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When you set a goal for your educational pursuits you should do it intelligently. Actually some might tell you that you should do it SMARTly. Using the letters in the word SMART, you can design a goal that is a valuable goal to motivate yourself and help you succeed in meeting your personal educational goals. Here are the steps to set a SMART goal

Specific- The first letter of SMART Goals is S, and it applies to being specific. You want to set out a solid goal. This goal should answer six essential questions. Who, what, where, why, when, and how. If your goal does not answer all of those questions, then you need to research it further and make it more specific. This is your gameplan, and if it is not specific it makes the remaining portions of the SMART Goal hard to measure.

Measurable- The second letter of SMART Goals is M, and that is for Measurable. If you are setting a goal such as completing your degree in four years, that is something that measurable. If you succeed you will get your degree, if you fail you won't. You can also set smaller goals along the way that are measurable. A goal that can be difficult to measure would be one such as "I want to be the best student in my class". Yes, grades are one way, but that isn't really a true measure of if you are the best student in the class. There are many other factors, and in reality it's likely there isn't a "best student" in the class.

Attainable- The third letter of SMART Goals is A, and that stands for attainable. Is this something that somebody can realistically accomplish? Are you setting a goal that
you can attain? Figure out the steps you need to take to accomplish that goal, if you can come up with steps then it is attainable.

Realistic- The fourth letter of SMART Goals is R, and that stands for realistic. A goal can be attainable, but turn out to be unrealistic. When setting a goal consider reality. Yes, you probably could complete 3 classes in a semester, work full time, and raise your child. Yet, in reality do you think it is something you will be able to accomplish without getting frustrated and quitting on your goal? A more realistic goal for you might be to reduce the amount of semester hours and extend your timeliness deadline for your goal.

Timely- The final letter in the acronym for setting a SMART Goal is T, which stands for timely. This means setting a specific time guidelines for accomplishing your goal. Don't just say that you want to complete it "when I finish", or "whenever I can", choose a time period and include that in your goal.

Learn more about this author, Chris Kirk.
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