Setting your goals

It really doesn’t matter what we are aspiring to do, be it an education, saving up, drinking a certain amount of water a day, be more social, or hey, even weight loss, we need to set that goal for ourselves in order to reach it.
Although the list above sounds like the most common New Year’s resolutions, they are great examples of common goals people want to reach. But: how the freak does one do it? Determination alone? A plan? By luck?

Well, in order to set personal goals, there are various ways and techniques to get there. One of these is the SMART technique, which is a fairly easy one to apply.

S stands for “Specific”: your set goal needs to be specific. For example, “I wanna lose weight” just isn’t specific enough. “I would feel better if I lost 3 kg”, on the other hand, is.

M stands for “Measurable”: your goal needs to have something measurable to it. See example above.

A stands for “Attractive”: your goal needs to be attractive enough for you to strive toward it. Otherwise it is easy to think “what’s the point of doing this?”, especially on a low and blue day (and yes, we all have those.).

R stands for “Realistic”: your goal needs to be realistic. “I’m gonna lose 20 kgs in 2 months” is more likely to make you feel like a loser at the end than “I will lose 1 kg per week for 2 months” is.

T stands for “Time”: to reach your goal needs to happen within a certain timeframe. Otherwise it is easy to give up, either because it is a never ending story, or that you don’t see the results quickly enough.

Borrowed the smart car logo.

This is, of course, only one of many techniques one can use.

How do you generally set and reach a personal goal of yours?