Fleeting fantasies or SMART goals?

When setting goals, it is important that it is falsifiable — just like a research hypothesis. An acronym that can be helpful when setting goals, is SMART. With SMART, goals have to be:

Specific
Measurable
Accepted
Relevant
Time-bound

Specific

What exactly is it that you are going to do? Define the exact action that you have to perform.

Measurable

How will you track your goal? How do you know if you are making progress towards achieving your goal? How do you know when you have reached your goal?

Accepted

The goal needs to be accepted by yourself. It needs to be your goal, not a demand from someone else.

Relevant

The goal needs to be relevant for what you are trying to achieve.

Time-bound

Set a deadline for your goal. When does it have to be finished? If it doesn’t need to be finished at a specific time — set a deadline anyway, and commit to it. An easy way to commit to a deadline, is to announce it to a few other people and make them hold you accountable when the time is up.