Organized Charm: NYNL Day 9: How to Write Specific Goals

Okay, before we can start today’s mini-challenge, we need to talk about SMART Goals. SMART is like a goal-setting template. It's kind of like a checklist that makes sure our goals are detailed and thought out enough to actually work.

We’ll learn about each one in depth over the next few days, but here is an overview:

S- Specific

M- Measurable

A- Attainable

R- Relevant/Results-Focused

T- Trackable/Time-Bound

Today, we are going to start with S!

(Also, I feel like I'm in an episode of Sesame Street)

Writing Specific Goals

So, look through your newly-revised (all yours) 10-year plan! As you read through it, choose the 4 biggest life goals that stand out… they can be anything. Like, literally ANYTHING that you want to accomplish.

Here are mine:

Have a PhD

Live in Charleston, SC

Have a successful career

Live in our permanent house

But none of these are very specific, are they? Have a PhD in what? From where? Paid for how? *sigh*

Luckily, S is here to save the day and help us make our goals a little more specific!

So, go through each of your BIG GOALS and answer these questions for each one:

1. What will this accomplish?

2. How will I do it?

3. Why do I want this?

This takes Have a PhD (which is pretty vague) to:

I will put aside a certain percentage of my income each month for the next 5 years to pay for the tuition of a earning a PhD which will open up more career opportunities in the future such as teaching in the classroom, working in administration, or going into educational research.

Whew! Long-winded? Yes. But look at how much better that looks and sounds! It went from being an abstract thing that I wanted to do SOMEDAY to becoming a specific goal with a plan!

Best of all? It took me less than 5 minutes to turn it into that! Because it was something I wanted, I didn’t have to spend time thinking about what it would accomplish or why I wanted to do it… I already knew all of the answers! :)