How to set SMART goals

‘If you don’t know where you are going, how do you know when you have arrived?!’

It’s a good point to raise, don’t you think?

How many can say that they are constantly striving to hit targets in all areas of life. Defining powerful goals, with tangible measures, to be achieved by a set date? Perhaps in work, as it is normal for employees to be set specific performance targets to work towards.

What about other areas of life?

The truth is if we aim for nothing then we are likely to hit that with amazing accuracy! If we don’t specify exactly what we want, then we have no reason to complain about what we get or where we find ourselves.

Goals represent expectations, hopes and dreams, and to the extent our goals are achieved, we are successful.

You should always be setting goals, committing them to paper and reviewing them regularly.

Write down your goals

Take a blank piece of paper and pen and write down a list of at least 10 goals you would like to achieve associated with your health and fitness. If they keep coming keep writing them down.

Once you have your list split your goals or desires into two lists. One headed ‘nutrition and measurement goals’ and the other headed ‘exercise related goals’.

Now prioritise each of your goals in order of importance on each of the lists, the most important at the top of each list.

Next highlight your top two goals with a highlighter pen on each list. These are the goals we are going to use for this particular goal setting task.

Make them SMART

You will now need to open the LFF Goal Setting sheet and become familiar with it.

You will notice that under the heading ‘Measurement and Nutritional Goals’ there are boxes for you to input main goal 1 and main goal 2. Now before you input these goals you must make sure they are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time bound) and stated in the present.

For example ‘I want to be a size 12’ becomes ‘It is December 1^st 2010 and I am a size 12’.

Underneath each goal you have 5 steps you will take to take to help you towards achieving your goal, along with the dates you want to achieve them by. Put some thought into this as it is the process of working back from your end goal that starts to create a series of actions and steps towards making it achieveable.

If you feel you need to add any additional notes then use the notes box provided.

Marshall your resources

In order to have the greatest chance of success consider what external resources you can utilise. The following questions may help:

• What resource will you need to achieve your goal? e.g. money, time, training partner
• What resources do you already have? e.g fitness classes at work
• Where will you find the resources you need?
• Do you know anyone who has already succeeded in achieving your goals?

Finally it is also worth considering (and visualising) what life will be like if you:

(a) achieve your goal (e.g will you have more energy, look great in your clothes, feel more confident?)

and

(b) don’t achieve it

The more you can visualise the reality of each of these scenarios the more compelling it becomes to work towards a positive outcome.

Reward yourself

Finally write down on a piece of paper what you are going to reward yourself with for acheiving your goal. A weekend away maybe, or a meal out with friends? Whatever it is, it’s for you and should be something you enjoy