By Cami Walters-Nihipali
Ever set a New Year’s Resolution? According to DiscoverHappyHabits.com, 54% of people failed to keep to their resolution after 6 months in 2021. Here’s the problem with resolutions, they’re too vague. If you’ve written in your journal the following resolution, “Finish my novel,” you might be bound to fail. Not because you can’t do it, but because it’s a moving target.
On the other hand, people who set goals in conjunction with their resolution are more likely to make that change. To support your writing hopes and dreams, I’d like to offer you this modification: the SMART Goal. The SMART goal isn’t my invention, but is credited to Peter Drucker and G.T. Doran, a widely used strategy in the corporate and education worlds. It’s a work smarter, not harder strategy.
So SMART is an acronym: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-Specific
Let’s try it with the “Finish my Great American Novel” Resolution….
Specific: Complete the first draft of a novel by December 31, 2022
When compared to the resolution “write my novel” versus the specific goal “write the first draft of my novel by December 31, 2022”, there isn’t as much room for interpretation using the goal. Ditch the wiggle room that allows you to give up.
Next the goal must be measurable. That means you can concretely look for progress and growth. Baking recipes, for example, rarely ask for a smidge or a dash of anything. Rather, they articulate specific measurements to create a specific outcome. A measurable articulation for your goal follows the same principle.
Measurable: I will measure this goal in two ways:
10 weekly hours devoted to writing.
10,000 word count goal each week.
Both of these are measurable. You would be able to mark it off on a calendar or use an app to keep track, Again, ditch the wiggle room.
The next step is to then make those measurable goals attainable. It’s very important to understand what kind of constraints that will impact the success of those measurements. If you’re working 60 hours a week, you have a brand new marriage or a brand new baby, or you’re volunteering at an animal shelter 25 hours a week, each of these will factor into your ability to meet the goals you make. Take an inventory to determine how to attain the goals you set.
Attainable: These measurable goals are manageable.
I can break up the ten hours into 2 hours-5 days a week or larger weekend writing sprints;
the 10,000 word count is broken down into 1,000 words each hour. These are both attainable goals.
Next, you must determine if what you’ve set for yourself is realistic. Here’s the thing, you might not know, so I like to add an additional “R” for Reevaluate. You won’t know until you try. As you work through your goal, you may need to evaluate if the goals you’ve set are realistic and adjust as necessary.
Realistic: I think this is realistic given my work schedule and family life. I will reevaluate the measurements after devoting a month to the plan and redesign the goal as necessary based on my performance.
The final step in setting a SMART goal is to be specific about your timeline. I would suggest having short-term time goals, intermediate and long-term.
Time-Specific:
Short term: Weekly writing time and word count goals
Intermediate: Monthly performance assessment based on my weekly commitment
Long-Term: Finish the novel within the year.
By being specific and detailed about the goal you wish to achieve, hopefully it supports your hopes and dreams this year! You can do it!