{"id":22436,"date":"2013-06-14T04:00:43","date_gmt":"2013-06-14T09:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelhyatt.com\/?p=22436"},"modified":"2022-03-21T12:23:32","modified_gmt":"2022-03-21T17:23:32","slug":"goal-setting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/goal-setting\/","title":{"rendered":"The Beginner\u2019s Guide to Goal Setting"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I speak publicly<\/a>, I often ask how many people believe in the power of written goals. Every hand shoots up. Yet when I ask how many of them have written goals for this year,<\/em> very few hands go up.<\/p>\n

This always surprises me, given the fact most people know intuitively (and research has proved<\/a>) that those who write their goals down accomplish significantly<\/em> more than those who do not write their goals.
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\nSome of this, I suppose, is just inertia. But from years as a corporate executive, business coach, and best-selling author on the topic of goal achievement, I know that most people have just never been taught how<\/em> to write effective goals.<\/p>\n

With that in mind, I wanted to offer a basic goal-setting primer. You can find plenty of advice online, but these are the five principles I follow in my own practice:<\/p>\n

1. Keep them few in number<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Productivity studies show that you really can\u2019t focus on more than 5\u20137\u201310 items at any one time. And don\u2019t try to cheat by including sections with several goals under each section. This is a recipe for losing focus and accomplishing very little. Instead, focus on a handful of goals that you can repeat almost from memory.<\/p>\n

2. Make them \u201cSMARTER\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In 1981, George T. Doran, a consultant and former Director of Corporate Planning for Washington Water Power Company published a paper titled \u201cThere's a S.M.A.R.T. Way to Write Management's Goals and Objectives.\u201d Since that time, various teachers have used and modified this acronym in various ways, including me. In my SMARTER version, as outlined in my book, Your Best Year Ever<\/a>,<\/em> goals must meet seven criteria. They must be:<\/p>\n