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It is so easy to say that you want to accomplish something. I have done this so many times, but have I succeeded in accomplishing everything I set out to? No. Not many people do and quite frankly, failure is good for us. It teaches us how not to do something and gives us a lesson on what to improve upon. So avoiding failure can actually be detrimental to success, learning lessons, resilience, and perseverance. When we set out to do something without having some sort of action plan for how we plan to achieve this goal or purpose, it makes it harder to succeed.

I have outlined these concepts within a few different posts on our website, but I wanted to compile all of these strategies in one place. These strategies and concepts allow you to take your goal and create an action plan behind it to make it easier to achieve your goal and essentially give you step by step instructions to achieving your goal. So if you want an easier way to set goals for yourself and a way to ensure you are on the right path to reaching your goals, then keep reading!

S.M.A.R.T. Goals

S.M.A.R.T. goals are a great way to set goals that also have an action plan behind them. It is an acronym:

Specific

You need to be specific about what you want to accomplish with setting this goal and how you want to go about achieving it. You can also be specific by writing down some of the steps you need to take or tasks that need to be completed to help you achieve your goal.

• If you want to set a goal for starting a business, then listing some things you need to do to start a business would be a start or figuring out why you want to start the business. Starting a business plan will help you get specific with everything you need to do to start a business.
  
• If you want to start a cleaning habit, then be specific about what you want to clean. Do you want to start with one room? Are you going to vacuum and wash windows every day?

Measurable

Your goal needs to be able to be measured in some way so you know when you are close to achieving it or whether you are on the path to achieving it. Having something to measure against can allow you to check in to see if you are making progress towards your goal, if you need to adjust your action plan for the future, write down new tasks that need to be completed, etc.

• Moving back to the business, you may need to save up capital funds to start your business and create a business plan. So, having a dollar amount set for the capital funds would be a way to measure that portion and measuring how far you have gotten into completing and detailing your business plan could be the other way to measure how close you are to starting your business.
• For cleaning, you could be measuring how well your cleaning habit is coming by how often you go to bed with the room(s) cleaned that you are focusing on. You could also measure it by whether you have achieved the cleaning tasks you planned for that day.

Attainable

You need to make sure the goals you are setting are attainable for your circumstances or situation and are attainable within the timeline you are setting for yourself.

• When starting that business, is the capital funds amount an amount that you can save by yourself or will you need a million dollars to start this business? If you need a million dollars, then it may not be attainable by yourself and you may need to look at obtaining investors in your business idea who can help you fund your business idea.
• When it comes to cleaning, are you trying to completely clean an entire house in one day that has not been cleaned or tidied in years? Are you trying to add too many tasks to one day? Are you able to complete the cleaning tasks you have set for yourself within the allotted time?

Relevant

Is your plan of action relevant to your overall goal you have? Make sure the tasks you are doing are relevant to your overall goal and are putting you on the road to achieving your goal.

• When it comes to your business, ensure the business plan you are creating is relevant to the business idea you have and not a different business idea.
  
• For a cleaning habit, make sure you are doing tasks that are relevant to cleaning the room you want to clean that day. If you are planning to tackle the bathroom that day, then don’t focus on cleaning the basement. If your intentions are to clean a room that day, then do not focus on tidying up or organizing and focus on the cleaning first.

timely

Set a timeline for your goal. When do you want to achieve the overall goal or when do you want to have certain portions of your goals achieved by?

• For your business idea, when do you plan to open this business so you know when you need to have your business plan completed by, when you need to have your capital funds available, and when all of the details associated with opening your business completed by.
• For your cleaning habit, since it takes 66 days on average to form a habit, then you may have a timeline of adding another room to your cleaning habit every 2.5 months and having your house completely cleaned, organized, tidied up, etc., within a year.

By setting S.M.A.R.T. goals, you are able to create an action plan behind your main goal. S.M.A.R.T. goals are also a way to detail steps that need to be taken to achieve your goal and these steps should be categorized into short-term goals and long-terms goals. These goals should also follow the S.M.A.R.T. goal concepts.

Short-term goals

By setting S.M.A.R.T. goals, some of the specific details, steps, or tasks that you have outlined to achieve your overall goal will be short-term goals. These short-term goals will still follow the concepts of a S.M.A.R.T. goal and will be a goal that can be achieved within a smaller amount of time than your overall goal. These goals should be written down with the date you plan to achieve them by written beside them. You can also break down your short-term goal into smaller steps in the “specific” stage in order to achieve this short-term goal effectively and efficiently.

A short-term goal is essentially a stepping stone to achieving long-term goals, and your overall goal. Figure out what tasks can be completed within a month or so and set these as your short-term goals. Other short-term goals can be habits that need to be changed to allow you to achieve your overall goal.

long-term goals

Long-term goals follow the same concepts as short-term goals. They need to follow the S.M.A.R.T. goal concept and they should be written down with the completion date beside each goal. Long-term goals are goals that are going to take more than a month or two. When you created tasks that you need to do in order to achieve your overall goal, then if there was a task that required multiple steps to be taken within that task, then the main task would be your long-term goal and the multiple steps that need to be taken within that bigger task would be the short-term goals. All of the required tasks that you have set for yourself to achieve your overall goal will essentially be split between short-term goals and long term goals. These are your stepping stones to achieving your overall goal.

PDCA Cycle

The PDCA cycle is a continuous cycle that you should be doing intermittently while you are achieving your goals. It would be beneficial to sit down once a month to complete this cycle and once a quarter when you’re plan of action is succeeding. It is important to sit down to review your plan of action and make adjustments to ensure you are on the correct path to success and that you do not deter from your plan of action for too long when something is not working within your plan. The PDCA cycle is essentially a way to check and reflect on the progress you are making towards the various goals you have set; the short-term goals, the long-term goals, and your overall goal. The cycle is as follows:

plan

You need to create a plan of action for your goals. These would be the short-term and long-term goals that you have set because these goals are your action plan towards your overall goal. Since each of these goals should be written down, you have a written action plan with completion dates beside each goal so you can see which goals you need to work on now and which goals you can focus on next month. You should be setting a plan for each month so you know which goals and tasks you need to focus on this month.

do

This step is putting action to your action plan. You are actively working on tasks and goals. You are doing your plan.

check

This step is that periodical sit down that you will do, suggested to be once a month, to see what tasks or goals you have achieved. Cross out goals you have achieved, check to see how close you are to achieving the tasks and goals that are not complete, and check your overall progress for the month. You will want to check the progress you have made towards the your long-term goals and your overall goal. You are checking to see if your action plan is working or whether you need to start adjusting your plan.

adjust

This is where you will create your new action plan for next month. Do you need to change anything within your action plan to make it easier to achieve your goal? This is where you will make adjustments to your tasks and goals that will help you achieve your overall goal. Do you need to shift your focus? Cross out all completed tasks and goals and create a plan of action pertaining to the goals you want to focus on for this month. Ensure these focal points are still tasks/goals that will allow you to progress towards your overall goal.

Once you figure out the adjustments that need to be made for next month and have adjusted your plan accordingly, now it is time to repeat the cycle. Sitting down periodically is the key to ensuring you are on the right path towards your goal. By sitting down once a month to check on your progress towards your goals, you can ensure that if you do stray from the plan a little bit, that you are not straying too far before checking in on your progress.

The main point of setting a goal is to not just state the goal, but to create an action plan behind it. By setting S.M.A.R.T. goals, outlining the short-term and long-term goals you need to complete to achieve your overall goal, and then using the PDCA cycle to check in on your progress towards your various goals, then you should be on the road to success in whatever you set out to do. Remember failure is not a stopping point, it is just a lesson in how not to do something!

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