How To Make SMART Goals
How To Make SMART Goals
Now that the new year is underway, we have all set (or at least should have set) a few goals for ourselves to achieve for the new year. If you have not yet, there is no better time than the present! Let’s start by either evaluating our current goals or by making our new goals very SMART.
What is a S.M.A.R.T. goal?
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Timely
And yes, we must write our goals down, in ink.
Let’s start by finding a nice, clean sheet of paper. Next, grab yourself your favorite pen (hopefully one that doesn’t smudge easily). Now we can start.
Specific: To start a goal in the SMART goal writing process, we have to get specific. Just simply saying “I want to lose weight” is not enough. “I want to be better,” is not enough either. You must dig deep within yourself and truly know what you want. A better, more specific goal would be “I want to lose 50 pounds ” or “I want to be a better husband/wife.” Now those are more specific goals.
Measurable: In order to have a measurable goal, we need to realize exactly what this means. The goals you set should be based on the outcomes you hope to reach. OutcomeS, with an “s,” meaning you plan to benchmark each progressive step towards your goal. To keep with our previous example, (“I want to lose 50 pounds in the year 2015”) a measurable way to achieve this goal would be to say, “I want to lose 50 pounds in the year 2015, which is about losing 4 pounds a month.” Breaking this large goal into something a bit smaller allows it to be measurable. You can track your progress each month, getting you one step closer to achieving your goal.
Attainable: The simplicity of a goal may also be the struggle. If you have set your goal to lose weight, we need to make sure we set an attainable goal weight to achieve. Sure, you could make the argument that it’s better to aim for the moon and still fall short would land you in the stars, but you need to be careful in space, there are asteroids out there! But really, if you were to set a goal of losing 50lbs in a week, that may not be very attainable for some (or healthy for that matter). Make sure your goals are attainable, but do be sure you’re challenging yourself a bit. A better way to make sure your goal is attainable it to break down your goal down even more: “I want to lose 50 pounds in 2015, losing about 4 pounds a month, which is just a little over a pound a week.”
Realistic: Being realistic with our goals is like being honest with ourselves. If we know we want to lose the weight, we know we can lose the weight, so let’s be realistic in our goal setting. We can drop about a pound in a week by realistically doing a few work outs a week, getting better sleep, eating an improved diet, and working to reduce our stress. Realistic is really the best way!
Timely: The truth about setting a timely goal is now necessarily making sure it is done before a certain time, but more so about the smaller goals we have created from the big one that we are timely about completing. A goal should be set within a time frame. Simply saying we want to complete a goal sometime or someday soon will not work. By giving yourself a timeline, you’re more likely to achieve it. “I want to lose 50 pounds by December 31, 2015. I will lose the 50 pounds by losing about 4 pounds a month, which is just a little over a pound a week.”
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Now go out there, set some SMART goals, and make yourself the best you, ever!