Assignment task:
Setting a Smart Goal Assignment
Create a SMART goal in any of the following areas: academic, career, personal or financial. Settings goals for yourself will help you manage time and stress. Your goal should give you direction and motivate you to take an action. Start with your priority number 1, and work down the list to number 10 to help you decide which goal you may want to set for yourself. Do not set more than 10 goals or you may lose your focus. Now you're ready to tune your priorities into goals. Remember your goal should be SMART. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely.
SPECIFIC- A specific goal has a much greater chance of being accomplished than a general goal. To set a specific goal you must answer the sex "W" questions:
Who: Who is involved?
What: What do i want to accomplish?
Where: Identify a location
When: Establish a time frame.
Which: Identify requirements and constraints
Why: Specific reasons, purpose or benefits of accomplishing the goal.
Goals must be clear. For example, "loosing weight" is not a specific goal. The goal of My goal is lose 5kg by the end of march by eating healthier and exercising 5 days a week at my local gym for 20 mins/day" is specific and gives direction and focus.
MEASURABLE-Establish concrete criteria for measuring progress toward the attainment of each goal you set. When you measure your progress, you stay on track, reach your target dates, and experience the exhilaration of achievements that spurs you on to continued effort required to reach your goal. To determine if your goal is measurable, ask questions such as: How much? How many? How will i know when it is accomplished? Measurable goals tell you if you are making progress. The goal stated above is measurable in two ways:"5kg" and "by the end of march".
ACHIEVABLE- when you identify goals that are most important to you, you begin to figure it out ways you can make them come true. You develop attitudes, abilities, skills, and financial capacity to reach them. You begin seeing previously overlooked opportunities to bring yourself closer to the achievement of your goals. Goals that may have seemed far away and out of reach eventually move closer and become attainable, not because your goal shrink, but because you grow and expand to match them. Goals should be challenging yet achievable. When setting goals, consider how much time and effort you can put into them. A goal need two or more parts to be achievable. For example, to lose a weight, you are going to need to investigate a diet plan or an exercise plan and determine how much time will be needed to put your plan into action.
REALISTIC-to be realistic, a goal must present an adjective toward which you are both willing and able to work. A goal can be both high and realistic; you are the only way who can decide just how high your goal should be. Your goal is probably realistic if you truly believe that it can be accomplished. A realistic goal accounts for time, resources and skills. For example, losing 5kgs in 3 months is realistic. It would not be realistic, however, if you were planning to take a vacation during this time.
TIMELY-A goal should be grounded within a time frame. With no timeframe tied to it there's no sense of urgency. In the example above, if u wants to lose 5kgs, when do u want to lose it by?"Someday" won't work. But if you anchor it within a time frame, "by March 30', then you've set your unconscious mind into motion to begin working on the goal. A target date of meeting goals increases commitment. Break goals into parts, and set schedules. As each part is achieved, you will gain confidence and motivated to reach higher goals. For example, your goal can be broken down into loosing 1.6kgs a month.
Final Questions: Will you set this SMART goal for yourself after completing the assignment? Why or why not?