Making SMART Goals

Rikki Permenter, MAMFC, Th. M.

Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.

Proverbs 16:3

Americans across the country resolve to better themselves every New Year’s day. Each has a list of ideas that are some deviation of dropping a few pounds, following a family budget, making more time for family and being more consistent with their quiet time. Americans across the country have a very different experience on the second day of the year. The second day of January is when Americans usually throw each resolution out of the window to be found again on the next year’s New Years day.

The reason the majority of New Year’s resolutions fail is that they are very poorly formed goals. Just like traveling without an accurate map will get you lost, living without well formed goals will leave you feeling lost. Accomplishing goals takes forethought and planning. A great way to make well formed goals is to make “smart goals.” Each goal should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time sensitive. If you are waiting to accomplish something make it as specific as possible, give yourself a way to measure so you know when you’ve done, make sure what you want to do is actually attainable by you realistic for your age and stage in life, and lastly, give yourself a time frame for it to be done. For example, if your goal is to drop a few pounds, your SMART goal would look more like “I would like to lose 10 pounds by May.” Once you have a SMART goal take the time frame you’ve given yourself and make smaller objectives so you know what you’ll need to do each week until then to make it happen. Now that the obligatory New Years resolution making time is over please feel free to make some real SMART goals for yourself and your family.

This article can be found in print in the monthly Baptist Association of Southeast Louisiana newsletter.