Turning Big Art Goals into Actionable Steps Through SMART Goals
Jane Davies (Ep 3), in her year end advice, talks about goals you can and can’t control.
Davies wants to get her work into more galleries this upcoming year. She knows, however, she can’t control how many galleries say yes to her.
“I don't make it a goal to have two more [for example] galleries by the end of the year. Those decisions are not all mine to make, and so I run the risk of failure,” says Davies. “I really like to establish goals that CAN be accomplished.”
But there is something she can control and that’s where she sets her goal. In this case, her goal is to submit to a particular number of overall galleries.
“And then I can achieve that.”
She has made a goal that is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-based. She’s created a SMART goal.
WHAT ARE SMART GOALS?
SMART goals are a framework to help create goals. It’s a useful framework because it helps make sure the goals we’re setting work in our lives and aim us in the direction of our big art dreams.
A SMART goal is:
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time bound
It can be so easy (and appealing) to create goals that are huge in nature. A little like creating a to do list that has “get confident color mixing” in the top spot for Saturday.
Getting confident with color IS a great goal. But it’s absolutely unrealistic for a Saturday. And it’s too vague on its own to really help us know how to attain it through the year ahead.
“I really like to establish goals that CAN be accomplished.”
-Jane Davies
By turning an objective into a SMART goal, we are basically making a road map for the steps we’ll take to reach it.
Here’s how we could turn a color mixing goal into a SMART art goal:
Big goal: Get confident when mixing colors.
SMART Goal: Mix at least one color swatch every day during January and check off a box on my calendar when I do.
Specific: I’ve committed to a number of times I’ll do this per day/week/month.
Measurable: I have a way of knowing if I’ve done it or not done it.
Achievable: I’ve looked at my life and schedule in January and know if I push myself I can make time for color mixing for this amount of time.
Relevant: I WANT to get better at color mixing and this is color mixing.
Time bound: I haven’t set this goal to go forever. It’s for January. At the end of January, I can decide if I’ll do it for February.
SHIFTING THE FOCUS
SMART goals also help shift the focus to the doing part of big dream making. Davies acknowledges this too in her advice. It can feel demoralizing to have worked really hard and not see the benefits of that labor. Learning to paint takes time. It’s unpredictable. we may not see our progress day in and day out.
But if we can point to a goal that is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-based, we have concrete proof that we are working towards our dream. It’s something we can point to and know confidently that we are headed in the right direction.
Are SMART goals something you’re trying this year? If SMART goals aren’t right for you, what kind of goals are you making for the year ahead?
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