I have talked about the importance of goals before, but given the time of year I thought I would touch on it again. (I wanted to have this out to you by the 1st but the new website just wouldn’t play ball...perseverance will always come in handy for achieving goals)

Goals are vitally important – and an effective tool for improvement in all areas when used properly. But conversely, goals can be totally useless.
For instance, “Maintenance” is a poor goal. Thumbs down to that one.
“Lose some weight”, a bit better, but still not good enough to be called a goal.

For a goal to be truly effective and worth the paper you write it on (and you will) it needs to be a SMART goal.

Specific,
Measurable,
Achievable or Action-Oriented,
Realistic,
Time Bound

Wish I could take credit for this acronym as it fits so nicely with our other SMART training, but unfortunately not.

So let’s look into how this all works:

Specific
Saying you want to “lose weight” or “make more money” is too general. How much weight? How much money? It should be like this: “I want to lose 10 kilos”; “I want to increase my income by $1000 per month”. Something a child would understand if you told them.

Measurable
This should be covered at least in part by being specific. When you are specific you should be able to measure it. For example “I want to train more often,” this might seem specific, but how do you measure that? How about “I want to train for 30 minutes 5 times per week.” – Now that you can measure.

Achievable or Action-Oriented
Achievable and Action oriented means there must be real steps you can take to reach that goal. Real steps that you know (or know you can find out). For example if your goal is to quit smoking, then there are real definable steps you can take to make that happen. For instance – Step one: Don’t smoke. Step 2: Get help.

Realistic
Be real. It has to be achievable. If you say “I want to make a billion dollars this year” that might be specific, measurable, and there might even be steps to get you on that road, but please – realistic? I think not.

Time Bound
This is a big one. Set a deadline. Going back to “I want to lose 10 kilos” – when? In a year? Next year? In the next 10 years? Set a deadline and stick to it. “I want to lose 10 kilos by March 1st.” Now that’s a goal.

I recommend people ALWAYS have a goal. When you reach a goal make a new one.

Haven’t got one? THEN GET ONE!

Preferably a few of them. And although we are primarily fitness focused, this is not to be used exclusively for fitness goals. It can be related to all aspects of your life – financial, romantic, and educational – whatever.

I have made an excel spreadsheet to help you out. Just right click the link and download it. The instructions are on the first page. Just remember to follow the guidelines above.