SMART Goals Are Overrated
When you set a goal, it should be “SMART,” or so the standard advice (even some of ours !) suggests. It stands for “Specific” , “Measurable” , “something”, “Time-bound ” – there is disagreement about what a few letters mean, and this is your first hint that maybe they aren’t that important .
It turns out that the SMART goal system doesn’t cover all the ways goal setting can help us. If you ask me, you really shouldn’t turn every goal into a SMART goal. Here’s why.
SMART goals were not invented for self-improvement.
Let’s think about history for a moment. As much as we hear SMART goals discussed in the context of fitness goals or New Year’s resolutions, you might think they originated from the field of self-improvement. But no: their roots lie in the world of management. In 1981, business consultant George Doran wrote an article entitled “There is a SMART way to formulate management goals and objectives.”
In this article, Doran argued that goals are often vague and that a specific and clearly stated goal will be more effective. The SMART acronym was intended to provide a goal-setting structure so that managers could deliver orders to workers with clear goals and measurements.
This structure makes a lot of sense when the goal is actually a communication tool between people on the team. “The boss wants it by this date, and here’s how we’ll know when we get there” is much better than “the boss wants us to do better.”
But the SMART structure doesn’t make much sense for people setting goals. In fact, the A originally stood for “assignable” in the sense that you could assign a goal to a specific employee or team, which obviously doesn’t work when the task is to get off the couch and complete the task. run more. Fitness and self-improvement gurus have simply rewritten this acronym and changed its focus.
What does SMART mean?
Doran originally said that a SMART goal ideally has five qualities:
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Specific
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Measurable
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Assignable (to employee or group)
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Realistic (given your resources)
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Time-related (having a timeline)
Doran never said that all goals must be SMART, and in fact emphasized that there are many appropriate goals in the workplace that only meet some of these points. He also said that SMART goals can and should coexist alongside more abstract goals.
But the self-improvement industry took the basic structure and ran with it, judging goals by how well they meet a new set of SMART criteria. You’ll see different definitions, but they generally sound something like this:
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Specific
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Measurable
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Achievable or Achievable (this is the equivalent of Realistic in the original definition and is here because Assignable doesn’t make sense to individuals)
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Matches (your interests – this is a new addition since Realistic was renamed and they needed another R)
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Time-limited (having a deadline)
This is one metric removed (assignable), one added (relevant), and one slightly modified (time-based rather than time-based).
However, I don’t think focusing on SMART goals is as helpful as it seems. Structure can be limiting, shift your attention to things that are not your real goals. That’s what I mean.
Disadvantages of SMART Goals
SMART goals are often seen as an improvement on vague statements like “I want to get in shape,” but I would call them more of a bait and switch. By the time you’re done defining your goal, you’ll have a pass-fail test with a deadline and a metric. Is this really what will motivate you?
When you make a goal specific and measurable, you learn to focus on certain actions (which may be a good thing), but you lose sight of things that don’t fall into those categories. If you only want to lose weight and are counting the pounds, what will happen to your ability to maintain muscle mass and strength? What will happen to your ability to enjoy food without obsessing over calories? What happens to those types of exercises that you normally enjoy, but that don’t burn the most calories per minute? You have tunnel vision, and that’s not necessarily a good way to approach your goal.
When you make a goal achievable or realistic, you prevent yourself from dreaming too big. If you strive to improve, would you be willing to try something difficult just because you might fail? How successful do you think you will ever be if you only stick to those “goals” that you are 100% confident in achieving?
Finally, setting a time-based goal is setting up an artificial barrier. What happens if you reach a deadline and don’t get it done? Was it all in vain? If you’re talking about a corporate quarterly deadline, maybe. But if you’re working on your goals for your own reasons, time doesn’t really matter, does it? Self-improvement has no finish line. If you haven’t been able to do 100 pushups by date X, are you still stronger than when you started? Could you keep going and see if you can do 100 push-ups in the next month? Choosing a deadline does not mean that you “have to” achieve the goal by the deadline.
Think of SMART goals as benchmarks or minimums.
Abandoning SMART goals can be a little confusing at first—admittedly, they do provide a good structure for clearly articulating what you want to achieve. This is not your overall goal, but perhaps it can be helpful as part of the process.
So consider setting up at least a few time-limited, measurable tests to make sure you’re on the right track. This turns them into process goals rather than outcome goals. For example, you could commit to running four times a week for the next month. It’s not the same as a vague goal like “become a better runner,” but it’s also not a traditional SMART goal like “run a half marathon in two hours or less on April 20.”
Think Bigger When Setting Real Goals
What goal would you set if it was n’t realistic or strictly defined? As I’ve written before, I think it’s best to think of fitness goals (or any goals for that matter) as a question . Intentionally remove one or more of the SMART parameters and force yourself to see what you can achieve when it is no longer a pass/fail test.
Remove the deadline and ask: How soon can I reach my deadlift [goal weight]? Or remove the specificity requirement and ask, “How fast can I run by the time this race starts?” Or remove the measurement aspect and see what happens if you just do something. Have fun. Push yourself. What will happen? How will your life change? You don’t need numbers that you can track on a spreadsheet to try something and see what happens.