SMART Goal Setting
How many times have you tried to start a new diet?
The first 3 weeks everything is going great, then one Friday evening after a stressful week in work you find yourself sitting in front of the TV, empty pizza box on the table and on your 2nd bottle of wine, thinking oh s**t.
The whole diet unravels and BOOM – you’re back where you started!
Sound familiar?
Don’t worry it happens to almost everyone at some point.
Research has shown that 92% of New Year’s goals fail by January the 15th.
That is because there is no thought process put into creating these goals and they are made up spontaneously.
No matter how big or small your goal is, whether it is to lose 5 pounds or 5 stone, run your first mile or your first marathon, here at Nikafit we advise using a SMART approach to setting out your goals.
By following our five simple steps you will be surprised how easy it is to achieve your goals and become a better you.
If you are SMART, your goals should be:
Specific:
How many times have you said I want to live a healthier lifestyle?
While we admire your aspirations, aiming to be “healthier” is far too vague.
Are you going to start exercising, exercise more, lose weight or stop eating takeaways?
Maybe even a combination?
Of course by doing any of those we will become “healthier”, but how will we know if we are going in the right direction if we don’t have an exact target to aim for?
Let’s take for example setting a goal for going to the gym; don’t just say you’re going to go the gym make it specific;
“I’m going to go to three personal training sessions a week and one cardio class”
Which leads us on to our next point...
Measurable:
Make your goal something you can measure and put a number on.
Adding a number to it means you have a target, and makes it easier to assess you whether you have accomplished your goal or not.
For example if your goal was to simply just “lose weight” over the next 3 months then you could lose 1 pound over the 3 months and technically still achieve your goal even if this is not the exact scenario you had in mind.
If the goal has a number set to it then it will have clarity.
You will have either succeeded, or failed.
Achievable:
This is the most important part of setting our goal.
Often the idea of reaching for the moon becomes so daunting many of us fail to even launch.
Make your goal realistic.
There is no point in saying I want to be the fastest man on earth, it’s impossible.
First of all I wasn’t blessed with freakish genes that make me capable of running a sub 10 second 100 metres, along with another number of reasons it is impossible for me to do so.
Using our weight loss example; It is unrealistic to say I’m going to lose 3 stone in a month for a number of reasons.
Firstly it is unsustainable! It would take an extreme crash diet and a ridiculous training regime. This in time will cause us to just break down both physically and mentally making it a severe hazard to our health.
Make sure the goal is well within reach but at the same time don’t make it too easy.
This will make it rewarding when your hard work pays off and you succeed in reaching your goal.
Relative:
When making a goal, why take into consideration what others want you to do?
This is where many fail; the goal is only set to please a partner, friend or to make an impression on others.
When making a goal, define it as something YOU want to do, something that will make YOU happy, one that
YOU will reap the rewards of, and in turn become a better YOU.
If your goal is only in place to please others then you won’t enjoy the journey, and even more so, you won’t feel the full satisfaction of accomplishing your goal - if you even get there.
Time-based:
Put a deadline on when you are going to achieve your goal by.
This will ensure that we are under strict orders to adhere to the plan you are following.
Again this will make it precise meaning that you will either have achieved your goal, or not, within your set deadline.
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A good example of a goal set out using these tips would be to lose a stone over a 3 month period.
Firstly, we know exactly what we are looking for - weight loss. This makes it Specific.
Secondly, we can Measure weight therefore we know exactly how much we have lost, and still have to lose!
Thirdly, is it Achievable? Damn right it is!!!
1 stone = 14 lbs. To lose a stone over 3 months means we only need to drop a pound a week.
With the right training and nutrition plan this is well within reach.
If we want to lose weight whether it be to make you feel better, look better, perform better, live longer or any other of the many benefits you may reap from losing weight, it will most certainly be making it Relative to you by improving your quality of life.
Finally it’s also Time-based, as we have set our goal for 3 months from today.
We now have a concrete date pencilled in on our calendar or diary and are conssistently working towards that date.
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Why not use these useful tips to set your own goals for 2018?
When you decide what you want to do, make sure to write it down and keep it in a place that you are going to see it. This is very important.
Goals that are only kept in our mind are more than likely going to get jumbled up with the other 1500 thoughts that scramble around your mind every minute.
People that write down their goals are 50% more likely to achieve them than people who don’t.
So now we have shared our tips for achieving our goals, it’s up to you guys to decide:
Are you going to be part of the 92% of people that fail?
Or will you join the elusive 8% that is going to smash their New Year goal in 2018?
And remember:
“Everything in your life is a reflection of a choice you have made. If you want a different result, make a different choice”
Happy New Year everybody, let’s make 2018 a SMART one!
Gavin
