Do you find yourself setting health and fitness goals but rarely sticking to them? Somehow despite the best of intentions, do you struggle to follow through once the initial spark of motivation fades?
The reason for this is because you are failing to create S.M.A.R.T goals.
This concept was developed by George T. Doran, and is a mnemonic acronym, giving criteria to guide in the setting of objectives. Each letter of S.M.A.R.T represents the following:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Time-oriented
By aligning your goal with the five S.M.A.R.T criteria, you have a guideline on which to base all of your focus and decision-making. This ensures that your daily efforts and actions are conducive to your goals.
So, let’s turn these goals into plans!
We are going to use a common fitness-related goal as an example, which may be to: “workout more”.
Having the goal to work out more is great, however, it is fairly vague. But when you apply the SMART goal criteria, you will turn this vague goal into a specific one.
Instead of workout more – try, I will work out 4 x per week following a personalised program for 6-weeks.
Instead of lose weight – try, I will eat in a calorie deficit and aim to lose 500g per week until I achieve my goal weight of 5kg lost.
Instead of save money – try, I will set a budget for myself and save 40% of my pay after bills.
You get the idea…
Specific goals are actionable goals!
Remember: vague goals lead to vague results. It’s time to get SPECIFIC about what we are wanting to achieve this year.
When we set vague goals, it’s difficult to set clear milestones to get there. Vague goals are less inspiring because they lack the details that motivate us. Setting big goals is great, but don’t forget to set yourself smaller goals in the meantime. Accomplishment drives ambition, and the little wins keep you going!
Sometimes our bigger goals can seem so far out of reach, so setting smaller goals will help you to bridge the gap between where you are now and where you want to be. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by a goal or feel like you will never accomplish it if you continue to think of the end result.
I suggest breaking down your goals into smaller, more achievable goals as you’re going to be more likely to action them and stop procrastinating. It’s easy to get caught up in thinking about how much you have yet to do and avoid it all together. So, take it slow - one day at a time. Stop trying to do everything at once.
A quote I recently heard was “you cannot do everything at once, but you can do something at once”. It’s important to remember that you will not change your life until you change something you do daily. Success is the sum of small changes repeated day in, day out.
If you’re ready to set some S.M.A.R.T goals, you can download our FREE S.M.A.R.T goals worksheet here: SMART GOALS WORKSHEET | Absbyalana
HAPPY GOAL-SETTING!
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