In this lesson you are reflecting: not writing a new goal, but judging old ones with evidence.
Most goals die quietly. Nobody reopens the page, so nobody finds out whether the plan was working, whether life got in the way, or whether the goal was wrong from the start. Today you practise the keep / adjust / replace call on three supplied cases that are already seven weeks old. Then you book the date of your own first review of SMARTER Goal 1, which lands in Lesson 19.
Three terms sit behind every honest goal review. Read them before you open the cases.
| Term | What it means for you | Real example |
|---|---|---|
| Evaluated | Checking a goal against real evidence at a set time, not against hope. In your Goal Reviews Worked document you will judge three cases on the evidence attached, not on how the goal sounds. | Reading seven weeks of phone notes and deciding whether the target still holds |
| Revised | Changing the goal, the target, or the approach when the evidence says the original plan is no longer right. Keep, adjust and replace are all forms of revision; abandoning a page is not. | Reducing a target from four to two, or replacing the goal entirely |
| Goal review | A keep, adjust or replace decision based on evidence you already have. This is the skill you will use on your own SMARTER Goal 1 in Lesson 19. | Keeping a fitness goal because the training log shows steady progress, or replacing it when nothing has moved |
Order of work
- Walk the Case C worked example with your teacher (the wrong-goal judgement).
- Write keep / adjust / replace decisions on Cases A, B and C in Goal Reviews Worked (about 20 minutes for all three).
- Write the Lesson 19 review date into your SMARTER Goal 1 document.
The three calls
- Keep. The goal still fits and the evidence shows you are on track (or close enough that the plan should stay).
- Adjust. The goal still fits, but the target, timing, evidence or approach needs to change.
- Replace. The goal itself was the wrong goal. Effort is not the problem; the aim is.
What you produce
- Goal Reviews Worked in your Strand 1.1 folder: for each case, your call, the evidence you based it on, and one line on what would have changed your mind.
- SMARTER Goal 1: the calendar date of your first real review (Lesson 19, seven weeks from when you set that goal). If you are unsure of the date, ask your teacher and write it in today. If you do not yet have a SMARTER Goal 1 file, create one now in Strand 1.1, paste a one-line placeholder goal or the note "goal to be rewritten from earlier lessons", and still write the Lesson 19 date.
This artefact matters because Lesson 19 asks you to make the same three-way call on your own goal. Practising on real evidence now is what stops that review becoming a form-filling exercise.
Case A: Roisin, Business and Geography
Original SMARTER goal (written seven weeks ago): By the mid-term break I will have been the person who speaks first in at least four group tasks in Business and Geography. I will know because I am keeping a note in my phone each time, with the date and one line on how it went. I am doing this because I have things to say and I have been letting other people say them. If I have managed fewer than three by mid-term, I will reduce the target to twice and ask my teacher to put me in a smaller group.
Evidence after seven weeks: Phone notes list five dated occasions (two Business, three Geography). In four of them she spoke first; in one she spoke second after a pause. Her Business teacher said unprompted that Roisin has been starting discussions more. She has not needed the smaller-group fallback.
Case B: Tadhg, under-18s panel
Original SMARTER goal: By the end of term I will hold a starting place on the under-18s team. I will know because my name will be on the team sheet for at least four of the next six matches. I am doing this because match fitness and consistency are the skills I want, not just turning up when I feel like it. I will train every Tuesday and Thursday. If I miss more than one session in any fortnight, I will text the coach the same day and book an extra run.
Evidence after seven weeks: He started two of six matches. Training log: attended five of fourteen sessions. Missed sessions reasons he wrote down himself: stayed in scrolling twice, went to a friend's house three times, one genuine illness, three unexplained. He never texted the coach. Extra runs: zero. Coach said he is useful when he is there and unreliable when he is not.
Case C: Aoife, weekly planner. Your teacher walks this one first on the board, using the annotated review beside this step. Study the judgement there, then make your own call in Goal Reviews Worked.
Goal review: Aoife, week seven
Talk these through with the person beside you, or sit with them quietly.
- On which case did you nearly make a different call, and what evidence pulled you back?
- When you review your own SMARTER Goal 1 in Lesson 19, which of today's three patterns are you most at risk of: staying on track and getting complacent, going off track for reasons you can control, or defending a goal that was never really yours?
If you want a short note in your Digital Portfolio, add two lines under today's decisions in Goal Reviews Worked naming which pattern you will watch for in yourself.
Today you practised the E and R of SMARTER on real evidence, not on a brand-new goal.
- Evaluated means judging a goal against evidence you already have
- Revised means keep, adjust or replace for a reason you can defend
- Replace is legitimate when the goal itself was wrong, not only when effort failed
- You wrote keep / adjust / replace decisions on three seven-week-old cases in Goal Reviews Worked
- You booked your first real review of SMARTER Goal 1 for Lesson 19
Optional stretch: rewrite Case B's goal as the adjusted version Tadhg should be holding for the rest of term, still using all seven SMARTER letters, and add it under your Case B decision.
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