ACTIVITY: SMART Goals and Objectives
Purpose
• Resilient people have goals for their lives, careers,
relationships, and other aspects of their lives. ESTIMATED TIME
15
• Nearly all problems in our lives have a solution, it’s just a
question of setting the best goals to increase our odds minutes
of success.
• Studies have shown that SMART goals leads to higher
performance 90% of the time when compared to simple
try your hardest planning.
• SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, MATERIALS
Realistic, and Timely
• SMART can be applied to both your Goals and Objectives Required:
A. Paper
B. Pen
C. SMART Goals Template
Exercise Instructions
• Write down a problem or barrier you are currently
experiencing. There are no restraints, this could be a
relationship that is struggling or being overweight, for
example.
• Use the SMART Goals Template to create a SMART Goal
or SMART Objective.
Try This!
Making your goals and known raise your chances of success. Once you have created
your SMART Goal share it with as many people as possible and share your progression
with them.
Facilitator’s Notes
The activity is geared for anyone who is interested in overcoming a problem or barrier in their lives. This
activity can be completed individually or as a group. If completed in a group setting it may be better to set
aside ample time to generate a SMART Goal that everyone agrees upon.
Explain to the group that empirical studies have found that 90 percent of the time, specific and challenging
(but not too challenging) goals led to higher performance than easy, or "do your best," goals.
These studies have found that there are five goal setting principles that can improve your chances of
success. Those include: Clarity, Challenge, Commitment, Feedback, and Task Complexity. The use of the
SMART Model for goal setting ensure that you will improve your chances of success by meeting the five
goal setting principles.
SMART may seem straight forward, but there are components within the acronym that must be met.
Specific answers, “What, When, How, and Why?”
Measureable answers, “When will I know when the goal is accomplished?”
Attainable answers, “Where am I now and where do I want to be?”
Realistic shows that you are willing and able to accomplish the goal.
Timely answers, “When are the goals or objectives expected to be completed?”
Instructions
• Print out “SMART” handout.
• Ask participants to think of something that they want to accomplish over the next three months.
• Discuss the importance of setting goals in a purposeful way in order to increase chances of
success.
• Review the SMART acronym.
• Have participants complete the “SMART” handout.
• Share your goals and offer feedback for ways of improving the goal to make it more SMART.
Let’s Try This! Follow-up
Have the group post their goals Check back with the team once a month leading to the
somewhere public to help increase 3 month goal to discuss progress.
accountability.
Celebrate successes and discuss lessons learned after
the three months.
Sources/ More
Information
Toward a theory of task motivation and incentives
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0030507368900044
SMART Handout
Answer the following questions to help create your SMART Goal or Objective. Remember that a goal is the
desired outcome to overcome your barrier. Objectives are the smaller steps required to attain your goal.
What is your barrier?
What are you hoping to accomplish?
How will you accomplish it?
When will you accomplish it?
Why do you want to accomplish it?
How will you know when it is accomplished?
Are you willing and able to do this now? What barriers can you expect?
What is your baseline?
What do you want for an outcome?
By what specific date do you want to accomplish your goal?
Combine elements above to create a SMART Goal
or Objective on the reverse.
SMART Handout
Use your responses to the questions on the reverse to create your SMART Goal Or Objective
SMART Goal or Objective
What Now?
So, you’ve created a SMART goal or objective, don’t let it end there. Post your SMART Goal somewhere
where you can see it. Even better, share your goal! Be proud of the endeavor on which you are about to
embark. This reinforces your efforts and serves as a way to hold yourself accountable.
If you haven’t created objectives for your goal, go through the process again creating objectives. Goals
can always be broken down into smaller steps. Get the steps small enough that you are challenged, but
not too far that you give up. For instance if I want to lose 40lbs of weight, break down the specific steps
you must take. You might decide to exercise 3 times a week as part of your goal. In your objective
address how you will achieve the goal of exercising 3 times a week.
Example SMART Goals and Objectives
SMART Goals/Objectives
• Provide high quality customer service resulting in a 90% customer satisfaction rating from external
customers on accuracy, timeliness and courtesy measures by 3/1/XX.
• By 1/1/XX, “I want to start running faster”. I currently run a 5K in 26 minutes and I want to get it down to
22 minutes. I’ll accomplish this by tracking my running times at least “3 times a week”.
• By June 30, 20XX, complete course work and attain a CSAC credential to enhance my skills as an effective
leader as measured by feedback from my supervisor and the accomplishment of my performance plan
goals.
• Continue to maintain a list of all the employees who are officially enrolled in our advocacy program.
Update it weekly by 5pm on Friday through 11/11/XX.
