Connect: Supercharge your goals.

At the end of this lesson you will be able to:

Trying challenging things is the best way to grow your brain. But challenges don’t happen by accident. Goals help us challenge ourselves, and challenges supercharge brain growth. Clear goals inspire people to try challenging things, like climbing mountains or dividing fractions. They give us a destination to work toward and help us check in on our progress along the way.

We want to set ourselves up for success by creating the right type of goal. In order to write a good goal, we use the SMART framework.

S for specific. A goal should be linked to one activity, thought, or idea.

M for measurable. A goal should be something you can track and measure progress toward.

A for actionable. There should be clear tasks or actions you can take to make progress toward a goal.

R for realistic. A goal should be possible to achieve.

T for time-bound. A goal should fall within a specific time period.

Lisa is an animation director in New York City who creates animation for TED-Ed. She’s always wanted to be an animation director. Let’s hear about her goal setting and her journey to get where she is now.

Not every goal is a good goal. We want to set ourselves up for a well-deserved success by setting up a good goal. Good goals are SMART. Let's imagine how Lisa might have written her goal in college:

An example of how she would write her goal if she was in college looking for a job would be:

S for specific: Yup! Lisa wants to be an animation director using hand-drawn, traditional cell animation.

M for measurable: Yup! Lisa will look for an internship that gives her the opportunity to do this specific type of animation in New York City.

A for actionable: Yup! Lisa will talk to her network of animators while sending out her resume to potential employers at least one a week.

R for realistic: Yup! Lisa has a background in animation and has done extensive work for her portfolio, so she has examples of the skills she’s practiced that she can point to.

T for time-bound: Yup! Lisa will look for a job over the next three months. If she doesn't get an offer, she will reflect and revisit her plan to achieve her goal.

You have completed part 1 of 3 for this activity: Connect!