Is it just me or has June flown by like Auntie Em’s house in a tornado? In fact, it’s just occurring to me that we’re only a few hours away from this year’s half-way mark. I started this year with a lot of goals for my writing, and it looks like now is a great time to take stock of where I’m at, adjust my objectives and get focused for another six months.

In reviewing my writing goals for 2009, I realized they may not have been as well-thought-out or specific as they could have been. I decided to re-work some of them, which brings me to the real focus of this post: SMART goals. This week, I’ll be expanding on the SMART criteria for goal creation to help you create effective and attainable objectives that get you closer and closer to meeting your writing goals.

What is a SMART goal?

You may have heard this acronym before, and may have seen it defined in a variety of ways. However you define it, using SMART criteria to develop your goals makes reaching them much more likely. Below is my interpretation of SMART and how to apply it to create more effective writing goals.

A SMART goal is:

• Specific - The goal should be as specific and well-defined as possible.
• Measurable - You should have some way of measuring progress toward and completion of your goal.
• Attainable - There should be some reasonable expectation that you can achieve the goal.
• Relevant - The goal should apply to your own life, dreams, and objectives.
• Time-based – The goal should have a clear deadline.

If your goals don’t meet all of these objectives, flesh them out and break them down until they do.

What makes my goal Specific?

Let’s look at two goals I’ve set for myself in the past:

1. Write a book.
2. Write a book about Character A overcoming Challenge B and learning to do C.

You get the difference here. In fact, Goal #2 has continued to evolve and become even more specific as I have developed my idea. The problem with Goal #1 is that without any clear direction on what I was working toward and how to get there, the goal just sat on my to-do list, staring me down. I was frustrated that I hadn’t made any progress but I had no idea where to even start.

With a more specific goal, I’m able to see clearly where I want to go. This reduces the anxiety I feel about the goal and allows me to come up with concrete steps I can take to reach that goal.

How can I make my goal Measurable?

To make a goal measurable, you can set word-count objectives, specific deadlines, or define your goals in pages. Do whatever works for you. The point here is to make sure you have some way of recognizing your progress. Take these examples:

1. Write a book.
2. Write one chapter of my book about Character A overcoming Challenge B and learning to do C every month, until 12 chapters have been completed.

Again, Goal #1 doesn’t do anything for us. On the other hand, Goal #2 gives a specific and measurable objective to work toward (write 12 chapters), and even includes intermittent measurable goals (one chapter every month). When 12 chapters have been written, I have reached my goal, and every month I can see my progress toward this goal by counting how many chapters I have written.

How do I know if my goal is Attainable?

This is one of the hardest SMART criteria to define because it is extremely subjective. Whether or not a goal is attainable is dependent on the person setting the goal. Whatever the goal, you need to evaluate whether it is truly attainable based on your personal resources. Ask yourself if you have the skills necessary to reach the goal. Do you have the drive, opportunities, time or money to make it happen? If your current goals aren’t attainable, how can you break them down to make them attainable?

Let’s take Goal #2 above as an example:  Write one chapter of my book about Character A overcoming Challenge B and learning to do C every month, until 12 chapters have been completed.

If you know you don’t have time to write an entire chapter every month, try breaking that goal down into an goal that is attainable FOR YOU. Do you have time to write 2000 words every month? How about 1000? Can you spend 2-hours a week or one Saturday a month working on your novel?

Figure out how to make your goals attainable within the confines of your own life and you’ll begin to meet more of them.

In my next post, I’ll cover the last two criteria of a SMART goal and share a few of my goals for the rest of the year with you. In the meantime, you may want to practice writing your own SMART goals or review your current goals to make sure they meet the SMART criteria. Feel free to share some here for feedback or accountability.