What are SMART Goals?
Picture a goal you want to work on. Maybe it’s changing a bad habit, finding a new job, or completing a difficult course at school. You might want to consider using the SMART goals approach.
What are the 5 pillars of SMART goals?
“SMART” is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound. The term, first proposed by George T. Doran in the November 1981 issue of Management Review, was originally used in business settings to improve management practices. SMART goals have since been used in a wide variety of settings, including physical therapy, psychotherapy, and in educational institutions.
Specific: what will be accomplished? What actions will you take?
Measurable: what data will measure the goal? How much? How well?
Achievable: is the goal doable? Do you have the necessary skills and resources?
Relevant: how does the goal align with broader goals? Why is the result important?
Time-Bound: what is the time frame for accomplishing the goal?
An example of a SMART goal would be: “I want to read 25 minutes per night after dinner, every day for one month, to get back into reading the way I used to.” Here’s an example of a goal that’s not a SMART goal: “I want to be the best reader I’ve ever been.”
In terms of a psychotherapy SMART goal, let’s say you want to work on panic and anxiety: “I will practice two mindfulness exercises daily for five minutes each to reduce anxiety, and I will do one exposure goal of an avoided situation each day as well. For depression: “I will engage in fifteen minutes of behavioral activation, such as a morning nature walk, three times a week for the next month to help increase my energy and mood.”
With SMART goals, it can be very helpful to track progress so that you can look back and reflect on what is working and what is not. With an anxiety SMART goal, for example, a simple way to do this is using a daily planner or journal. When you complete a mindfulness exercise or an exposure goal, write down a SUDS rating. SUDS stands for Subjective Unit of Distress Scale. The scale goes from 0 to 100, with 0 being no distress, 50 being moderate distress, and 100 being the most distress you have ever felt. Keeping ratings is a useful way to see if anxiety is decreasing over time (called the habituation model). What’s more, even if anxiety levels are staying the same, you might find that you can tolerate distress better than you thought you could (called the inhibitory learning model) through the use of coping mechanisms.
In sum, using SMART goals can greatly improve your ability to achieve your goals. Here is a worksheet that can help you map out a goal you are interested in working towards:
https://www.apa.org/pubs/books/supplemental/Taking-Control-of-Anxiety/Setting-Smart-Goals.pdf