As we begin the 2017-2018 school year one of the first
activities we will be focusing on in the myblueprint program will be the
creation of SMART Goals. Myblueprint is
a powerful and comprehensive education and career/life planning program with
the tools students need to make informed decisions about their future. On the program students will be developing short,
medium and long term SMART Goals for Academic, Career and Extracurricular aspirations. The information below from http://topachievement.com/smart.html
does a great job of explaining SMART goals in depth.
Creating
S.M.A.R.T. Goals
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
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 six “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.
EXAMPLE: A general goal
would be, “Get in shape.” But a specific goal would say, “Join a health club and
workout 3 days a week.”
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
achievement 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?
Attainable – When you identify goals that are most important to you, you
begin to figure out ways you can make them come true. You develop the
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.
You can attain most any goal
you set when you plan your steps wisely and establish a time frame that allows
you to carry out those steps. Goals that may have seemed far away and out of
reach eventually move closer and become attainable, not because your goals
shrink, but because you grow and expand to match them. When you list your goals
you build your self-image. You see yourself as worthy of these goals, and
develop the traits and personality that allow you to possess them.
Realistic- To be realistic, a goal must represent an objective toward which you
are both willing and able to work. A goal can
be both high and realistic; you are the only one who can decide just how high
your goal should be. But be sure that every goal represents substantial
progress.
A high goal is frequently
easier to reach than a low one because a low goal exerts low motivational
force. Some of the hardest jobs you ever accomplished actually seem easy simply
because they were a labor of love.
Timely – A goal should be grounded within a time frame. With no time
frame tied to it there’s no sense of urgency. If you want to lose 10 lbs, when
do you want to lose it by? “Someday” won’t work. But if you anchor it within a
timeframe, “by May 1st”, then you’ve set your unconscious mind into motion to
begin working on the goal.
Your goal is probably realistic if you truly believe that it can be accomplished. Additional ways to know if your goal is realistic is to determine if you have accomplished anything similar in the past or ask yourself what conditions would have to exist to accomplish this goal.
Your goal is probably realistic if you truly believe that it can be accomplished. Additional ways to know if your goal is realistic is to determine if you have accomplished anything similar in the past or ask yourself what conditions would have to exist to accomplish this goal.
T can also stand for Tangible – A goal is tangible when you can
experience it with one of the senses, that is, taste, touch, smell, sight or
hearing.
When your goal is tangible you
have a better chance of making it specific and measurable and thus attainable.
