How to create goals that will Actually work for you & your business

I’m probably a little late to the party as I’m guessing you’ve already set your goals for the year, however, I still wanted to write this post for today because it’s still early in the year and there’s a chance those goals might need a bit of shaping - to the salon! (Sorry if that reference was weird and went straight over your head!) If you’ve already set your goals and you want to check that they’re actually going to work for you and your business, or you haven’t yet set them and you need a little guidance, read on.

What ARE Smart goals?

SMART goals are the only kind of goal you need if you want any hope of actually achieving them and not just chucking them straight back onto your list of goals again next year.

Specific: By setting a clear and focused goal, it helps you to focus on what you’re trying to achieve and avoid any ambiguity as to whether you’ve actually achieved it or not.

Measurable: Including a ‘measurable’ element in your goal, this helps you to stay on track, review your goals and celebrate your progress.

Achievable: In order to achieve your goals, they have to be realistic. There’s not point setting a goal of buying a house in 3 months time when you’ve got £6.52 in your savings account, it’s never going to happen and it’s only going to demotivate you!

Relevant: Ensuring that your goals align with your ambitions and values helps you to connect to what matters to you and improves your likelyhood of staying consistent and achieving these goals.

Time-bound: If you don’t set a timeframe on your goal, it’s harder to review them effectively, prioritise the action steps you need to achieve the goal and it will make it all to easy to procrastinate.

By making sure that every goal you set covers each of these elements, you’ll take your goals from your wildest dreams to actionable plans to set yourself up for success.

How can I make my goals SMART?

It’s all to easy to tell yourself '“I’m going to go to the gym more.” You might go three times in one month and, technically, since you didn’t go at all last month, you’ve been more, but then if you don’t go at all again the next month, have you really achieved it? A much more effective goal would be to say, in 2025, I’m going to go to the gym twice (measurable) a week (time-bound). This kind of goal is specific, it’s achievable and, if your over arching goal is to focus on your health or fitness in 2025, saying that you’ll go to the gym twice a week is relevant and aligns with your values which therefore helps you to stay consistent and chances are, you’ll be able to achieve it.

I always find the easiest way to make my goals SMART and more specific is to write down the general goal that I’d like to achieve and then think about what, specifically, do I want to be doing this time next year (or whenever the goal is due to be achieved) to be able to feel like I have really achieved that. Another example is, if you’d like to build up your business emergency fund, you might instead say, by the end of 2025 (time-bound), I will have £5,000 in my business savings account (specific) by saving £420 a month (measurable). It’s also really helpful to put a motive behind it to make it more relevant, for example you might specify that you’ll be using that £5,000 to invest in new equipment and cover some emergency salary if needed, this will help motivate you to achieve this. Finally, remember, if £420 a month is not realistic for you, there is no point setting this goal as you’ll never achieve it! You’d be better off reducing the monthly payment to something realistic for you and saving over a longer period of time.

How often should I review my goals?

I find, the biggest contributing factor in achieving my goals is how often I review them. I’m not saying you should review every goal daily because quite frankly you wouldn’t have any time left for actually achieving them! I do think it’s important to set a review process when you’re setting the goals as, again, this helps to keep you accountable. I try to review my goals monthly to ensure I’m on track as that’s what works for me. Depending on the goals you have, this time frame might be different for you. I also find that by having my SMART goals physically written out, I can review them easily in one document, add notes and updates and I use a traffic light system to easily see whether I’m on track, need to do a bit more work or I’m completely off the rails from achieving it!

How do I know if a goal is realistic and achievable for me?

There’s a difference between setting a goal that’s realistic and setting a goal that’s easy and doesn’t stretch you. If you’re going to set a goal that’s too easy, you might as well not bother at all! When setting your goals and getting SMART with them, think about what you want to achieve and then think about how you could break it down so that it’s not overwhelming but still challenges you. You’ll need to consider the resources you have, how much time you have to achieve the goal and what skills you already have. If your goal is to spend less time on social media, when you’re trying to make it SMART, you’ll need to think about what that looks like in real life for you. For me, I couldn’t come off social media completely as it’s quite a big part of my job, but I could limit my time on social media to X number of hours a day. If this was your goal, you’d want to think about how many minutes/hours a day is realistic and achievable for you and your lifestyle. If your goal was something finance based like my earlier example of saving £5,000 then you’ll need to consider the resources you have (e.g. in this case disposable income) and you could also consider your skills, for example if you can’t afford to save £420 from what you currently earn, maybe you have a skill that you could utilise to bring in some extra money to top up your savings amount?

How do I stay motivated and accountable over time?

If your goals align with your values, this in itself can be a motivator and setting deadlines and review dates might be enough to keep you on track. If your goal is something that you’re finding harder to commit to (for example saving money or going to the gym) then you could look at what accountability method you could put in place. Something I do to help me stick to my goal of going to the gym twice a week, is I work out with my brother and therefore I find it slightly harder to cancel a session because there is someone else relying on you. We also decided to go one step further to ensure our commitment by implementing a small fine every time you miss a session. As there are multiple levels of accountability, I find it a bit easier to stay on track and turn up for our sessions than if I was going on my own with no consequences for missing a day. Motivation and accountability are often about finding what works for you and regular reviews of your goals, and your motivations to achieve these, can be helpful to learn what is most effective for you.

My Final Thoughts…

Creating and staying motivated to achieve your goals is not a one size fits all approach and, at the end of the day, you have to put in the work to make it happen. That said, there are things you can do to increase the chances of achieving the goals you set yourself. So, if you’ve already set goals for 2025, have a look at them and see how SMART they are, see if there’s anything you can add or change to make them fit the model better. Once you’ve got your SMART goals ready, it’s time to think about what will motivate you and keep yourself accountable with regular reviews. If you haven’t yet set your goals, I hope this blog post serves as some accountability to do so!