The art of setting S.M.A.R.T. goals

Setting goals is important especially when it comes to maintaining strong motivation and self-confidence along with providing the opportunity to monitor your progress by following your goal plan. Your business plan epitomizes some of your business goals and by following it you can still manage to measure your startup’s progress. But entrepreneurship goes far beyond the business plan because it is a state of mind which requires strong discipline and talent to achieve what is needed to be achieved in order to innovate.

The personal growth is very important for the entrepreneurial mind. By setting goals many startup owners can lead their companies to success, but the effective way to do so is related with the art of setting the right goals in order to increase the chances of actually achieving them.

Goal setting is very powerful thinking process externalizing your thoughts about your ideal personal future and the prospective for your startup.  The essence of your goals determines the way they will be achieved. SMART is an acronym used essentially as a framework of criteria for setting business objectives and developing smart goals.

S stands for specific (or significant) – make sure that the goals you are setting are focused on particular part of your business or personal life. Aim for setting specific goals as they are easier to be achieved.

Questions to follow can be: What do you want to achieve by setting this goal? Why do you want to achieve it?

M stands for measurable – being able to measure your progress makes it easier to follow your achievements. Set a specific list of tools for measuring your progress and you will create very useful data which will help you supervise your goal-achieving process.

Questions to follow can be: How much? How many?

A stands for attainable (or assignable, or achievable, or action-oriented) – creating an action plan can help you figure out how attainable your goal is and what are the odds for successfully achieving it.

Questions to follow can be: How it will be done? How the goal will be achieved?

R stands for relevant (or resonant, or reasonable) – when setting your goals, you should think about the outcomes from achieving it according to the efforts, time and probably money spent on the process and how relevant it will be.

Questions to follow can be: Is it worth it? Will it be rewarding and effective?

T stands for time-related – the goal must be put in specific time frame and setting time-bound will help you follow the progress of the achievements.

Questions to follow might be: When? What will be achieved in one month? What will be achieved in six months?