Name: How to Set and Achieve SMART Goals: Crash Course Business - Soft Skills #9
Uploaded: 2020-04-13T16:38:22.000Z
Duration: 10 min 53 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

And I'm living out those dreams on a slightly different path.

Now, I'm a full-time digital storyteller, which means late nights wrapping up projects, an expensive

video camera, and some non-disclosure agreements.

And I got here by setting small goals that were clear, doable, and ambitious.

I know things can seem a bit overwhelming when you're out of school, there are no

more grades, and all of a sudden people are talking about five-year plans when it feels

like you don't know what's happening in five weeks.

So today, your mission -- should you choose to accept it -- is to learn how to set achievable

And this is Crash Course Business: Soft Skills.

And we all want to achieve them, no matter if they're big like, “I want to write

an Oscar-winning screenplay” or small, like, “I just want to finish this script, right now."

Looking toward the future is scary and muddled.

Every little decision you make seems like it's really high stakes.

At some point, your hopes and fears and insecurities might get all mixed together as your brain

starts to panic, and all of a sudden you're having a quarter-life crisis in your 20s.

Like, “Am I actually achieving anything in my life?”

But you can limit this anxiety by setting some SMART goals that break down your big

And I don't mean “smart” like responsible, although it never hurts to budget your travel

SMART is another one of those business-y acronyms.

It stands for Specific, Measurable, Ambitious, Realistic, and Timely.

So first of all, your SMART goal should be specific, clear, and easy to understand.

“Do your best” may be a great mantra or motivational poster, but it's too vague

Breaking down a big goal into smaller, specific action steps will let you see results, which

will lower that “am I actually getting anywhere?”

Second, you can't see results without knowing what they look like, which is why

If you're not measuring anything, how are you going to look back at everything you've

So make sure each step comes with numbers to help you see clear benchmarks.

For example, instead of “stop the bad guy and save the world,” try “complete 3 missions

Now, you might be tempted to set relatively easy small goals, so you can check them off

and fill that craving we all have for instant gratification.

But you should also be ambitious with your SMART goal.

You'll work harder and your results will last longer if you're challenged.

Like, you probably didn't pay attention in classes where you were bored.

Then, you want to strike a balance between challenging and realistic SMART goals.

Unless you're Tom Cruise, mission impossible really needs to be mission challenging-yet-probable.

Goals that are too ambitious can be frustrating, rather than motivating.

But if you don't hit that super-far-out target, you might have a nagging feeling that

you're a failure… and that can really weigh you down.

It's kind of like being upset that you didn't lock up the bad guy forever, and losing

sight of the fact that you still thwarted his evil plan.

If you want to push a little bit farther, you can set a stretch goal.

But make sure there's a minimum where you're still happy.

Like, if you've spiffed up your secret underground base, your stretch goal may be to build yourself

And finally, make sure your SMART goals are always timely.

Because without a timeline, you might keep pushing your goal off to… someday.

And when you get busy, someday never seems to come.

If your big goals are complex, like “run your own spy agency by age 25,” you may

need 3 to 4 subgoals with smaller timelines, like, “stop Shego 4 times this year” or

“partner with Wade to create a new gadget this month.”

And remember when we talked about under promising and over delivering?

We all generally have a hard time understanding how long things are going to take.

So set a few incremental deadlines, so you won't be up doing an entire project the

Tight deadlines can be motivating but also really stressful.

If you've got 24 hours to stop a supervillain, you'll work fast, but your blood pressure

Now, if you're trying to process all these tips and still aren't entirely sure what

you're aiming for in the first place, make your SMART goal a learning goal.

Learning goals, like setting up an informational interview per week, help you figure out what

you need to do and what goals you should set as benchmarks along that path.

But even if you put a lot of work into crafting some awesome, motivating SMART goals, life

Your priorities might shift as you learn more about yourself, or you could have to deal

with an unexpected setback like an injury or layoff, which can send anyone reeling.

So if you feel you need to adjust your timeline or abandon a goal, it's not necessarily

a failure, even though it might feel like one.

There's only so much time in a day, and goal quality matters more than goal quantity.

So you've got to think about what's most important to you.

If you're trying to save the world and also study for that math test, you may need to

But there's a difference between adjusting priorities and giving up with a “what the

heck!” just because something got hard.

Balancing ambitious and realistic goals can be tough, so be flexible with yourself.

If you're trying to save money, maybe say, “I'm going to cook for myself this whole

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How to Set and Achieve SMART Goals: Crash Course Business - Soft Skills #9

anxiety

specific

individual

stretch