SMART Goal Technique and My Brother

Today when the importance of ‘SMART’ goal setting was taught to me in my management class I felt that some of us are learning what it means whereas there are some people who might not know what it is called but they definitely are aware of the concept inside out and follow it in their lives. The moment I understood what it is, the very moment I started thinking of my younger brother who had used this smart goal setting to get into India’s no 1 law college NLS Bangalore with an AIR of 19 in CLAT exam.

I remember talking to him two years back when he told me his Specific goal of getting into National Law School. He told me this with such an optimism and confidence as if he had seen the future and knew it for sure. I remember in one way or the other he answered all the 5 W questions required for a goal to be specific:

·         What: What did he want to accomplish?

·         Why: Specific reasons, purpose or benefits of accomplishing the goal.

·         Who: Who was involved?

·         Where: Identified the location.

·         Which: Identified requirements and constraints

Being the older brother I had told him the difficulty I faced in accomplishing what I had set for. To this he told that he will always keep in track his performance. He would keep Measuring his improvements and record it. He had already set a benchmark for himself and was competing with himself to beat that record. He very well knew how to achieve his goal.

I remember he had pasted a poster on the wall of his room written in bold “ AIR 1”. I never understood its importance then. But now when I look at it from management perspective I realise that this small activity he did made his goal Attainable to him. Seeing it every day multiple number of times made him believe that his goal was achievable.

Then he also displayed the fourth factor of Relevancy in his pursuit. He discarded or prevented doing any activity that was not relevant to his goal. He weighed his options on the sieve which questioned :

·         Does this seem worthwhile?

• Is this the right time?
• Does this match my other efforts/needs?

Also all his actions were Time bound. He had a mental scheduling of what to be done and when. He gave a time frame to his endeavour and avoided unnecessary wastage of precious gift of time.

Thus his goal was Specific- Measurable- Attainable-Relevant-Time bound. In short it was a SMART goal setting.

And it is because of these practices that he has accomplished what he always wanted. He fulfilled his dream and is progressing towards a brilliant future. I wish him all the best and hope that he keeps employing this concept throughout his life..............