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Before you start goal setting, it is crucial to dive into the different types of goals. It is essential to look at what area of your life it is for and what your desired outcome is. For some aspects of your life, creating particular goals is necessary. While in other areas, the desired result is feeling-based.

There are three main types of goals: Good, Better, Best (GBB), SMART, and Aligned.

When you set your goals, you should make sure your goal is one of these types. Let’s learn more about them.

1. Good, Better, Best (GBB) Goals

This type of goal uses a stairstep approach for the outcome. BGG Goals have three different levels of achievement: a good level, a better level, and a best level.

If you use this type of goal, the good level is the first tier and where you would be happy and satisfied if you met it. Exactly how it sounds, the better goal is a little better than the good level goal. The best goal is the best you could do, and you would be overjoyed to accomplish it. View the best goal as your stretch goal and the final tier of the GBB method.

This goal type is great when you are doing something new or when you don’t want to put a cap on how much you can achieve.

Example of GBB Goals

For example, you are a wedding planner, and you want to focus on booking more weddings in the next three months.

Good Goal: 5 weddings
Better Goal: 7 weddings
Best Goal: 10 weddings

2. SMART GOALS

I learned about SMART goals back in my corporate days, and they were revered as the only way to set goals.

SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely.

When you need extra accountability or when you need a firmer framework, these are the type of goals you need to use. They can feel very restrictive and are not ideal when you are setting a feeling-based goal.

Let’s break down the SMART Acronym even further:

Specific: Well-defined, focused, and answers the who, what, & where.
Measurable: The metrics you will use to determine if you met your goal, answer how much, how many?
Attainable: Is your goal realistic to achieve with the parameters you set and the time/money/energy you currently have? Do you have control over the outcome?
Relevant: Does this goal matter to you? Does it make sense for you to set this goal? Is this the right time to tackle this goal? It answers why.
Timely: Every goal needs a timeframe in which you plan to accomplish it. It is your when.

Examples of SMART Goals

To increase website traffic to my blog, I will write, edit, and publish one article a week for 12 weeks.

This goal is specific because it tells you precisely what you will do: writing, editing, and publishing. It is measurable because, at the end of 12 weeks, you should have 12 articles. It is attainable and relevant to your business. It is time-bound because you have 12 weeks to complete it.

For more information on SMART Goals, check out this blog post.

3. Aligned Goals

Aligned Goals are feeling-based and aligned with your heart and soul. This type of goal is quickly becoming one of my favorites and one that I stumbled into a few years ago.

Even though these goals are not quantifiable, it does not make them less valuable. It does make it harder to determine if you are successful.

Even if your overarching goal is not concrete, you can find real things to do that will help you complete your goal.

Aligned goals are great for changes in attitude or relationships.

This type of goal can be used for short- or long-term goals. If you are using it for the short term, establish a time frame to complete it by. The time frame I use the most is three months.

I use this method for long term goals for my yearly word and Big Life Goals. Big Life Goals are the BIG things you want to accomplish in your life. These can feel scary, embarrassing, and sometimes, unrealistic. They help make sure you are heading in the direction. Creating smaller goals can help you take baby steps to achieve them.

I think Big Life Goals are so important, I have created an entire blog post dedicated to them, check it out here.

Examples of Aligned Goals

An example of a short-term aligned goal would be building your relationships. It also could focus on improving your mindset or attitude. It isn’t something you concretely say, yes, I achieved it, but you will be able to feel if you did it or not.

Let’s say you have got yourself into a rut and you want to become a more positive person over the next quarter. Your aligned goal would be to become more positive. There is no quantifiable way to measure if you become more or less positive over the quarter.

But there are concrete things you can do to help you achieve that goal to measure your progress. Examples would include meditate every morning, read daily affirmations, write down when you are feeling negative and go to the gym four times a week. You can use a goal tracker to measure how often you are doing those things. T

hen, at the end of the three months, you need to ask yourself if you feel more positive. Your heart and soul will be able to tell you the answer.

How to Use the Different Types of Goals

Now that you have learned about each type of goal, it is time to start setting them. It is a relatively simple process, and once you get enough practice, you will be able to breeze through it.

Visualize the outcome you want
Based on the outcome and what is involved, pick a type of goal (SMART, GBB, or Aligned)
Walkthrough the process of setting that goal for each type.
Repeat for each goal you would like to set

For more on goal setting and how to achieve your goals, I have a course called Revolution Goal Academy. Learn more about it here.

I first learned about SMART goals back in my corporate days, and they reigned as the only way to set goals. When I was in sales, we had to come up with 3 SMART goals each quarter, and they needed our boss’s approval. If they didn’t meet all the SMART qualifications, then we had to redo them. This process taught me why they are essential, how to write correct ones and the pitfalls of only using this goal-setting method.

What are SMART goals?

SMART goals are a structured type of goal-setting strategy. SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely.

SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely.

This method creates concrete goals, where the outcome is clear and defined. These goals will hold yourself accountable because they provide a firmer framework. Because they are so specific, you either achieve the goal, or you do not. There is no gray area with this type of method.

SMART goals are great for businesses and teams. There is no confusion on what the goal is and what it means to reach it.

These goals can be very discouraging to beginning entrepreneurs. An example will be if you are setting SMART goals for your new business. You want to publish one blog post a week for 12 weeks. You might not realize at the time, but it may not be attainable (the A in SMART). When you are new to creating a blog post, you may not realize all the things that go into it like researching, writing, editing, designing graphics, and sharing. If you are not achieving the goal by your deadline, then it can be very discouraging. This discouragement may make the person not want to set them anymore.

What does SMART stand for?

SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. But what does that mean? Let’s break it down letter by letter.

S – Specific: You goal is well-defined and focused. It answers who, what, & where.
M – Measurable: The metrics you will use to determine if you met your goal. It defines how much or how many.
A – Attainable: This defines if your goal realistic to achieve with the parameters you set and the time, money, and/or energy you currently have. If you do not have control over the outcome, it is not attainable. For example, you do not have control over how many email subscribers join your list. But, You do have control over how you will reach those subscribers — examples include reaching new people through blog posts, Facebook ads, and social media. You have control over the number of blog posts you publish and how often you share content on social media.
R – Relevant: Does this goal matter to you? Does it make sense for you to set this goal? Is this the right time to tackle this goal? This answers why.
T – Timely: Every goal needs a timeframe in which you plan to accomplish it. An open-ended goal is nearly impossible to achieve. A deadline helps hold the goal-setter accountable. This answers when.

How to write a SMART goal

It might seem daunting at first to write a SMART goal. Do not run for the hills yet! Smart goal-setting can be easy, once you get the hang of it. Follow the below steps to create your SMART goal.

1. What is the outcome you wish to achieve?

Let’s use our previous example of email subscribers. The outcome you wish to achieve is to get more email subscribers for your business. As we said above, we need to make an attainable goal. We have no control if someone decides to sign up for your email list or not. But that is the outcome we want. Write it down.

2. What are concrete ways you can achieve that outcome?

This next step is how you can achieve the outcome listed in step 1. Let’s stay with our email subscriber example. You cannot control if someone signs up, but you can control how many blog posts you publish. This action might get more people to your website, and its possible more people would sign up for emails. That is one concrete idea that you have control over. Another idea would be posting more on social media or invest in advertising. Write these ways to achieve under the outcome from step one.

3. Answer the SMART Goal acronym Questions

Pick one of the concrete ways to achieve the desired outcome from step two. Answer the SMART Goal acronym Questions.

Specific: Who is involved with this goal? What specifically do you want to accomplish? Where is this goal to be achieved? What resources are required?

Measurable: How will you know when you accomplished this goal? What metrics will you use? How much? How many?

Attainable: Is this attainable? Is your goal realistic to achieve with the parameters you set and the time, money, energy you currently have? Do you have control over the outcome?

Relevant: Does this goal matter to you? Does it make sense for you to set this goal? Is this the right time to tackle this goal? Why?

Timely: When are you going to complete this goal?

Examples of Smart Goals

First, let’s continue with our email subscriber example. The outcome we want to achieve is more email subscribers. We are going to try to accomplish that by publishing more blog posts.

An example of a SMART Goal for this situation may look like this:
I will write, edit, and publish 1 article a week for 12 weeks so I can increase the website traffic to my blog and grow my email list.
This goal is specific because it tells you what you will be doing by writing, editing, and publishing. It is measurable because, at the end of 12 weeks, you should have 12 articles. It is attainable and relevant to your business. It is time-bound because you have 12 weeks to accomplish it.

Smart goal examples for work

Attend three networking events by June 1st so I can meet other entrepreneurs.
Complete online sales training and workbook by Oct 15th and implement my training into my sales process by Oct 30th.
Gain new social media followers by creating and posting new content to Instagram and Facebook once a day for 30 days.

Personal Smart goal examples

I will go to the gym three times a week for the next six months to create a healthier lifestyle and habits.
For 2019, I will read one book a month to reduce my amount of screen time.
I will save $100 a week for ten weeks so I can go on a vacation for Labor Day.

Pitfalls of SMART Goal-Setting

As I mentioned at the beginning of the article, there are pitfalls with the SMART goal setting method. SMART goals can be discouraging to entrepreneurs, especially when you start something new. An example will be if you are setting SMART goals for your new business. You want to publish one blog post a week for 12 weeks. You might not realize at the time, but it may not be attainable (the A in SMART). This unattainability is because you may not understand all the things that go into creating a blog post (researching, writing, editing, designing graphics, and sharing). If you are not achieving the goal by your deadline, then it can be very discouraging. This discouragement may make the person not want to set them anymore.

Be sure to keep the attainable part of SMART in your mind when you are setting your goals.

SMART Goal Setting Template & Worksheet

It is super easy to create a SMART Goal template. To create your SMART Goal worksheet, copy everything from how to write a smart goal section into a document. Then, you can follow the steps while typing your answers. No need to download anything!

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Types of Goals and How to Use Them Effectively