The Psychology of Why SMART Goals Work

A month of 2021 has already gone by, and in the new year you have probably set yourself any number of personal goals, while companies may already have defined the year ahead in OKRs and KPIs for their teams. The SMART framework is one of the most familiar methods for setting goals, and today we will look together at some of the psychological reasons behind it.

Why set goals at all?

Before we look at the criteria for setting goals, it helps to ask a more basic question: why do we set goals in the first place? Most of us set goals in order to improve how we perform, or to give ourselves more room to grow. According to Edwin Locke's Theory of Goal Setting, setting a goal lets a person focus their attention and resources on the things they judge to be a priority, and the very desire to reach a goal prompts people to devise more ways of improving their performance. The presence of a goal increases the drive to grow.

What is the SMART framework?

The SMART framework was proposed by George T. Doran in 1981. S, M, A, R and T each stand for one of five criteria for setting a goal. A good goal must be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound.

A Specific goal

When we think about our future, we often take an abstract vision as our goal. We want to make a name for ourselves; we want to be healthy in body and mind. But to turn these goals into reality, we have to put specific actions into practice — and a clear plan makes it much easier to build an action plan. When it comes to personal health, we can think about whether it is body weight, nutrition or fitness in particular that we want to make progress on. Does making a name for ourselves mean a promotion? Growing turnover? Or developing a side hustle? Turning a vague, hazy image into a specific, clear goal lets us know what abilities and resources reaching that goal will require, and recognising those needs lets us invest our time and energy more effectively in the right areas, so we know how to plan our own future.

On the other hand, as we struggle towards the future we are bound to meet countless obstacles and setbacks, and one of the things that helps us face those setbacks is our image of the future. The clearer our picture of a successful future, the more drive we have to pursue our goals, because we can look ahead to that future with optimism in a clear mental image, recognising that we need not be crushed by our present pressures.

A Measurable goal

Whether the goal belongs to an individual or a company, feedback is an indispensable part of the loop. That feedback can come from a boss, encouragement from colleagues or a financial reward, but it can equally be the sense of satisfaction that comes from witnessing our own progress. Positive feedback makes a person aware that their actions are meaningful, and so they keep at it in the future. Of course, only progress that can be quantified can be measured clearly, and so rewarded appropriately. A measurable goal lets us know what we have achieved so far, and how much distance still lies between us and the goal. Knowing our own progress not only lets us motivate ourselves, but also lets us adjust our plans according to our own pace. If we are making good progress towards the goal, we might rest a little, or raise the goal's difficulty; if we are falling behind, we can review our current plan, adjust our actions, and find the pace that suits us best.

An Achievable goal

How achievable a goal is affects our sense of self-efficacy — the judgement a person makes about their own abilities. The higher a person's self-efficacy, the more they believe they can cope with the challenges ahead. If a goal is too far out of reach, we may feel helpless on discovering that there is no way at all for us to reach it. Helplessness erodes a person's confidence in their own abilities and their sense of self-efficacy, leading them to believe they do not have what it takes to reach the goal, and to choose to give up when they next meet an obstacle. A goal that is too difficult or complex only makes a person feel it is beyond their control, leaving them with no confidence to invest further time, or to keep striving in the face of the challenge.

A Relevant goal

When a goal's content aligns with a person's values, they are able to put more spirit, time and energy into it. Self-Determination Theory points out that when a person's actions are driven by values they themselves endorse, they are more willing to keep working towards the goal. Psychologists call this kind of drive intrinsic motivation. If a personal goal comes from within rather than being set under outside influence, we will have far greater drive to reach it.

A Time-bound goal

We have all experienced a deadline-fight: before the final deadline arrives, we usually have little drive to act. Temporal Motivation Theory points out that when an action does not bring an immediate return, people have little drive to take it; conversely, when an action pays off within a short space of time (there is an exam tomorrow, and revising today brings a return a day later), people have far greater drive to act. When setting goals, we should use short-term goals to support our long-term ones. A long-term goal that is too far off can easily sap our drive, because it feels as though there is still plenty of time, so we put our time into other things first and fail to prioritise acting on our goal. Short-term goals, on the other hand, let us set milestones along the way to a distant goal, see clearly the progress we ought to have made, and boost our drive.

In closing

One use of learning psychology is that it lets us change ourselves — and even the behaviour of others. We hope everyone can reach their goals for the year ahead, move towards a better future, and find real psychological growth. As a psychology education organisation, TreeholeHK takes on the work of spreading this knowledge. We currently run online courses and in-person courses that help students understand psychological behaviour, and we also offer corporate training services to improve your team's morale and take your business's impact to the next level.