise a minimum of 30 minutes per day, 3-5 days per week” is much more measurable than “I’m going to exercise more.”

Putting it All Together: A Few Smart Goal Examples:

• Here are a few examples of SMART goals:
  • Walk 1-4 miles five days per week to lose at least 5 pounds in three months.
  • Play pickleball for at least 30 minutes, 3 days per week, to improve my skills so I can enter a tournament by the end of the summer.
  • Study science for 30 minutes, four times a week, to raise my grade from a B to an A by the end of the semester.”
  • Spend 30-60 minutes, five days per week, looking for a new job to apply for with a higher income than my current job, and begin working at that new job by the end of the year.
  • I will start a new business (name it specifically) and spend 10-20 hours per week building it, so that I earn part-time income after 2 years and full-time income within 5 years. (Define the business and write the specific income amounts for best results.)

4. Create a master goal list (optional but recommended):

To do this, use a goal-setting printable worksheet like the Master Goal List included in the Rhythms of Play Dream Life Tool Kit. Or, take out a clean sheet of paper, or create a digital document or note to write down your top one to three goals in each area of your life.

Using the printable goal worksheet shown in the photograph below will jump-start your goal-setting ability by providing a framework for achieving the goals you set.

5. Choose your top goals to work towards achieving now:

Next, take out another sheet of paper, create a new document, or start a new note, to write down your top three goals from your Master Goal List. In other words, choose one to three goals you want to work on attaining right now. These are usually the goals that hold the most passion or are time-sensitive in some way.

Take a moment to think about why you want these things for yourself and if these are goals worth pursuing right now–or if focusing on that goal is something you can commit to at this time in your life. If not, you may need to reevaluate when it would be better to pursue that particular goal. Considering a goal’s Relevance is one of the many ways to make it SMART.

For example, you may want to attend law school but have just had a baby. So, you might put off going to law school for now and instead focus on what you can do at home during your spare time to prepare for law school as your goal.

6. Balance goals to make them more achievable:

Choose goals that are a priority and work in harmony to balance and support each other. I am a firm believer that you can only give away what you first give yourself. Therefore, selecting a self-nurturing spiritual practice, such as meditation, getting outside to connect with nature, yoga, bible study, or tai-chi, as one of your three goals to work towards achieving now can create harmony, build balance in your life, keep your priorities in check, and contribute to the successful completion of other goals.

Next, choose two more goals that balance and support each other. If, for example, I need to move in the next few months, I would make it one of my goals because it is both something I need to accomplish and time-sensitive. Whether I’m ready or not, I have to move, so why not prepare for it by making it a goal?

Lastly, I would choose another goal to support this one, such as organizing or decluttering the house. Or, I could pick something business or career-related to keep myself on track in that area of my life during the move. These goals would both support each other and keep my priorities in check. This type of goal-setting will lead to success because it makes your goals more achievable. Once you have three goals that balance each other, put away your master list until the next time you conduct a goal review.

7. Turn goals into positive affirmations:

Next, turn your goals into affirmations. Positive affirmations will help you cultivate the right mindset and magnify your ability to set and achieve goals. Learn how and why–>HERE.

8. Create a step-by-step action plan to achieve goals:

Once you’ve worked on SMART Goal Setting and made all of your goals SMART, it’s time to get to work to accomplish them. Learn how to create an action plan to achieve goals–>HERE.

SMART Goal Setting for Success

You did it! You have one to three shiny new goals all set to accomplish. Congratulations on a job well done with SMART goal-setting! You’re well on your way now! Many people say that the key to attaining your goals is writing them down. Kudos to you. You’re halfway to living the life of your dreams! Keep up the good work.

SMART goals turn vague intentions into clear plans that lead to success. By ensuring goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound, you create a straightforward path toward achieving them that reduces confusion and frustration. This popular goal-setting method creates consistency, accountability, and motivation, making it easier to monitor progress and make adjustments as needed.

Final SMART Goal Setting Tips:

Smart goals work best when you review them regularly and adjust them if needed. Progress matters more than perfection. The start of a New Year and the beginning of every 90-day quarter are great times to review and set goals. Because they occur every 90 days or so, the solstices and equinoxes can serve as reminders to set new goals and review goals that you are currently striving toward for your personal and professional development.

Taking the time to plan goals carefully is a crucial step toward achieving meaningful, lasting results. With regular practice, setting SMART goals can become a strong positive habit that supports individual growth, academic achievement, health and wellness, and career ambitions. Now that you know how to set goals, the next step is learning how to create an action plan to accomplish them. Visit the tutorial for step-by-step instructions.

Learn more about Nell Regan Kartychok, author of this informative goal-setting guide HERE, and Rhythms of Play HERE!

If you liked How to Set Goals, you might also enjoy:

• How to Review Goals
• Why I Turn My Goals into Affirmations
• How to Plan Your Daily Routine or Rhythm
• Organizing Life with the Power of Rhythm
• How to Use The Power of Habit to Change Your Life