I was reading a blog this week, askmoxie, and she was referencing SMART resolutions, in which there’s a word for each of the letters, making it what we call an acronym. Anyway. Here’s the exchange between me and Patrick this morning:
Me: I’m doing my three minutes of abs work today. That is my New Year’s Resolution. It’s a SMART Goal. Specific, Measurable, Attainable, and I forget what else.
Patrick: Relevant and Timely.
Me: What? Are you just making stuff up?
Patrick: No.
Me: You know about SMART goals?
Patrick: Yeah, we use them all the time at work.
And here I was thinking I had discovered something original. Now you may think three minutes of abs work ought to be too easy to make a resolution about, but I’m telling you, it meets those parameters neatly. Specific=abs not general “exercise”; Measureable=3 minutes is non-negotiable; Attainable=not likely to undertake more than three minutes; Relevant=Yeah, the abs need work after two babies; Timely=As my favorite musical points out, No day but today.
That’s the resolution. I might think of another one this year, but you can bet, it’s going to be another SMART goal. The nebulous ones get out of control. Like last year’s: Being more present in my interactions. Hmm, not SMART at all! But a good goal nonetheless, and I did learn from it.
Your blog brought to mind the old SMART CARTS that used to be in airports. You could rent them for $1.25 and return them for $.25 refund at the dispensing machine in the terminal. Now, ALDI grocery store in
Bowling Green uses the same system, but you pay a quarter to get the cart, and the machine returns your quarter when you bring it back in from the parking lot. ATTYDNTK which is the acronym for:
among the things you didn’t need to know. salude’
I have not heard of SMART goals, but it does make a lot of sense that we would make our resolutions SMART. Who needs the added stress of an unattainable resolution! I vowed to start taking daily vitamins, since I’ve already been sick twice this season!