By making them Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound, the SMART method seeks to raise the calibre of our goals.
In a paper titled "There is a SMART way to write down managerial objectives" from 1981, George T. Doran's method was first mentioned. Since then, it has emerged as one of the most widely used techniques for goal-setting.Our objective must motivate, challenge, and arouse aspiration in us. The only thing that will motivate us to put forth our best effort and outperform ourselves is an ambitious goal.
Many people were split between Tokyo and Osaka after World War II. The two cities were connected by a railway, but the trains moved incredibly slowly.
The Japanese made a bold plan to improve the economy and increase ties between the two cities:
Make a train that can travel at a top speed of 200 km/h.
The engineers regarded it as impractical.
However, this objective elevated their thinking and compelled them to adopt new perspectives. The first bullet train that everyone is familiar with was the result of their inventiveness being stimulated by this.1
Therefore, setting ambitious goals compels us to raise the bar, think outside the box, and devise novel solutions. And that frequently yields the best outcomes.
The A in SMART stands for ambition, but it can also stand for appropriate or achievable.
Our objective must be reasonable. We are inspired to work on it and give it our best effort when we have a challenging but realistic goal in mind. We tell ourselves that we can succeed and that we want to provide ourselves with the tools to do so.
On the other hand, when our goal is unattainable, we put forth little effort and have a propensity to put it off. We don't really have confidence that we can reach our objective. And because we have little faith in it, we make small investments and get small returns.
Therefore, when setting a goal, it is important to be both ambitious and realistic. We must consider our resources (time, energy, and money) as well as our context (family, professional, financial, etc.) in order to accomplish this.
We can define an attainable and inspiring goal by taking these factors into consideration.
A deadline-free goal is a surefire way to put off doing something. Setting a deadline will help you feel more pressure and will motivate you to act. Therefore, our objective must have a start and end date.
Therefore, rather than saying "By December 31, we will increase our turnover by X%," we will say "By December 31, our objective is to increase our turnover this year."
When our goal has a deadline, we are also better able to plan out how to spend our time.
We can more effectively plan our actions and strategically set up our schedule if we start with our deadline. To effectively move towards our goals, this is necessary.
The SMART method's inventor, George T. Doran, explains that not all of our objectives can be quantified. For instance, fulfilment, imagination, emotion, and love cannot be measured.2
Therefore, the SMART method is not a rigid procedure that must be followed to the letter but rather a framework that aids in the definition of more precise and definite goals.