A goal properly set is halfway reached - Zig Ziglar

If you are like most people, by Valentine’s Day your New Year’s Resolutions are a distant memory, your best intentions lost in the chaos of daily living. But wait! Your resolutions are supposed to make daily living better! How can we make those intentions come to life? It helps to start with writing “S.M.A.R.T.” new year’s goals.

Specific - What do you want to accomplish? Write it specifically, using the 6 “W”s (below) and in the positive. Positively written goals are more likely to achieve positive results.

·         What - What do you want to accomplish?

·         Who-Is another person other than you involved?

·         Where-Identify a location

·         When-Establish a time frame

·         Which-Identify requirements and restraints

·         Why-The reason or purpose behind the goal

So, for example, instead of saying “I want to quit smoking”, a specific goal would say “To  improve my ability to run and play with my children, I will use acupuncture, hypnosis and the patch to be a non-smoker by February 1st”.

Measurable - What is your criteria for success? How will you monitor/track progress? Stating a value (how much, how many) in your goal allows you to do this. Simply expressing a wish to “lose weight” is different than saying “I want to lose 10 pounds” or “I want to fit into my size 6 skinny jeans”

Achievable - Yes, I would like to “Become the owner of an Aston Marti DB9 convertible by 2014”, but to afford the monthly payments I would have to also live in it, never mind figure out the insurance and maintenance costs. Your goals should stretch you as a person beyond what you think you are capable, but also realistic given your current state of affairs, otherwise they move into the realm of dream or fantasy.

Relevant - The goal should be congruent with your core values and beliefs; which may sound lofty, but essentially just means the goal needs to be worthwhile and make sense in the grand scheme of things. Using the smoking cessation goal above as an example, if you fundamentally believe anything outside the realm of allopathic medicine to be snake oil, then hypnosis and/or acupuncture may not picture into your plan.

Timely - Make the commitment! Set a deadline for goal completion. A stated “by when” prevents you from pushing the goal’s tasks under the carpet in the chaos of your daily life and creates a sense of urgency to keep you on track to goal completion.

Once written, each SMART goal can then be dissected into smaller tasks/milestones with deadlines-in other words – what are the steps you need to take to get closer towards your SMART goal? Have a regular habit of checking in with these tasks and goals.

And, Yes! There IS an app for that! A quick search on my iPhone turns up 53 apps for New Year’s Resolutions and 31 for goal setting. They vary from free to an annual fee of upwards of a $100; from a glorified “To Do List” to a full on goal setting workshop inclusive of an appraisal of your life values, and many sync with your social media for accountability.

What are your 2014 S.M.A.R.T. goals??