THINKER'S ALMANAC - August 4

How can soccer help us understand effective goal setting?

Subject:  Planning - SMART Goals

Event:  Birthday of Dr. George T. Doran, 1939

If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy and inspires your hopes. — Andrew Carnegie

You can have a lot of fun kicking a soccer ball around with some friends, but things get more interesting, more focused, and more fun when you set up a goal on the field.  Just as a soccer goal enriches the experience of playing soccer, setting up personal goals can enrich our individual lives.  We can run up and down the field for hours using up a lot of energy and feeling like we’re getting something done, but setting up a goal immediately gives us more purpose and a way to specifically measure our levels of success.

When you set up a soccer goal, you need to give some thought to its height, its length, and its depth; likewise, setting effective personal goals requires thought about the specifics; after all, you can’t get the ball in the goal unless the goal is properly placed and visible.

Image by Alexa from Pixabay

One truly smart man, Dr. George T. Doran (1939-2011), left as his legacy a tool we can use every day to both envision and achieve our goals.  Born in Queens, New York, Doran became a professor, author, and entrepreneur.  In 1981 when he was working in Spokane, Washington, with the Washington Water Power Company, he published an article entitled, “There’s a S.M.A.R.T. Way to Write Management's Goals and Objectives.”

In the article, Dr. Doran used the SMART acronym to identify the different elements that a goal needs if it’s going to be meaningful:

Specific:  Often we set goals that are too ambiguous.  Like a soccer goal, a good goal needs to be as specific and as concrete as possible.  To use another analogy, a goal is a target, and your chances of hitting a target are low if you can’t see it.  

Measurable:  Part of making your goal specific is quantifying it.  For example, if your goal is to get better grades this year, you should quantify exactly what  “better” means by setting a goal with specific numbers, such as an increased grade point average or getting no lower than a B in any of your classes.  Again, the more measurable your target, the more clearly you will be able to see it up ahead and the more obvious it will be when you arrive at it.

Assignable:  If you’re working with a team, it’s essential that everyone knows their role and what specific job they will be doing toward achieving the goal.  Likewise, everyone needs to not just know the goal but also commit to doing their best to achieve it.  If you are working on an individual goal, think of the A as ACTION; what specific actions are you going to take to reach your goal? What can you DO today that will make you more likely to reach your goal?

Realistic:  Realistic placement of your target is essential if you’re going to hit it. Running a sub-four-minute mile is humanly possible, but if you have just started running, it’s not a realistic goal to start with.  Similarly, it would be ambitious to attempt the goal of earning all A’s in your classes this year, but as you are writing down your goals, temper your ambition with realism, by not setting the bar too high.  

Timely:   Whenever you set goals, have a calendar at hand.  Write down the specific date that you will measure your progress.  Having a deadline can be a lifeline because it can motivate you each day to do something toward reaching your goal.  It can indeed add stress to your life, but if your goal is truly a worthwhile one,  you should reframe the stress as the necessary motivation you need to succeed.

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What are the five elements that make up an effective SMART goal?

Challenge - Get SMART:  Practice using the SMART goal acronym by writing down a specific goal with notes about each of the five elements.

Sources:

1-Doran, George. “There’s a S.M.A.R.T. Way to Write Management's Goals and Objectives.” AMA Forum November 1981.