The holidays are over, and many of us have chosen to create one or more New Year’s resolutions. Based on surveys such as the 2017 study conducted by the Static Brain Research Institute, 41% of American adults will make a resolution. This equates to approximately 100 million people. Unfortunately, however, the odds are against most of us succeeding in the accomplishment of our goals. The same study found that only 9.2% of people that made a resolution achieved their goals and only 58.4% actually made it through the first month. There may be a better way, however. One possible solution to accomplishing your New Year’s resolutions in 2020 is to take a lesson from business management.

SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound. The term first appeared in the November 1981 issue of Management Review, written by George T. Doran, and was developed as an employee management tool. The original term used slightly different wording, but the essence of this mnemonic has remained over the years. Though there are many management devices like SMART, its advantage is that it is easy to understand and to know when goals have been completed.

The SMART concept maintains that if goals are to be met, they should have the following attributes:

SPECIFIC. Specific goals have a much greater success rate than vague, nondescript goals. Specificity provides a clear destination. Instead of aiming to get fit, for example, you may be better off aiming to work toward completing a half marathon or losing 10 pounds.

MEASURABLE. The more easily a goal can be measured, the more likely that it will be accomplished. Measurable goals allow the goal setter to see incremental progress. If the goal is to run a half marathon, as in the previous example, the goal setter can measure progress by adding small amounts of distance to their workouts over time. If the goal is to lose weight, they can weigh themselves on a daily or weekly basis to check their progress.

Goals such as managing stress and becoming happier are much more subjective and, thus, more difficult to measure. To realize such goals, it would be beneficial to find a metric to measure such as a lower daily blood pressure or more time spent engaging in a fun hobby.

ACHIEVABLE. Goals that have a chance of succeeding should consist of a series of small changes. For example, eating healthier is a noble pursuit, but going from fast-food junkie to organic
vegan may be a stretch. Start small by striving to eat two additional servings of vegetables per day, then gradually work toward major lifestyle changes over time.

REALISTIC. The idea that we can be and do anything we want in life is a fantasy for the most part. That is not to say that dreams do not come true, but that they so rarely become reality is why they are called dreams in the first place. Goal setting is much the same. Deciding to go from sedentary to completing a half marathon over time with proper training is an achievable goal. Going from sedentary to Olympic gold medalist without any training is not particularly realistic. Aim high, but break your ultimate goal into smaller, more easily accomplished ones. Once you achieve your first goal you can then re-evaluate and set new ones.

TIME-BOUND. Setting dates to meet goals works wonders. The dates should follow the other categories of the SMART acronym by being achievable and realistic. It will give you a timetable by which you will be able to plan the small steps along the way to achieving your goal. People that wish to lose weight might aim to lose two pounds per week by exercising to burn an extra 500 calories per day, while decreasing their caloric intake by eating 500 less calories per day. This type of plan allows sufficient time to succeed while providing a clear end-date. Conversely, deciding to lose 100 pounds with no clear plan and no timetable is a much more difficult objective to realize.

Most people strive to better themselves and a New Year’s resolution seems to be the perfect way. Though this type of goal setting is well intentioned it rarely leads to success because the goals are vague, unachievable, unrealistic, and have no clear end-date. Instead, make 2020 the best year ever by Living Well and reaching all of your goals the SMART way.