Setting Professional Goals Using the SMART Method

The SMART method is a fairly common mnemonic for setting personal and professional goals. The theory is that setting goals isn't effective unless you set smart goals that follow these simple ideologies. Although the SMART method probably won't work for everyone, it is certainly food for thought, and it might help you to achieve your professionals goals far more quickly.

The five letters in the SMART method stand for the following:

Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Time-Bound

Obviously, these are the three key descriptive words that make the SMART method work for professionals who are interested in achieving their goals faster and more successfully. When you use the SMART method, you apply each of these pieces of advice to the overall puzzle to create a goal that will fit both your schedule and your desired end result. Setting professional goals should be a part of everyone's career, but if you set the wrong types of goals, you probably won't get very far.

Specific

The first letter in the SMART method is S for Specific. When you set professional goals, you should be as specific as possible about the goal you want to achieve. For example, instead of saying, "I want to get more clients", you should say, "I want to have more corporate clients." This gives your mind something tangible to wrap itself around, and you'll have more success because you know exactly what you want. Rather than individual clients, you want corporate clients.

Measurable
The second letter of the SMART method is M for Measurable. Essentially, this means that your professional goals should be quantified rather than general. In the previous example, you got more specific by saying that you wanted corporate clients in particular. Now, in this step, we're going to make that goal measurable by saying that, "I want five new corporate clients." When your professional goals are measurable, they are more easily pursued.