Picked up a random poetry book From the crowded shelf. Quick easy hour read: Delight and wonder. Then, Found…
SMART Goals and Reality
Family Goal Setting and Follow Through
By Janelle Stear
November 13, 2018
The other night, my eleven-year-old daughter struggled to come up with specific and measurable goals for school, called SMART goals. As a 6th grader, Olivia performs usually at the top of her class, but low when it comes to organizing and prioritizing her school work. Olivia, like me, wants to do everything perfectly. She does not want to make mistakes and she is very critical when it comes to judging herself. I am sure you know someone like this too!
Last year, teaching high school English, I had been so worried about being the perfect teacher and perfect employee that I inevitably was my own worst enemy. I literally was a mess. Sleep, stress, and physical distress consumed me. My students noticed, my colleagues noticed, and my family especially noticed. Then one day, my friend and mentor came in to talk to me in an intervention manner. I had to let myself relax. She had been worried about me and saw herself in me when she had been a new teacher years before then. She told me that I needed to not take things so hard and learn to relax. With students, I can only do so much to reach everyone, especially when some of them just do not want your influence despite your best intentions. My friend even printed me a sign to keep by my desk: “You are someone you need to take care of too.” I am grateful to her and to my other colleagues for helping me to realize that I did not need to work so hard. Now I just need to help my daughter realize this fact.
When Olivia came home with an assignment to create SMART Goals, something I had had my freshmen students do the year before, I was excited to be able to help her with it. Then she told me that I was just confusing her more. She said I was not using clear words in my explanations. I asked my husband for help explaining to her better, which he did even after I had found a YouTube video explaining the steps in concise details.
My husband,Tom, taught Olivia that by setting a manageable, measurable, specific time limit for a goal, then you are more likely to meet it. A goal that is closer in time to achieve is realistic. She had wanted her goal for not having any missing assignments and for getting homework done in a timely manner to be met by the end of the school year. She changed it to the end of the semester so that it is closer. She can continue the same goal into second semester, but that way she is more focused on sooner rather than later. This helps her with time management for homework each night as well. Olivia says that made sense to her. I also reminded her she does not have to be perfect and get everything done, especially for low point assignments. Focus on the big ones that are worth more such as tests and essays.
What are SMART Goals?
SMART Goals are something created originally by Dr. Edwin Locke in 1968 as a corporate call to action. Later, in 1981, George T. Doran in Spokane, Washington, created more international acceptance by redefining SMART goals. “He articulated in detail that goals are not amorphous, inarticulate things. Rather, they are measurable things that need to be achieved to move an organization forward. He expressed the first, cogent way to define, measure and ultimately achieve goals,” (“The History and Evolution of SMART Goals”). Since then, educators have incorporated the technique as a way to help students be more self-reliant on their progress.
Mindtools.com offers this advice for setting goals: “First consider what you want to achieve, and then commit to it. Set SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound) goals that motivate you and write them down to make them feel tangible. Then plan the steps you must take to realize your goal, and cross off each one as you work through them.”
How will using SMART Goals help your family?
As one mom and family blogger, Kelly, states, “Setting family goals transcends the daily slog of family life that can make us feel run-down and overwhelmed. Because when you’re working together towards a common goal, your connection with your family will be stronger.”
In our family, we tend to do the typical “let’s do this sometime,” such as “let’s go camping next summer,” or “let’s go for a bike ride the next sunny day.” Only, we have yet to take the girls camping anywhere besides our backyard, and bike rides are easy to forget about in the business of our evenings with homework and getting ready for bed. However, I have found that by putting such events into our calendar, then we are more likely to do them with no excuses.
AhaParenting author, Dr. Laura Markham, recommends “10 Habits to Strengthen Your Relationship with your Child.” One of them happens to be “#5 Make Time for One on One.” In order to follow through on family activities, family goals, you have to schedule them and follow through. This time with your children is so fleeting that if you want to do something as a family, do not wait till later, because later may never come. Rather, schedule and do whatever it is you dream about doing together: vacations, picnics, movies, regular dinner time together, or even, gardening together. The point is any goal can be met. You just have to write it down and stick to it.
This is why I like SMART Goals for my family (not that we have scheduled specific goals like this before). I know we are going to get to do what we want to do when we plan, schedule, and do. Along the way, we help each other complete homework and chores so that everyone is ready to go when it is time. Check out Family Goals Templates on my Pinterest page.
One goal we have as a family is to go to San Diego, California next July for a long overdue family reunion. By starting to plan now, we will be able to afford our airfare, lodging, and food. This is something we have to meet so we have made a plan that is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
Olivia was able to create her goals that night, and now, I need to create my own for my business. As a freelance writer, I am struggling to build up a name for myself and to earn an income from it. I have been doing a lot of research on blogging and freelance content writing, but it is such a hard field to break into without having connections. Therefore, I have made these SMART Goals for myself:
Specific – WHO? WHAT?I will be successful at marketing my writing and receive at least a bi-weekly income from it. I will print prototypes of my completed memoir and market it to others for potential investors. |
Measureable – HOW?I will know I am successful by the profit I make. |
Attainable– REASONABLE?I know this goal is attainable because I have read other bloggers testimonies and my cousin who has been a freelance writer for the last nine years. |
Relevant – EXPECTED RESULT?I will produce a blog to and promote it by email subscriptions. Subscribers will be people who visit my blog and sign up for the subscription. I will also market my writing by sharing it with potential investors/companies looking for writers. |
Timed Oriented – WHEN?I will start making a bi-weekly income from my blogging and content writing by the end of February, 2019. I will find an investor for my memoir by the end of January, 2019. |
What does your family do for goal planning? Please leave your comments below!
- Check out Amazon for Dr. Laura Markham’s books and blog. One of her books is on my reading list. I have been enjoying the suggestions she offers parents through her blog.
- I recommend purchasing a family calendar or white board for goals/plans, like this one Magnetic Dry Erase Schedule Board from Amazon.
- Make sure you ask your children if they are using SMART Goals at school. If they are not, you can help them use the template at home. Find a template online, or here on my Pinterest site,
- Visit Kelly’s blog, Happy You, Happy Life, for more tips on goal setting.
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