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Have you heard of “S.M.A.R.T” goals? It’s the idea that your goal should be:
Specific
Measureable
Attainable
Realistic
Time-bound…
Pretty good concept for New Year’s resolutions and goal setting.
Here’s our take on SMART goal setting (and some necessary edits, in our opinion)
Your goal should be:
Specific: Instead of saying “I want to get healthy this year,” or “I want to get pull-ups this year,” get more specific about the action-oriented habits you’ll put in place to achieve these goals.
“I want to work out 3 times a week and eat protein at all of my meals” or “I want to work on my pull-up strength twice a week” makes more sense and will get you further.
Measurable: You won’t know if you’re making progress unless you’re monitoring yourself in some way. Sticking with our examples above, it makes sense to measure what you have control of; your habits, not the outcome. Keep track of how many days you trained for pull-ups. Monitor how often you’re getting workouts in and eating protein. The outcome is out of your hands. Measure how often you’re doing the habits and the results will come.
Attainable: Not a huge fan of this one. How much would we achieve if we only did what we thought was attainable? We’d miss out on a lot. I’ve lost count of the number of times someone does something at Beo they never imagined they could do. Let’s set our sights on things we think are beyond our reach. Unattainable might be very attainable!
Realistic: Again, people don’t necessarily know what they’re capable of. Obviously, you don’t want to set goals that are wildly unrealistic; You’re not going to lose 30 pounds in three days and you’re not going to add 10# to your back squat over night. But only setting goals that current us with our limited mindset thinks we can achieve limits us. Dream big. Things that seem unrealistic when we begin might become realistic as we work towards them!
Time-bound: It’s really difficult to set time-bound goals in the health and fitness space. Life can throw curve balls at you and we don’t know how our bodies will respond to a new workout plan or way of eating. Let’s change this to “timely”. Set a deadline so you have something to work towards. Keep working those habits and moving toward those goals. Just give yourself some leeway on when that goal should be achieved.
A few other important things that will help you set and achieve your goals:
Have an “additive” mindset. Instead of thinking “I need to cut out fast food” think “I need to eat more meals at home.” Instead of “I’m going to miss out on Netflix because I have to get up for the gym” think “I get to add activity to my life that will make me more energized.”
Make sure your goal is rewarding to YOU. Your goal needs to be something you want for how it makes you feel and how it will positively impact your future self. Not for a partner or your kids or anyone else.
Reverse engineer your goals. It can feel daunting to officially go after a goal. Breaking it down into smaller pieces and steps and working backwards from the end goal can provide you with clearer action steps. Rewarding small wins along the way is even more motivating.
Ask for help. Hire a coach, attend a workout class with likeminded people, enlist an accountability buddy…we do better with people who will guide us and hold us accountable.