Who needs achievable and realistic?

This started as a blog comment, and I’ve ranted about it at Intersect meetups before. I think its worth highlighting again:

I cringe every time I hear someone talk about ‘SMART’ goals… Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Time based.

I would  keep the SMT… but who cares if its Achievable or Realistic?

In fact I’d almost add them as measures in reverse… be unrealistic and aim for what it seems you can’t achieve.. and you might get a surprise when you find yourself achieving it :)

Aside: I’ve always known SMART as Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Time-based. But Wikipedia suggests it should have Attainable and Relevant instead. My point still stands however… who cares if its Attainable? Relevance could be useful though.