SMART Goal Setting for Freelancers

If you haven't already thought about your goals (or resolutions) for the year, now is the time to start. After reading a bit on Pat Flynn's Smart Passive Income blog (which I recommend, in case you don't follow it), I plan to post my 2011 goals to this blog.

One of the biggest keys is that you set SMART goals. What is a SMART goal? Simply put, it's a goal that is Specific, Measurable, Achievable (or Attainable), Relevant, and Timely. You should make sure that any goal you set meets all of these criteria.

Here are a few quick questions you can ask yourself to determine if your goals are SMART enough:

1. Is it specific enough? Would someone who doesn't know anything about me know exactly what this goal is without any help from me? For example, don't say "Learn to do something". Instead, say "Learn to play the guitar".
2. Is it measurable? Can you qualify or quantify this goal? Using the guitar example, you can say something like "Learn to play six rock-and-roll songs on the guitar" instead of just "Learn to play the guitar" as mentioned above.
3. Is it achievable (attainable)? Is it impossible to complete your goal? Very few things are truly impossible, so most goals will meet this criteria.
4. Is it relevant? If you are a musician and learning to play the guitar will better your career, great. If you love music, even better. If you aren't a musician, have no desire to learn music, etc., the goal is not relevant to your professional or personal interests.
5. Is it timely? You have to set a time limit. If you don't, you'll have no way to gauge your success. To wrap up our guitar example, you can say "Learn to play the guitar by September 2012."

I have been using this methodology since 2007 when I started working at my last "real" job. Each year, we were required to set SMART goals. Whether or not we reached these goals was a part of our annual review. Goals setting for freelancers is equally important. However, since you don't get reviews from a boss, it's important to make sure that you can be honest with yourself on whether you met or didn't meet your goals.

I challenge to you, for 2012, to publicly announce your SMART goals on your blog or some other public forum (post the link here, I want to see them!). At the end of the year, you can review your progress, also in some public forum.

So, let's hear (read) it! What are your goals for this year?

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