“I will make this year different from the previous one.”

Many people, including me, think so and make new year resolution, be it new career, skills, health issues, etc. So do I.
Usually, I make new ones right after new year starts. Before doing so, I reviewed the previous year’s goals through my blog. That’s when I realized that I made two mistakes: I didn’t even remember my previous resolutions, and some of resolutions have gone unresolved.

So I started analyzing WHY. The answer was quite simple: there was lack of SMART goal making and Follow-up. And I think this applies to some people, if not most, who didn’t achieve last year’s goal(s). So I would like to introduce how to really make this year different, based on my mistakes (learning) and analysis.

SMART goal making is famous among many organizations especially those who manage projects.

Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Timely (or Tangible)

And I would like to add “F” (Follow-up) to these, which make it SMART-F

Let me take my examples by comparing between last year and this year.

【Last year’s goals】
1. Meeting People
2. Language
3. Health
4. Learn Coding
5. More creativity

【This year’s goals】
1. Health
2. Language
3. Learning

They are generally similar to the last year’s ones. This year, however, I made the following Excel sheet which includes SMART-F approach.

Let me explain a little bit about this SMART-F sheet:

Main Objectives
I put 3 main objectives (Health, Language and Learning) to remember easily, since I didn’t even remember last year’s ones.

Sub goals (outcomes)
Each main goal has sub goals (outcomes). For example, main objective 1 (Health) is divided into three sub groups which I call “3E“: (1) Eat well, (2) Exercise well and (3) Energize well (sleep and mindfulness).

SMART-F approach
Each sub group has SMART-F approach. To take the example of 1-(1) Eat well:
Between January to April, “On a weekly basis, buy vegetable and fruits, learn basic nutrition of them through google search, and try to feel each bite to slow down my eating habit.”

Always with me for Follow-up:
I printed it out and try to review once in a while, so that I can follow up if I am on the right track (if not, I can push myself to move on to the next quarterly activity).

In short, the difference between last year and this year is like this.

Setting goals without SMART-F approach (previous year) is like deciding the direction to walk toward only once in the beginning of the journey, then keep walking without knowing where you are nor where you are heading along the time. So I hope the SMART-F excel sheet I made will serve as a map (overview) as well as GPS (follow-up).

This time, I learned that:

Setting goals per se is easy, but in order to achieve it, it is important to think about SMART-F approach (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely and Follow-up) and make an effort.

Thanks for reading, and I wish this year will be the great one for you in both achieving goals and other things.