Today I want to help you write goals that are going to help you create a life you really want with smart goals templates. The first thing I want you to know is that there is no bad goal you can set. There is no wrong way to set goals for the new year. I don’t want you to overthink this, especially if you’re creating your annual goals for the first time.

Getting any goal written down is a huge success and accomplishment! I’m going to give you some tips that are going to help you create smarter goals so that you can achieve those goals by the end of the year. I’m going to help you figure out what goal is too big or too small and how you should actually write your goals down for the year. If you’re just getting started, just take those baby steps, write get something down, and then you can always review and improve that goal later. It doesn’t have to be perfect.

 

How To Easily Set Achievable And Realistic Goals

One of the most common questions I get is how do I set achievable and realistic goals. The answer always comes down to a SMART goals templates framework (which I did not create). This is something I learned way back when I was in my first consulting job. It is called S.M.A.R.T.

S.M.A.R.T. is an acronym. I’m going to tell you what each of the letters stands for to help you shape your top three goals for the next year.

 

S.M.A.R.T Goals

 

 

Specific

SMART goals start with an S, which stands for Specific. Smart goals are specific. They’re clear. You know how you will be able to actually complete them. They’re not vague.

I see many people complete their annual plans and set goals that aren’t specific enough. An example is, “I want to help women.” But, that’s not specific enough. How many women do you want to help? What type of women do you want to help and how do you want to help them?

The clearer that you can get in this phase of creating your annual goals, the easier it’s going to be to accomplish them.

 

Measurable

The M stands for Measurable. What are the specific actions that you need to take or the specific result that you need to see so that you know if your goal is a success?

Just yesterday I was sitting with John (my husband) and we created this whole metric sheet for our business that we’re going to look at every single week. It has a goal of how many leads we want, how many sales we want every week, and our actual stats for the prior week. Every week we’re going to look at how many leads we get and how many sales we get. This is a good example of something that’s measurable.

I know if I am achieving my goals on the metric sheet because there is a number that I can measure.

If you don’t have a measurable goal, how are you going to know that you’re actually achieving your goals?

 

Achievable

The A stands for Achievable. Your goal needs to be attainable. It needs to be within your reach.

I always recommend starting with creating your vision. When you created your vision, it did not need to be within your reach. Your vision is where we want to go over the next 5 to 10 years. Your vision is your big dreams and your big goals. But, when you’re creating your annual goals, you want to make sure that they’re somewhat achievable. They’re going to be big and scary, but they have to also be attainable as well.

 

Relevant

The R stands for Relevant. Your goals have to be realistic and relevant to your vision. That is why it was so important to create that vision first. (Click here to get our free vision journal template).

Your goals have to be relevant to your purpose, your calling, and what you want to do with your life over the next 5-10 years. You don’t want to create a goal that is completely different from where you want to go in your 5-10 year vision. You want to keep it relevant so you don’t get off track and distracted. There’s no time to waste here!

 

Timely

T stands for Timely. You want to create an end date of when you will accomplish your goals. You want to know when you need to achieve this goal so you have a sense of urgency.

When I create goals, I tend to create goals that are a little bigger than what I’m comfortable with. So if you’re wondering what goal is too big or too small, I tend to reach for the stars. I make my goals a little bit farther than I even think is truly possible.

I believe that this gives me a little push because it helps me reach a higher level. Even if I don’t get to that higher level, which, by the way, I do not always achieve my goals. I usually don’t achieve my goals because I have these goals that are a little bit bigger. So I really have to push towards reaching them, but I get a lot closer than if I set a smaller goal, and many times I also set conservative and high goals. If I am reaching for a high goal, I almost always meet the conservative goal.

If I’m going into a big launch, I have a goal that’s the main conservative baseline goal that I will be happy with. Then I have a stretch goal which is a goal that would be super amazing to hit and that’s really the goal that I’m going for.

But, it’s always good to have many goals so you can track your progress and give yourself rewards as you go along as well.

 

 

Just a reminder, don’t overthink this. Simply get something written down and then you can always go through this framework to improve those goals.

So as a summary, S.M.A.R.T. stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. Feel free to share your SMART goals with us in our Private Facebook Group.

 

SMART GOALS Templates

 

 

How many goals should you set each year?

I always recommend creating 3 goals each year.

1. A career or business goal.
2. An income or impact goal. Determine if money motivates you more or impact and then set your goal!
3. A personal goal.

 

Here are some examples of each of the 3 smart goals templates: 

A career or business goal:

• Launch an online course with at least 20 students by Dec 31, 2022.

An income or impact goal

• Income: Generate a monthly income of at least $10,000 by Dec 31, 2022.
• Impact: Help 50 women launch their dream careers or businesses by Dec 31, 2022.

A Personal goal:

• Read at least 1 book per month – 12 books by Dec 31, 2022.

 

 

Now, let’s turn your goals into an organized plan in 90-minutes or less. Eliminate the overwhelm. Stop wasting time trying to do all the things. Take “figure out the next step” off your to-do list for good.