"People with clear, written goals, accomplish far more in a shorter period of time than people without them could ever imagine."

- Anonymous

Introduction to "Write Your Goals"

Write Your Goals Down

Did you know that 3% of Harvard MBA graduates make ten times as much as the other 97% combined?

A study was conducted in the 1970s and 1980s that looked into the success of these Harvard MBA graduates. In 1979, interviewers asked these graduates a simple question:

“Have you set clear, written goals for your future and made plans to accomplish them?”

The results revealed that:

• 84% had no specific goals at all
• 13% had goals but they were not committed to paper
• 3% had clear, written goals and plans to accomplish them

Following up on the success of these same Harvard MBA graduates, in 1989 the researchers looked into the incomes earned in the class.

• The 13% of the class who had goals were earning, on average, twice as much as the 84 percent who had no goals at all.
• Even more staggering – the three percent who had clear, written goals were earning, on average, ten times as much as the other 97 percent put together.

(Source: from the book What They Don’t Teach You in the Harvard Business School, by Mark McCormack)

SMART Goal-Setting

Specific

Your goals for the next 12 months need to be specific.

Your goal should not be as simple as ‘lose weight’. That doesn’t give you any indication of what success would look like if you were to achieve it. Is losing 1kg success? Is losing 10kg success? Or to change your life do you need to lose 50kg to see success?

Think of your average day in 12 months’ time and determine what specifically you need to achieve.

Measurable

You need to know success when you see it and be able to determine how far away you are. How do you know when to finish a marathon if there is no measure in place? Do you just keep running until you cannot run anymore? You need to ensure that your goal is measurable.

Ensuring your goal is measurable also enables you to track your progress towards it. Seeing yourself move towards where it is that you want to go can be highly energizing and motivating. By having a measurable goal, it can also help you determine when you are not getting the results you desired and allow you to reflect and revise your strategy or plan to achieve it.

Achievable

There is no point shooting for the moon when you don’t have a spacecraft to get you there. Similarly, there is no point aiming to become the CEO of a multinational company by the end of the year when you are currently working as a junior analyst. You can shoot for the moon and for the CEO role in your ‘ideal life’ and you will no doubt get there. But your goal has to be realistic and achievable.

Is your ideal life realistic and achievable to accomplish within 12 months? Ensure your goals are stretching, but don’t make them so far out of your reach it becomes demotivating. If you want to set more stretching targets, I encourage you to also write 3 year, 5 year and 10 year goals. But for now, we are focusing on the next 12 months.

Relevant

Your goal needs to be aligned to your ‘ideal life’. It needs to be aligned to your values. It needs to resonate with meaning and purpose. If your goal is not aligned to all of these, then you need to ask yourself the question of ‘why’ this is your goal?

By having relevant goals, it ensures that you are spending your time and energy focusing on the things that matter most to you in your life and that will have the biggest impact in your life.

Time-bound

Closely linked to your goal needing to be measurable, your goal needs to have a time allocated to it. How long is it going to take you to achieve your goal?

Your goals don’t all have to be ‘by the 31st December 20xx’. If you want to lose 10kg of weight, why not aim to have this complete by July instead of December?

The key thing is that all your goals have a specific time and measure in place to allow you to determine if you are on track towards achieving your goal. Having a timeline also ensures that you actually get your goal done and can help you stop procrastinating.

Combining the Elements

When the elements of SMART are combined you are left with a simple, but effective goal that you can quickly and easily refer to each day.

Examples of SMART goals:

Look at the above examples of SMART goals versus non-SMART goals. Can you notice any other differences other than making them more specific, measureable, achievable, relevant and time-bound?

A key difference is how each of the goals are framed.

On the left, non-smart goals are worded in a way such as ‘I want’ or ‘I aim to’ or ‘I hope’. On the right, however, SMART goals are worded in a way where you are telling yourself already that you will achieve them. Start your SMART goals with the verb ‘I will’ to help build absolutely focus and belief that you will get there.

What is your WHY

When setting goals, it is important to also ask yourself ‘why is this important to me?’.

Your why is what gives you the energy and motivation to do what it is you’re doing. Your why is what drives your passion and belief.

You discovered your why when you uncovered your ideal life. It’s now time to also break down your why into your specific goals.

Download the exercise below and print them out for each goal you want to set (3 to 5). Find a quiet, comfortable location away from distractions and start to write 3-5 SMART goals to be achieved within the next 12 months that are aligned to your ideal life.

Next Steps

Now that you have a set of SMART goals for the next 12 months you can start to look at your strategy for ensuring you reach them.

In the next module, you'll develop a strategy that includes resources to help you get there, people you can call upon to support you, ways to motivate you and keep you focused on your goal.

Actions Summary:

✅ Download your Goal-Setting exercise templates

✅ Find a quiet, comfortable location away from distractions

✅ Write 3-5 SMART goals to be achieved within the next 12 months that are aligned to your ideal life