SMART Goal Setting - Key To Success
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shutupandlift13
Posts: 727 Member
We've all been there before. Probably around New Years. Maybe a couple months before summer hits. Definitely the year or months leading up to your wedding.
"That's it, fresh start. I am... going to the gym for two hours 5 days a week, I'm not eating ANY carbs, I am not drinking EVER AGAIN!, and I'm going to lose 10lbs this month."
Hold up. We were having a hard time getting to the gym twice a week, struggling to even eat at a deficit, and it pained us to see those nightly glasses...er... bottles of wine with dinner get cut back to only on the weekends. We start out with kind of a spin the wheel plan of attack to begin with like a rigorous workout plan, extreme diet and lofty goals only to fall short and rip ourselves apart and set up another plan that's probably even more ridiculous to make up for the lack of progress with the first plan.
I firmly believe that any goal that is well thought out and has a strategic and realistic plan in place is achievable. A volleyball coach of mine when I played club ball in college first introduced me to S.M.A.R.T. goal setting and my CrossFit coaches hit on it again during a goal setting seminar we had before the Open in 2012. I have found it to be a very valuable approach to at the very least understanding which goals actually mean something to you... which tend to have the highest success rate.
S.M.A.R.T. Goal Setting:
• S - Specific
• M - Measurable
• A - Attainable (realist)
• R - Relevant (important)
• T - Time oriented
(• Reevaluate)
Specific: What, who, where, why and when. It may not need to answer all of these things but it does need to be a specific goal. Most people when they think of a specific goal think of quantitative things with weight loss like lose Xlbs, drop BF% by X%. We all know that the product of eating consistently at a deficit, hitting our macronutrient goals and working out consistently is weight loss and body composition changes. Rather than focus on the things we know will come in due time with the right habits, why not focus our attention and energy on establishing those habits? While I would rather see someone setting body composition goals over weight goals, it's still an arbitrary number. Instead of saying, "I will lose 10lbs in 8 weeks," how about, "I will lift 4 times a week for 8 weeks." Or, "I will hit my protein minimum for 4 weeks." When you change your mindset of there being such a strict end goal to there being a goal of a healthier habits, you don't have the slave driver of the scale on your back. At least not as much.
Measurable: This is how you are going to measure your progress. With diet and nutrition goals, MFP can be a valuable tool for progress tracking. For fitness goals you may want to see your lifts increase by 5-10% over the course of 8 to 12 weeks which you can track by testing different rep maxes throughout your training. This point ties into the time oriented portion pretty well. Deadlines can be made, but they should be well thought out and realistic. But if you're not picking a specific weight or fat loss goal to begin with then these deadlines aren't so daunting. They are more a period of time to focus your efforts into a few specific tasks that will eventually become habit over time.
Attainable: I read this as realistic. If your goal or time frame aren't realistic then you are destined for failure. I by no means condone lowering standards, however the bar should be within reach. Like standing on your tippy toes, jumping, about ready to dislocate a shoulder to stretch out far enough to get it reach. No one feels good about hitting a goal they knew was easy from the get go. The thrill of conquering a challenge is about 90% of that kick *kitten* feeling you have when you reach a goal, that other 10% might be the medal at the end of your race, that new dress you fit in, or after weeks of trusting your habits seeing that scale move or the inches drop. But all that is just icing on the cake of knowing that you pushed yourself beyond what you thought you could do mentally or physically. The more we start picking tough but realistic challenges and tackling them, the more the little things start to not get to you. The more you start valuing your actions, accomplishments and personality more than a stupid image in the mirror or the way others see you. Hard earned achievements develop a mental toughness that carry over to many aspects of life in a very positive way.
Relevant: To me this is the time to really think about the WHY. I want to be a size 2. Why? What's so magical about being a size 2? What if you get to a size 6 and it's not all that it's cracked up to be? I want to compete in the CrossFit games by the time I'm 26. Is this the right time? Are you the right person? Does this match your other efforts and needs? Does this seem worthwhile? If these are all just arbitrary numbers, deadlines or if you don't have the resources whether it be time, money, or materials, how are you going to accomplish your goal? Why would you even want to accomplish it? Set goals that you genuinely value. Don't decide to run a half marathon because you think that all fit people run half marathons (yeah, real thought at one time through this girl's head). Don't make goals to hit a sub 2:00:00 half marathon and also add 45lbs to your deadlift and lose 20lbs and not feel like shi[url]t (again, guilty right here). Understand that at times, some goals are more relevant than others and some are flat out counterproductive. Prioritize. I'm all for carpe diem, but sometimes we can't have all the carp at once.
Time Oriented: When is it "over". Well, a lot of things are never over, but for the sake of measuring progress and even setting goals to being with, we often need a deadline. Not only is it the ending deadline but also thinking of the general schedule of your overall goal. What can I do this month? What can I do this week? What can I do today?
(Reevaluate) The SMARTeR Approach: Life happens, sh[/url]it happens, goals weren't as realistic as we thought, or they weren't as relevant as we thought. This doesn't make you a failure on any level whatsoever. You might get halfway through your goal plan of attack and realize that your heart just isn't in it. I recommend doing a little bit of soul searching before jumping ship, but sometimes your outlook does change or something happens in your life that changes your schedule, your abilities and your goal is no longer attainable or relevant. Tweak it. Scrap it. Set a new goal. Reevaluate on a regular basis. Tweak it again.
"That's it, fresh start. I am... going to the gym for two hours 5 days a week, I'm not eating ANY carbs, I am not drinking EVER AGAIN!, and I'm going to lose 10lbs this month."
Hold up. We were having a hard time getting to the gym twice a week, struggling to even eat at a deficit, and it pained us to see those nightly glasses...er... bottles of wine with dinner get cut back to only on the weekends. We start out with kind of a spin the wheel plan of attack to begin with like a rigorous workout plan, extreme diet and lofty goals only to fall short and rip ourselves apart and set up another plan that's probably even more ridiculous to make up for the lack of progress with the first plan.
I firmly believe that any goal that is well thought out and has a strategic and realistic plan in place is achievable. A volleyball coach of mine when I played club ball in college first introduced me to S.M.A.R.T. goal setting and my CrossFit coaches hit on it again during a goal setting seminar we had before the Open in 2012. I have found it to be a very valuable approach to at the very least understanding which goals actually mean something to you... which tend to have the highest success rate.
S.M.A.R.T. Goal Setting:
• S - Specific
• M - Measurable
• A - Attainable (realist)
• R - Relevant (important)
• T - Time oriented
(• Reevaluate)
Specific: What, who, where, why and when. It may not need to answer all of these things but it does need to be a specific goal. Most people when they think of a specific goal think of quantitative things with weight loss like lose Xlbs, drop BF% by X%. We all know that the product of eating consistently at a deficit, hitting our macronutrient goals and working out consistently is weight loss and body composition changes. Rather than focus on the things we know will come in due time with the right habits, why not focus our attention and energy on establishing those habits? While I would rather see someone setting body composition goals over weight goals, it's still an arbitrary number. Instead of saying, "I will lose 10lbs in 8 weeks," how about, "I will lift 4 times a week for 8 weeks." Or, "I will hit my protein minimum for 4 weeks." When you change your mindset of there being such a strict end goal to there being a goal of a healthier habits, you don't have the slave driver of the scale on your back. At least not as much.
Measurable: This is how you are going to measure your progress. With diet and nutrition goals, MFP can be a valuable tool for progress tracking. For fitness goals you may want to see your lifts increase by 5-10% over the course of 8 to 12 weeks which you can track by testing different rep maxes throughout your training. This point ties into the time oriented portion pretty well. Deadlines can be made, but they should be well thought out and realistic. But if you're not picking a specific weight or fat loss goal to begin with then these deadlines aren't so daunting. They are more a period of time to focus your efforts into a few specific tasks that will eventually become habit over time.
Attainable: I read this as realistic. If your goal or time frame aren't realistic then you are destined for failure. I by no means condone lowering standards, however the bar should be within reach. Like standing on your tippy toes, jumping, about ready to dislocate a shoulder to stretch out far enough to get it reach. No one feels good about hitting a goal they knew was easy from the get go. The thrill of conquering a challenge is about 90% of that kick *kitten* feeling you have when you reach a goal, that other 10% might be the medal at the end of your race, that new dress you fit in, or after weeks of trusting your habits seeing that scale move or the inches drop. But all that is just icing on the cake of knowing that you pushed yourself beyond what you thought you could do mentally or physically. The more we start picking tough but realistic challenges and tackling them, the more the little things start to not get to you. The more you start valuing your actions, accomplishments and personality more than a stupid image in the mirror or the way others see you. Hard earned achievements develop a mental toughness that carry over to many aspects of life in a very positive way.
Relevant: To me this is the time to really think about the WHY. I want to be a size 2. Why? What's so magical about being a size 2? What if you get to a size 6 and it's not all that it's cracked up to be? I want to compete in the CrossFit games by the time I'm 26. Is this the right time? Are you the right person? Does this match your other efforts and needs? Does this seem worthwhile? If these are all just arbitrary numbers, deadlines or if you don't have the resources whether it be time, money, or materials, how are you going to accomplish your goal? Why would you even want to accomplish it? Set goals that you genuinely value. Don't decide to run a half marathon because you think that all fit people run half marathons (yeah, real thought at one time through this girl's head). Don't make goals to hit a sub 2:00:00 half marathon and also add 45lbs to your deadlift and lose 20lbs and not feel like shi[url]t (again, guilty right here). Understand that at times, some goals are more relevant than others and some are flat out counterproductive. Prioritize. I'm all for carpe diem, but sometimes we can't have all the carp at once.
Time Oriented: When is it "over". Well, a lot of things are never over, but for the sake of measuring progress and even setting goals to being with, we often need a deadline. Not only is it the ending deadline but also thinking of the general schedule of your overall goal. What can I do this month? What can I do this week? What can I do today?
(Reevaluate) The SMARTeR Approach: Life happens, sh[/url]it happens, goals weren't as realistic as we thought, or they weren't as relevant as we thought. This doesn't make you a failure on any level whatsoever. You might get halfway through your goal plan of attack and realize that your heart just isn't in it. I recommend doing a little bit of soul searching before jumping ship, but sometimes your outlook does change or something happens in your life that changes your schedule, your abilities and your goal is no longer attainable or relevant. Tweak it. Scrap it. Set a new goal. Reevaluate on a regular basis. Tweak it again.
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