In Jan O’Neill’s seminal work, The Power of SMART Goals: Using Goals to Improve Student Learning, she explores the evidence behind the relationship between clear, achievable goals and measurable success. O’Neill and several other education experts find again and again that the focus required to set concrete goals is the single biggest predictor for their fulfilment. Motivational speaker Tony Robbins is often credited with saying that goal-setting is “the first step in turning the invisible into the visible”—in other words, they carry us from the potential to the actual.
