S.M.A.R.T Goals – A Guide To Ideal Author Goals

Setting Up Goals For Your Business’s Success

Goals are the foundation to a solid publishing or marketing plan. When you have a goal, you have a benchmark to work by. You have a clear idea of where your destination is. That makes it easier to carve your path to the destination. 

Ideal goal setting for authors

What are S.M.A.R.T. goals?

S.M.A.R.T. is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-sensitive. Setting S.M.A.R.T. goals means that you have clarified your ideas, focused on your efforts, and evaluated your time and resources to select what you want to achieve in life. 

1. Specific

You want your goal to be specific. You cannot just say you want to write a self-help book. There are countless types of self-help books out in the market. The idea is to get down to particular details. I want to create a self-help book that targets women who have lost their jobs in the COVID pandemic to set up a home business. This can even be narrowed down further to what type of home business as well.

2. Measurable

Goals can be specific as to the measurable result that should be achieved. I’d like to sell 10,000 books to mental institutions by the end of 2023. You however want to make sure that the goal is relevant to you. You also want to keep monitoring this goal to track its progress.

3. Achievable

You ought to keep in mind how achievable your goal is as you set it. Does your budget allow you to achieve this dream? Is it realistic or are you setting it up just for the sake of having a goal knowing that it is not achievable?

In as much as you want to dream big, you have to be realistic as well.

4. Relevant

Your goal should be relevant. What motivates you to write? Is it to make a difference in young women’s lives? Then that will help you in setting a relevant goal. Seeking to become a top-selling author is not your motivation and thus is not something relevant to your goal. However, there’s nothing wrong with becoming one, if you do achieve that along the path to attaining your goal, then it is a bonus.

5. Time sensitive

Timelines and deadlines are vital when setting goals. They will help you evaluate your progress and reveal areas you may need to pay more attention to. You should ensure that your goals have time stamps attached to them. 

As you map out your short-term and long-term goals, you want to make sure that they are hierarchical. The long-term goals are the end goals. Mapping out the short-term goals that eventually lead to the long-term goal will allow you to move methodically toward your destination. Achieving those short-term goals will also motivate you to work toward the long-term ones.

What are your goals? Drop a comment below and let’s talk about your goals.