SMART Goals

A useful way of making goals more powerful is to use the SMART mnemonic.  While there are plenty of variants (some of which we've included in parenthesis), SMART usually stands for:

• S - Specific (or Significant)
• M - Measurable (or Meaningful)
• A - Attainable (or Action-Oriented)
• R - Relevant (or Rewarding)
• T - Time-Bound (or Trackable)

For example, instead of having "To sail around the world" as a goal, it's more powerful to say "To have completed my trip around the world by December 31, 2015."  Obviously, this will only be attainable if a lot of preparation has been completed beforehand!