Setting SMART Goals
Hey - if you’re someone I know, there’s a 100% chance that at some point in your life you’ve set a goal for yourself…and reached it. Further, you’ve also likely at some point come across the idea of setting SMART Goals. And yet, I recently worked with someone, unrelated to physical fitness and training, in another business capacity, who might be the first person, at a senior business level, who seems to have a tough time reaching their goals. And I’m not referring to trying and not quite reaching a ‘lofty aspirational goal’ but even getting the most ordinary, yet needed, projects completed. And then it struck me, perhaps they have never come across the idea of SMART goal setting.
SMART goal setting is a way of breaking down vague ideas about what you want to achieve, say ‘to tone up’ or ‘to lose some weight’, into something more effective. So, SMART goals refer to:
Specific - goals should be clear and unambiguous ie. lose 5 lbs or run a marathon
Measurable - measurable is important so that you have a way of knowing if you’re making progress (weekly weigh ins or working through a step-by-step marathon training program)
Attainable - goals should be realistically attainable in every situation. When it comes to personal training, realistic attainability of the goal is especially important to reinforcing the commitment to working out and encourages us to keep going.
Relevant - your goals must be relevant to your specific interests, needs and abilities.
Time-bound - this is an important one because without it, it’s easy to let things slide by. For instance, if you’ve signed up and paid the money to run a particular marathon in several months time, you’re more likely to stick with the training program.
SMART goals won’t necessarily be the thing that works for you if you’re not the goal setting type of person. But SMART goals have a way of showing us how previous attempts to accomplish something has been unsuccessful. I see this when I flip the intention behind SMART goals on its head, as in:
Not Specific - you can spend years working out and at best never improve (you know the guys that have never missed a day at the gym but really don’t have a lot to show for it) or, because you double down on your favorite activity (for me, that would be running…a lot…) leading to fooling yourself into thinking you’re ‘physically fit’ where, in my example, I have terrible muscle imbalances from a lifetime of running (strong quads, tight hamstrings and weak glutes)
Not Measurable - don’t expect to be improving, getting stronger or fitter, if you’re not measuring your results.
Not Attainable - if your about my age, you’ve never run a day in your life, you have terrible knee and foot issues then perhaps the goal of running a marathon is not currently attainable. It’s far better to set smaller goals in order to reach your loftier goal, perhaps starting with a walk around the block in this situation.
Not Relevant - there are lots of sports and physical activities I love to do and others which are not remotely interesting to me. For instance, the current physical movement is bike riding. Further, I believe anything that inspires people to get outside and be active is terrific. However, I’m personally not remotely interested in bike riding…did I mention I’m a long distance runner :)? So, someone might want to convince me it’s the best sport ever and to them I say ‘hurrah’…but it’s not for me. Do what you love to do and inspires you to get physically active.
Not Time-bound - there is a lot of research into setting time-boundaries for goals. The most interesting I’ve come across suggests 3 month time frames to reach a goal. So, start with a goal that seems attainable in 3 months time and then work backwards to determine what you’ll want to reach each month, and then backwards again to each week…in order to eventually reach the 3 month goal (more on this with periodization training). Three months is an interesting time block because it’s not too long where nothing gets accomplished (and you’ve wasted a year of opportunity) and yet it’s long enough to accomplish something (analyze results and reset for next three months).
SMART goals apply in every goal setting environment. Another way of thinking about SMART goals is how I think of my family enterprise consulting work. I break my work down into ‘Actionable Steps and Specific Deliverables’. So, the next time a project, task, physical undertaking is on your agenda, consider setting yourself up for success by setting, and writing down, a SMART goal.