Is it time to make changes in your personal and professional life? Think about setting goals to make those changes - and goal setting is easy using the SMART model. To begin with, you must set specific goals - and here is how.

It’s easy to set personal and professional goals as you would a New Year’s resolution. But setting goals can have a far greater impact if you set them in a concise and consistent manner. Whenever you set goals, use the SMART model: goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. In this 5-part series of articles, we will take a look at each part of the SMART model. As you progress through the series, consider how you can set goals in various areas of your life, such as health, career, relationships, finances, and personal growth. Then work on creating those goals using the SMART model.

First, let’s look at making goals specific. Let us say you have examined your health and fitness and you have decided to lose twenty pounds. Is this goal explained in a way that will help you achieve it? You can easily say you’re going to lose twenty pounds. By establishing this goal, you know what you want to achieve. In most cases, though, a simple goal just isn’t enough to help someone achieve it. When setting a specific goal, concentrate on answering these questions: who, what, where, when, which, and why.

“Who” should tell you who else is involved. To lose 20 pounds, are you going to hire a personal trainer, talk to your doctor, or visit a nutritionist? “What” is usually the easy part - you have identified what you want to accomplish just by establishing a goal related to your health and fitness. “Where” should tell you what means you will use to accomplish your goal: are you going to join a health club, go jogging at the local track, or use the treadmill in the garage? “When” sets the timeline - if a goal has a specific timeline attached to it, you’re more likely to keep it in the front of your mind. So if you decide to lose twenty pounds starting January 1, what’s the deadline? Do you want to grade the goal out, i.e. lose five pounds by January 31, ten pounds by February 28, etc? The “which” question should expand your thought process in relation to the goal: what are the requirements of the goal or, alternatively, what constraints might you run across? By answering who and where, you’ve identified some constraints, but what about requirements? What other items or conditions are you going to require in order to lose twenty pounds? Finally, “why” answers an important question and gives the incentive to stay committed to the goal regardless of the timeline.

If you put all of this together, “Lose twenty pounds” becomes “Hire a personal trainer at the local gym and lose twenty pounds by June 1, 2008″. It’s a simple example, but each goal translates into an achievement that will help you make changes in your life. In the workplace, goals can be tied to performance evaluation, raises, or bonuses. So, instead of “increase sales”, a specific goal will set the bar for you to “increase sales by 15% by October 31, 2008, using the company standard sales procedures.” So the SMART model is a useful tool in goal setting in any environment.

Now think about the areas of your life that you would like to change. Have you set goals that are specific? Choose one of your goals today and turn it into a specific goal using the SMART model. When you start with a specific goal, you are automatically setting the stage for accomplishment - personally and professionally. Look for Part 2 of this 5-part series on Goal Setting.