Goal Setting - The SMART Way

Anyone who has ever studied personal development knows that goal setting is integral to success in a number of situations. Every day people in nearly every area of life benefit from setting goals in a healthy and productive way. Goals are useful to produce results in many realms, including career, business, school, finances, sports, and even in home life. However, in order for the goals to be met and for the time spent setting them to be worthwhile, goals must be set with care. Following the SMART system greatly increases the chance that the goals will be met as planned. Under this system, goals are only set which are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. Keep reading for a basic explanation of these principles.
First, goals must be specific. Simply saying, "I want to do better in math" is not going to help a student achieve the best results. Instead, a better goal would be, "I want to earn a B average in math this year." For a business, stating "We will improve profits" is another example of a sub-par goal. A goal such as "We will increase net profits by 5% in this fiscal year" would be much better. Second, when goal setting it is important to make the goals measurable. If a goal cannot be measured or quantified in some way, it's nearly impossible to know if one is on track toward meeting the goal, or if the goal was ever met at all.
Third, after being specific and measurable, goals must be attainable. Obviously, it does no good to set a goal which is impossible to attain. The process of trying to achieve an impossible goal will not produce any good fruit, and will most likely produce only frustration with goal setting in general. Fourth, good goals are also realistic. An unrealistic goal, even if it's attainable, is still not helpful to the goal setting process. Usually, it's most important to be realistic in the time frame given to accomplish the goal, which leads into the last SMART goal requirement: Goals must be time bound. This means that a person sets a specific time by which the goal will be reached. Goals that do not have a "deadline," so to speak, may languish forever without being accomplished.