Goal Setting 2009 Setting SMART GOALS

Successful people and successful organizations have one thing in common: They share the power of purpose.

The more you achieve a desired outcome the greater the likelihood of success.

Goals play a key role in bringing purpose to your life.

Goals tend to motivate people in four ways:
1. Provide the power of purpose by directing your attention to a specific target.
2. The encourage you to make the effort to achieve something specific.
3. Reaching a goal requires sustained effort and therefore encourages persistence.
4. Having a goal forces you to bridge the gap between the dream and the reality; it fosters you creating a plan of action filled with strategies that will get you where you want to go.


Persistence = the effort expended on a task over an extended period of time.
It takes effort to run 100 meters; it takes persistence over time to run a 26-mile marathon.

Persistent people tend to see obstacles as challenges to be overcome rather than as reason to fail.


Goals help you develop a plan from getting from “here” to “there”. They encourage people to develop strategies an action plans that enable them to achieve their goals.

Goals should be specific and difficult, yet attainable through persistent effort.

Goals specificity can be achieved by stating goals in quantitative terms. Well-conceived goals also have a built in time limit or deadline.

Priorities need to be established in multiple goal situations.

Remember, set goals that encourage you to not settle for what you can have……. but allow you to go after what you want. This means you must give yourself permission to dream big!

When setting these goals, be sure to follow the SMART principle. For goals to be meaningful and accomplishable, they need to be:

o Specific – make sure your goal pertains to one particular outcome.
o Measurable – there must be a definable end point so you know exactly when the goal has
been accomplished.
o Achievable – you must be reasonably able to accomplish your goal otherwise you will
frustrate yourself and risk damaging your self-esteem.
o Relevant – goals must relate to what your ultimately trying to achieve.
o Time bound – there has to be a time requirement, otherwise your goal can sit unaccomplished
forever.

So when planning and setting your goals for 2009 - make sure you have set SMART goals for yourself!