Getting SMART About Your Goals
Now that the festive season is over, I’m sure almost everyone reading this has a goal and/or new year’s resolution they want to achieve! It could be run a marathon, squat your bodyweight or even drop 2 clothing sizes. Whatever it is we need to make the goal SMART!
A SMART goal is a goal that we create using the acronym SMART:
Specific = what is your goal exactly?
Measurable = how will you measure your goal?
Achievable = is your goal ACTUALLY achievable?
Realistic = have you taken into account all the factors?
Time-bound = Have you set a date to achieve your goal?
Let’s use the most common example: “I want to lose weight”.
I’m willing to bet every person reading this has heard this one! Most of you have probably said it yourselves! But little do you know you’re setting yourself up to fail when setting goals like this!
How much weight do you want to lose?
What areas do you want to see improvement in?
When do you want to achieve it by?
Is the amount you want to lose realistic in the time given?
A simple goal like that is way too broad to ever know if you have achieved it or not and 99% of the time will result in you giving up, hurting your self-esteem leading to each new time you try again to be harder and harder due to past failures! It’s a very vicious cycle that quickly snowballs out of control.
Now let’s revisit that goal but using the principles of SMART: “I’d like to lose 5kg of body fat and 10 cm’s around my waist by my birthday on the 15th of July”
Is it specifically telling us exactly what we want to achieve?
Can we measure it?
Does it have a date to complete it by?
Is it realistic for me to achieve in the time given?
Now all of a sudden, we know exactly WHAT we want to achieve and WHEN we want to achieve it by, we can start to work on the HOW! By starting off with these simple goals you can now factor in your training and nutrition regime’s and see if they fit into getting you there in time!
Suddenly, your SMART goals have become your own personal roadmap to success!
