Using Smart Goals
Fabulous things rarely happen without planning. Life is no different. Although life doesn’t happen according to our exact plans, our thoughts and actions greatly shape our lives. In my classroom, I teach my students how to develop 5-year plans using the SMART goal approach. It is really simple but effective.
S-Specific: You must be specific with your goals. Identify exactly what you wish to accomplish.
M-Measurable: This section asks, how will you measure the success or failure of your goal?
A- Attainable: What actions are required of you to achieve this goal? Who will you seek out for help?
R- Realistic: Is it possible to accomplish this goal using the selected action plan and time frame. What
barriers might you face? How will you overcome those barriers?
T- Timely: All goals should have a timeframe. Whether your time frame is a week, year, or decade. Be
honest with yourself when selecting your time frame. Think about other activities that may interfere.
[clickToTweet tweet=”A goal without a plan is just a wish. ” quote=”A goal without a plan is just a wish. “]
One of my goals for my blog is to achieve 100 GFC followers by June 1, 2012. Having 100 GFC followers is the specific task of my goal and June 1st is the time frame. I can measure this goal by looking at the statistic on my blog’s homepage.
Next, I need a plan to make my goal attainable. To get followers, I need interesting posts and to make others aware of my blog. To write interesting post, I need to come up topics and write content; this requires planning and organization.
There are several ways get your blog seen (linky parties, commenting on other blogs, sponsoring/ advertising on other blogs, using social media, telling family and friends about it, etc.) Select one or all and develop a method for using (join 1 link up per week).
Lastly, is this goal realistic? During the months of February and March, I was able to take my blog from no followers to 60 followers. So I think it safe to say I can gain 40 followers or more in 2 months. A barrier that could keep me from achieving this goal is the discontinuing of GFC. In this case, I would use another tool for gaining followers.
Great goals! I’d like to get to 50 followers by June — but most importantly, I want to continue to expand on my content and write better posts! 🙂
I want to learn more about my blogging program so I can add more content and make my posts more appealing. I also want to include photos with each post.
I have been researching beginning a blog, but I am not quite there yet… I can’t work on it all the time, because I have a great big full time job. but I AM in the planning stages, and I think this would be a great tool to get me there… started following your blog today – thanks for the great tips, and maybe I will win the planner!!!
THANKS!!!
I agree that this is how you should approach goals. Thank you for posting this.