This is one of the reasons I've noticed from experience make people fall short of achieving their goals.

Many just have ideas in their heads, they know they what to achieve their goals more so because of the fulfilment attached, but more often than not go about it the wrong way!, ending up to only start and barely making it half way, and either forget it or get frustrated while at it.

Let's talk about the SMART approach to goal setting;

SMART goal-setting follows a simple formula; each goal must be:

S = Specific (or significant)

M = Measurable (or meaningful)

A = Attainable/Achievable (or action oriented)

R = Realistic(or rewarding) 

T = Time Based (traceable)

Let's put it in perspective,

I will be using an example of a medical student (oh, maybe because I'm a final year medical student at the time of writing this post), but you can still relate.

As a medical student, I know I want to Read, I need to Read, and I have to Read� (lol, yeah, I know the norm is we read a lot, but hey!, we have fun too, yunno!)

So follow....

Now that I know "i want to read" .... ok?, but it's not enough to stop there, there are different courses to read (I'll be using a Preclinical student perspective (Preclinical students are those in 200-300level)

So there are three broad courses offered at this stage viz; Anatomy, Physiology and Biochemistry

Now, remember the SMART approach, I need to be specific, so I ask myself; which course do I want to read today?-

I want to read Anatomy(now the course bundle for this is done by medical students in two years, but it's actually a university course that runs for 4 years for people that decide to go fully into that field (so yeah, you can try to imagine the volume of things to read��)

So I need to be more specific right?;

let's go on; which topic do I want to read?

I want to read Upperlimbs in Anatomy (even in this I need a sub topic �) and that is ��

I want to read the Arm in Upperlimbs (although specific but I can still break it further)��

I want to read the muscles of the arm.

So now I have a specific goal.

Then I pick my textbook or whatever resource material I plan to use, (let's assume it's about 5pages), ofcourse I don't want to overwork my brain, so I'll spread it out over days if possible

We have successfully applied the next three steps by the analysis we followed above, it's Measurable, attainable and yes, it is realistic too

Then the last step , Time based, - I'll pick a specific duration and time of the day to achieve it with maximum concentration. (Of course for me it's in the early hours of the day, when no one is expected to disturb me, let's say 1-2am(don't call me night crawler o�)

(Whew, you made it this far, reading, I must congratulate you...a few more lines to go)

So let's put it all together;

Using the SMART approach this is what my WRITTEN goal should look like;

I want to read the muscles of the arm for 1hour between 1-2am reading at least 1page per day for 5days (starting today June 17 - 21) taking 5mins break for every 15minutes achieved.

And in a maximum of 5days I'm done.�

Of course, you know to achieve your goal, you have to make sacrifices as well, so you can do something like this;

During this time I will switch off my phone(social media ehn� �)and put in total concentration, (it's important to avoid distractions)�

You may ask, why split to minutes again?; well...from studies it has been shown that the average attention span of humans is 10-20minutes, so I took the average (15minutes), with my 5 mins interval break, I'll have time to re-arrange my thoughts go over my goals again and set myself for the next 15minutes �

Simple right ? (My thoughts exactly!)

So, When next you have a goal and you are keen to achieve it ?

Ask yourself

Is it specific ?

Is it Measurable ?

Is it Attainable ?

Is it Realistic ?

And finally

Is it Time based ?

I hope you found this useful, yes?; no?

Let's have your comments below.

Also, If you think this will help someone out there, then you can share it, feel free.

A beautiful morning to you☕

¤Bamise_Omolaso