The planning separates between the real and unreal goals.

   I mentioned in a previous article, and I made difference between goals and dreams, maybe you spend several years and nothing you achieve at all, then you regret about it, and maybe you ask yourself what’s the problem with me that I can’t do anything, whereas some other can do? So in fact we’re in one from two cases “relaxing dreams” or “realistic dreams”, what Today we’ll talk about, is one (among many) widespread methods to plan for your goals.

   Firstly; the goal must be written on papers, and if you tell me that you know your goal, and they’re in your mind, so that doesn’t work. There are many methods to plan for personal goals or for organizations, like SWOT, POSEE, PMSP…etc. And to knowing more about these, you can check all the different ways.

  Secondly; The goal mustn’t be general (when you say for example: I want to be rich, or I want to lose 20 kilos of my weight, ..etc), because this kind of goals mean you’ll waste more of time, mean more of costs, more of tiredness, the  results are negligible, but the goal must be very specific. Therefore the most the most widely way used in these cases is S.M.A.R.T.

  S: Specific: the goal must be very specific and defined, so instead to say “I want to succeed”, or “I want to improve myself” you must specify in what exactly you want to succeed/ improve yourself? And say:” I want to improve myself in the computer’s skills.”

  M:Measurable: you can measure your goal periodically in order to know where you are now? And that let you see the obstacles which hamper your progress and compare the remaining (percentage with time) it’s good to know your steps in road to achieve your aim and make the necessary modification. The known rule says: “IF YOU CAN NOT MEASURE IT, YOU CAN NOT MANAGE IT”. And our goal becomes: “I want to improve myself in the computer’s skills through reading 10 books and Attend 2 training courses (internship).”
  A: Attainable / Agreed: in this step, we find a difference between the planning for personal goal, and planning for the goals of organization respectively.  Take your time for this planning and ask yourself how can you realize your goal? your qualifications, your means, and the agreement between “leaders of organization” about the details of this goal. (*Organization can be an association, a company, or a ministry, …etc.)

  R: Realistic: simply this part means that the good goal must be “difficult” & “possible”, and here I advise you to avoid the goals which aren’t compatible with your actual powers, skills, and resources. We continue in the same goal: “I want to improve myself in the computer’s skills through reading 10 books and Attend 2 training courses.” It’s a logical goal and not unreal, right !!.

  T: Timed: the goal has to be limited by time, the deadline to achieving your goal, because the opportunities become less when you the time is missing in the plan, and it becomes an opened goal (without confines), it isn’t important when you will realize it and it’s only a wish. The most important is the time of the end to compare with it. The same example becomes: “I want to improve myself in the computer’s skills through reading 4 books and Attend 2 training courses during 6 months.” You see!! And this is the final form of the goal.

    So in brief: the goal must be: Specific & Measurable & Realistic & Timed. If your goals aren’t compatible with these conditions, so you need to think again and plan from the beginning. And that’s what the sciences said.

If you want to make more details in your goal, when you plan for the available means to attain this goal, you follow the same previous steps S.M.A.R.T, and don’t forget to make a written plan for your goals.