Setting goals at the start of the year means you will know exactly what you need to do throughout the year to be successful. By setting goals, it forces you to build a plan about how you intend to achieve those goals. By having a plan in place, you will wake up every morning with a clear idea of what it is you need to do each day. Just by writing down your goals, there is a 42% greater chance you will achieve those goals than if they just stayed in your head. It may seem like a small thing but actually creating goals every year and then writing them down significantly improves your chances of success.

What is a SMART Goal?

SMART goals were brought into the mainstream by Peter Drucker and they are now one of the most popular ways of setting goals, both by organizations and individuals. SMART is an acronym that describes a specific way of writing down goals. The SMART acronym stands for:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Time-Bound

The formula means that all of your goals will be incredibly specific, which is a key component of improving your chances of achieving any goal. To illustrate this point further let’s look at an example of two similar goals to see what one is a SMART goal:

• I want to be more productive this year
• I am going to wake up at 5 am Mon-Fri to work on my project that is due in 3 months

It should be pretty clear which goal is the SMART goal, it’s the second one. It gives a clear outline of what you will do, how it will be done, and over a specific time period.

“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.” – Tony Robbins

Now we will look at 5 examples of SMART that you can set this year to make it your most successful ever. You can copy these goals exactly as they are, or tweak a component of the SMART acronym to something that better suits you.

1. Journal every morning at 6 am For 10 mins For 2 months

If you are into self-development, you have probably come across journaling and it’s benefits. It can be a great way to reflect and plan for the future so is a great SMART goal to set for the year. We have kept this one pretty short at 10 mins every day because if you are new to journaling, it is better to start with a shorter period of time and build from there

S – The goal is to journal
M – Every day for 10 mins at 6am
A – A challenge, but achievable
R – Relevant if wanting to reflect and plan more
T – 2 months

2. Drink 2L of water every day for a year

We all know how good water is for us, but sometimes it’s hard to drink enough each day so setting a SMART goal is a great way of trying to drink more water. As you can see, the goal is specific in how much water we will drink every day. This is important as it is something that you can easily measure with a 2l bottle.

S – The goal is to drink more water
M – Every day
A – A challenge, but achievable
R – Relevant if wanting to be healthier
T – 1 year

3. Go for a run 3 times per week for 6 months

We should always include exercise into our daily routines as it has so many benefits to our overall well being. A goal many people set similar to this ‘I want to exercise more’. This is incredibly vague and doesn’t give any clear direction on exactly what you will do.

This SMART goal is an example of one where you could substitute the run for something else such as cycling or going to the gym. The key point is to be specific in what type of exercise you will do.

S – The goal is to exercise more
M – 3 times per week
A – Achievable
R – Relevant if you want to get fitter
T – 6 months

4. Get 7-9 hours sleep every night for 4 months

Getting enough sleep is incredibly important to how we perform the next day, both physically and mentally. It’s easy to stay up watching an extra episode of Netflix, but if you want to be productive the next day you need to get enough sleep. Although everyone is different, the science says on average we should all be getting between 7-9 hours sleep every night.

 S – Sleep more
M – Every day
A – Easily doable
R – Relevant if wanting to be more productive
T – 4 months

“If something is important enough, even if the odds are against you, you should still do it.” – Elon Musk

5. Review your goals every day for a month

As this post is about goals, let’s include a goal about goals. It’s easy writing down your goals to begin, taking action to achieve your goals is the hard part. One way of improving your chances of achieving your goals is to review them regularly. We have set the time period as 1 month for this SMART goal to help build the habit. Ideally, you would want to increase this time period to every day, all year.

S – The goal is to check your goals
M – Every day
A – Tough at first, gets easier
R – Relevant if wanting to achieve your goal
T – 1 month

The above list should give you some good ideas of goals to set this year. Don’t forget they can be adapted to suit you better. For example, you could change the running to cycling. The key is to follow the SMART acronym for every goal you set as it significantly improves your chances of success.