The R in SMART

I've posted a few times recently about SMART goals. Most of the time I've seen that it's the A for attainable (or achievable) that people tend to have a problem with. Measurable is easy if there's a number available. Time-based is pretty straight forward. Specific can be an issue as it's common to want to cram everything into one massive goal instead of splitting out into smaller, discrete goals.

My daughter has a teacher who had them set SMART goals but used realistic instead of relevant for the R. I actually had a former boss who made the same mistake. The teacher just found some random handout on the internet. My former boss just blew it off that everyone uses different words in the acronym, but it's all the same stuff. The problem is that attainable and realistic are the same thing. Why would you have two words of your acronym be the same? They should be different. Being able to achieve a goal doesn't make it relevant or vice versa. You want both.

I mentioned in my last goal-related post how it's important to have a big picture vision, but to make sure that vision doesn't take over as the actual goal itself. The goal should be related to your inputs, not the output that you don't have control over, thus making it attainable. In some meetings over the past week or two, I realized I totally missed something that was staring me in the face previously. As I said, the big picture vision is important to guide the rest of the goal, but that big picture vision is actually the relevance. I've always known the R was important but generally spend less time on that one than some of the other areas. But it's actually the R that most people should probably start with. The vision guiding the goal is the relevance. Thus, the item that most people set as their measurable but not attainable pie in the sky goal should actually be the relevance.

Let's say an athlete wants to win an Olympic medal. Most people would be happy just qualifying for the Olympics, but we're going all the way here. Honestly, that is a terrible goal. It is somewhat specific on the surface but honestly too broad, because there are a lot of things that need to be done to accomplish it. It's definitely measurable - you either win it or you don't. Attainable is the difficult part, since you can control what you do but not what others do (ask Tonya Harding).

The Utah Jazz in '97 and '98 could have been NBA champs had they been playing anyone other than the Chicago Bulls. They had done everything they needed to, but there was still something out of their control - Jordan and friends.

But you can still put that pie in the sky goal in there. Make that be the relevance. If the athlete's goal is to get up early every morning and work out for five hours, that is definitely measurable and attainable. Why would she do that, though? It's relevant, because it can help in her quest to win a medal at the Olympics.

So you can still set your crazy, out of your control goal. Just put it under the R. You can still look at it anytime you want. But spend your time on the measurable and attainable part that is in your control.