Everyone has set goals at one time or another.

Maybe it's to get a certain grade on a test, learn how to play an instrument, study abroad,

or earn a college degree.

SMART goals are one method for making sure you are setting specific goals with clear

action steps.

SMART goals also let you easily know when you have met your goal.

If you search for S.M.A.R.T goals online you will find several different variations on

the acronym.

Although we will only cover one version in this video, use the version that resonates

with you!

Let's walk through the SMART acronym and practice turning a vague goal into a SMART goal.

Say you want to study for your Spanish 101 exam.

First, we need to make the goal more specific.

What and how are great questions to ask yourself when you re looking to make a goal more specific.

For example, what are you going to study?

For Spanish 101 you probably need to know vocabulary and grammar.

Let s narrow it down to studying vocab for this specific goal.

Now, how are you going to study your vocab?

Flashcards are usually a good method for memorizing simple information.

Our goal becomes: use flashcards to memorize vocab for Spanish 101

which is already a big improvement!

Next, let's make this goal measurable!

How will you know when your goal has been achieved?

Are there milestones you need to reach?

This could include how frequently you are doing a task so you can build a habit.

Maybe you decide you want to memorize 20 vocab words per day for this goal.

The next part of the acronym, achievable,

is a great way to assess whether your goal is realistic.

Are you realistically able to memorize 20 vocab words per day?

But maybe you don't know what is achievable yet.

Goals can be revised as you reflect and gain more information about yourself

and the task you are trying to accomplish.

However, maybe you know from previous experience

that you can't memorize that many words in a day.

It's better to set an achievable goal and possibly over-achieve rather than to set a

goal that will create unreasonable stress.

So let's reduce the number of vocab words down to 12 per day

because you are confident you can memorize that many.

Next up is relevant.

Typically this is a yes or no question.

Does this SMART goal connect to your broader goals?

In this case you likely want to pass your Spanish exam and the class.

Memorizing vocab is an important step towards those goals, so yes.

Our current goal is relevant!

And lastly, we need to make our goal time-bound.

What are your deadlines?

When do you need to start working on the goal to meet them?

In this case, your Spanish exam is one week away.

That is your final deadline.

You know you have 60 vocab words to memorize, which means you need 5 days

to memorize 12 words per day.

Maybe you want to start today to give yourself a cushion.

Your final SMART goal becomes: Starting today,

I will use flashcards to memorize 12 vocab words/day for next week's Spanish 101 exam.

If you're finding it difficult to fit your goal into the SMART acronym, try breaking

it into smaller goals, each with their own deadlines and action steps.

Keep in mind, SMART goals are just one way to make sure your goals

are specific and action oriented.

Looking for more academic success resources?

Check out the NCSU Academic Success Center's website at: go.ncsu.edu/asc