It took me a long time to get acquainted with goal-setting. At least in a structured sense. Moving through life you achieve milestones even if you never consciously thought about how to get there. The process of goal-setting was at work in one way or another.

Learning about goal-setting happened mostly by osmosis. I can’t recall when or where I learned about them. Much of the sales, marketing, and motivational literature I’ve read about has elements of the goal-setting process in them so through the assimilation of these things, they found their way into my psyche. The following formula is pretty well known and if you follow any of the success gurus, the process has been dubbed the SMART  goals mnemonic.

For the benefit of those who haven’t seen this before, this is the overview …

(S)pecific — Every goal must be specifically defined in terms of actions or events

(M)easurable — Every goal must be quantifiable and must have a way to measure the outcome or result

(A)ttainable — The goal stretches you but must be believable and achievable for you.

(R)elevant — The goal must have value to you; something you strongly desire

(T)ime-bound — The goal has a completion date.

It is a valuable formula, no question. It works like this…

Let’s say you want to lose some weight. That’s a wish. Here’s how to turn that wish into a goal:

• I want to weigh 190 lbs. (that’s specific)
• I want to lose 2 pounds a week by exercising 3x a week and eating a low-carb diet (that’s something you can measure)
• Losing ten pounds using these methods is very believable (and attainable)
• Looking great at the beach sporting a svelte body has a high emotional stake to it (very relevant if you’re self-conscious)
• Allowing 6 weeks to achieve this is realistic (a reasonable time period)

So the stated goal in the declarative sounds like this:

“Starting today, May 1, I will lose 10 pounds by exercising and diet to bring me to a body weight of 190 lbs. on or before June 15”.

Simple, huh? But what happens if you don’t reach the goal? It could mean you missed one or more of the elements of the mnemonic. Maybe the goal didn’t mean enough to you. Maybe it was unrealistic. Maybe the time period allotted wasn’t reasonable.

Maybe the S.M.A.R.T. mnemonic needs one more element? I would suggest this additional letter — “S”, so now it reads: S.M.A.R.T.S.

The “S” stands for “stick-with-it”.

If the goal is worthy of you, then persistence is the thing you need. Stick-with-it until you achieve the goal. Think about it. If you set your goal to reach $100K in 365 days and you only earned $95K during that time, would you give up and say it was hopeless? Or would you put in the extra few days?

Similarly, If you didn’t meet your weight loss goal and only lost 8 out of the 10 lbs in the allotted time, would you throw up your hands in exasperation and quit? Or would you put in the extra few days?

Sharing your goal with someone who supports you will help you reach the goal. You will need a hand. Probably a push. And a good shot of motivation sometime during this process.