Do you have SMART goals & are they shared with others?

[wqo3wt76]

I'm a huge fan of using goals to shape my future and drive daily activities towards short, medium & long term goals of import.

One thing that has worked extremely well has been sharing those goals with a close friend and reviewing them often. We discuss goals on a weekly basis and do a big review at the end of the year to gauge progress.

Additionally looking back at what my 5 year goals were and seeing where we've ended up has been very interesting.

The model that works best is SMART - many of you are familiar I'm sure.

We cover three main areas - personal, financial & career.

I'm curious how many other folks here follow a similar strategy, formal or otherwise?

Our implementation is using OneNote from MSFT, allowing instant, anywhere access to all the goals for the week, month, year & 5-year for regular review and editing, as well as accountability.

 

[REWahoo]

Gaaaaaaakkkkkk!!!

Sounds way too much like the crap I put up with at work. I'm retired.

Other than that, I have no opinion...

 

[brewer12345]

Ick.

 

[panacea]

I used to formalize my goals more in the past, probably because it was part of the corporate culture. Now it just all sort of makes me gag. My approach at this point, is:

1. Figure out what I want
2. Figure out what needs to be done to get what I want
3. Quit over-analyzing and get it done
4. If I hit an obstacle along the way, find a different way to get it done

 

[Andre1969]

S&M is cool and everything, but throw the rest of that acronym together and it sounds painful! As you said, REWahoo, too much like work!

 

[RetireAge50]

I have no goals other than to consistently keep doing the same thing (401k max, Roth Max, Education Kids, Spend Remainder).

 

[Meadbh]

You're still w*rking, aren't you?

I used to be very into this when I was w*rking too. Did it for my team and for myself. Even got the Franklin Covey app for my Palm Pilot (remember those?). Pretty soon I realized that my big personal goal was FIRE and I knew what to do about it. Then I did it. Now I have achieved FIRE. Along the way I abandoned the busywork around it. I do think it can be a useful exercise over a short time, but in the long term, doing this weekly would be unsustainable.

 

[jjquantz]

I do like to quantify, so that matches the measurable. I keep spreadsheets for several things - utility usage, gas mileage for vehicles and, my favorite, an exercise log. Just documenting the exercise helps motivate me to get out there and it is easy to set goals referenced to the past.

 

[donheff]

Woooorkkk! Sounds awful.

 

[Lisa99]

I do it at work because I have to but not a chance I'd do it in my personal life other than with our one BIG goal which is FIRE.

Our FIRE goal is specific, measurable two ways, achievable (as long as the market behaves reasonably), it's realistic, and it's time based.

 

[Calico]

I do it at work because I have to but not a chance I'd do it in my personal life other than with our one BIG goal which is FIRE.

Our FIRE goal is specific, measurable two ways, achievable (as long as the market behaves reasonably), it's realistic, and it's time based.

Ditto.

 

[Mo Money]

No offense, but I hate SMART goals. Why? Our marketing director at THE FIRM shoves them down our throats. We have all kinds of newly required written submissions and committees, and it will be the end of my firm. I prefer to just encourage people to read some great marketing articles. I try to provide some real-life examples, and get them to believe in themselves by pumping up their virtues. SMART = Systematic Mechanistic Achingly Robotic Trash. (Again, no offense, I'm just SMARTing from THE FIRM's new SYSTEM.*)

*So You Seem To Esteem Mechanization

 

[rodi]

Shuuuuuddddder.

I only have 1 more day to work before FIREing. Doing performance management, goal setting, SMART goals, etc is one thing that pushed me from OMY to NOW.

Every year I joked that I wanted my mandatory goal setting to be simplified to just one goal: "Work on whatever priority my boss tells me to." Our project list was pretty agile/changing... Not easily quantified into smart goals when the execs would change business goals every few months.

Next you'll be saying that performance management and ranking of employees (which effectively destroys teamworks and forces employees to compete with each other) is also a good thing.

 

[target2019]

What does SMART stand for? Oh yeah, STUPID.

What organization is so stupid they give us an acronym than means everything and nothing, and keeps us distracted from what is really going on with the overall business direction?

Sheep Mimicking And Repeating Trends?

It has been a really warm afternoon. LOL!

 

[Bestwifeever]

No, we only have dumb goals. But we are excellent at achieving them.

Yiddish saying: Man plans and God laughs.

 

[MRG]

OMG, the taste of worthless Megacorp SMART goals makes me wretch. Its not the system, just Megacorp's implementation. You would bust your butt assuming they meant something to later learn the goals were nothing. Your achievements were a 7th grade popularity contest.

That said I use goals, but in an informal method. Perhaps a Maxwells Martz style.

 

[MichaelB]

Ah yes! Finally, something I share with the world champ Spanish National Football team. Neither one of us has any smart goals today.

 

[ERD50]

Yep:

Specific – target a specific area for improvement.
Measurable – quantify or at least suggest an indicator of progress.
Assignable – specify who will do it.
Realistic – state what results can realistically be achieved, given available resources.
Time-related – specify when the result(s) can be achieved.

So for today (and tomorrow, and the next day):

Specific – Do what I want, when I want to do it. Or whenever I get around to it. Don't do anything I don't want to do. Ever.

Measurable –Observe that I did what I wanted, when I wanted to do it. And not anything I didn't want to do.

Assignable – Me.


edit/add: I forgot 'Time Related' - they are done when they are done!

Realistic – Yep! Because I'm RETIRED!!!!! .

-ERD50

 

[Major Tom]

Guys - his name is wqo3wt76

Welcome to the board wqo3wt76.

 

[Major Tom]

I just poured myself a glass of red wine and am drinking it along with chunks of bread.

I'd be foolish to have any kind of goals at this point..........

 

[Major Tom]

No offense, but I hate SMART goals. Why? Our marketing director at THE FIRM shoves them down our throats.

Mo Money - have you given any kind of thought to the possibility that the OP might actually be your boss?

 

[M Paquette]

I'm a huge fan of Dangerously Unattainable, Monstrously Big goals myself.

Great big audacious goals that make our friends think we're crazy, and our enemies think ... well, we're crazy. They may not be attainable, but, damn, it's fun trying, and I can learn more from trying and failing than planning little baby steps out and schootching along.

 

[ejman]

Man, this is a tough crowd! Just the way I like it...

 

[wqo3wt76]

You're still w*rking, aren't you?

Actually no - not as of last week.

That doesn't mean I don't still have a large array of personal and financial goals though!

 

[wqo3wt76]

What does SMART stand for? Oh yeah, STUPID.

What organization is so stupid they give us an acronym than means everything and nothing, and keeps us distracted from what is really going on with the overall business direction?

Sheep Mimicking And Repeating Trends?

It has been a really warm afternoon. LOL!

Ok - I get it, you guys HATE when corporations use things like goals to drive behaviors.

I should have been more specific - 99% of what we use SMART goals for are personal and financial goals, NOT for work. Goals like having $5M in investment accounts by 12/31/2015 or some such.