How to Set Yourself Objectives — the SMARTEY Way

Why you want to set yourself objectives at work using the SMARTEY method

Once you have identified a personal goal or a work objective, it will make all the difference how you actually articulate it so that you are clear about your target and you feel energized to keep working towards it until you finally get there.

I want to show you how setting so-called ‘SMART goals’ can help you do that. There is no official definition of this very famous acronym so this is my reading of it but I hope it will be helpful to you.

  • ‘S’ is for ‘Specific’.

Let me illustrate this with an example: let’s say you set as your goal: "I want to lose weight". Now how what about if you said instead: "I want to lose 10 pounds between by the end of June"? What is the difference between these two sentences?

Simply put, the main difference is that, with the second sentence, you have told yourself what things will have to look like so that you can know that you are losing weight. So being ‘specific’ when setting an objective is about answering the question: "what does my objective look like for me?" and fleshing out what starts off as a vague discomfort (here around the current weight) or a loose aspiration into something tangible and therefore real. In that way, your goal goes from one which is shared by millions to one which belongs only to you.    

When you have a specific target, you are clear about what it is in your mind but you also feel it in your gut. A sense of capability emerges; you feel that you will be able to achieve your goal! This is why I also think that ‘S’ stands for ‘strong’ because when you set a specific goal for yourself, you will most likely feel imbued with the strength to pursue it! [Read more…]