Tips in formulating realistic Goals and Objectives

Correctly setting realistic goals and objectives are your FIRST step to success. If this is not correctly done, it seriously affects how you are defining or measuring the level of success you might attained; in the implementation phase of the goal or objective.

One of the best guides in formulating a goal is to implement the SMART technique. It is an acronym that stands for:

S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Attainable
R – Realistic
T – Time Bounded

So lets examine the real world goals and objectives set by common persons and examine possible flaws in the formulation of these:

1.) My goal is to become a millionaire before age of 30.

Potential Flaw: Although the goal is specific and measurable; one problem could be that it is not either: attainable or realistic. You should be very careful of setting goals like this, so the best way to know if a goal is attainable to make some rough calculations based on real data available (not estimates).

Say for example, you are on the age of 23 at the time you formulated the goal. Then you have yearly salary of $300,000. You actually spend 80% of those, so what is left is 20%. So the savings will be:

Savings each year = 20% x $300,000 = $60,000
Total savings at the age of 30 (7 years from age of 23) = $60,000 x 7 = $420,000

So it means that having a goal of achieving a one million at the age of 30 is not realistic because according to facts, you can only save up to $400,000 at the age of 30; however if you set your goal to $400,000 that would now be considered as realistic and attainable.

Revised goal formulation: My goal to reach $400,000 at the age of 30.

2.) My objective is to finish the entire job completely by the end of the day.

Potential Flaw: The objective is not specific. It is because the amount of task that you need to do is not being included in the objective. Thus because it is not specific; it is not measurable.

Since there are no specific details in the objective, you cannot tell whether the objective is both realistic and attainable.

Say for example, you are planning to accomplish 4 sets of important tasks in a day and the 1st task and 2nd tasks needs 2 hours each to complete and the 3rd/4th tasks need 1 hour each. So the total amount of hours you need to work in a day:

2 hours x 2 + 1 hour x 2 = 6 hours

So if you have 8 hours to work in a day, this objective is somewhat attainable and realistic.

Revised objective formulation: My objective is to complete my job consisting of four tasks at the end of the day.