SMART Goal Setting for Educators

Goal-setting is the process of consciously setting goals in a manner that allows goal completion and achievement. Goals are essential to one's purpose, and pursuing our goals allows us to thrive in life. Principles that allow goal-setting to be effective include commitment, clarity, challenge, complexity and feedback. The SMART goal setting framework fulfills these principles and hence is an effective model to set goals by:

1. Specific: Define your goal and make sure it is specific.
2. Measurable: Define the way by which you will be measuring progress towards achievement of the goal.
3. Achievable: Make sure your goal is attainable. 
4. Realistic: Make sure your goal is realistic and relates to your overall life purpose/ikigai. 
5. Timely: Make sure you have a start and target end date for goal completion defined as well. 

Example of a SMART Goal: By March 31, I will have arranged my files and thrown out old materials to get organized.

In the box below, reflect on some goals you would like to pursue as an educator while following the SMART framework.