If you aren't sure how to set goals, keep goals, or even make goals, you have come to the right place. We are going to teach you how you can make and reach your goals.
SMART Goals
When making a goal, it should meet all 5 of the SMART Goals criteria. These criteria help you to make sure that the goal is something you want and can reach. The acronym SMART stands for:
S - Specific
M - Measurable
A - Attainable
R - Relevant
T - Time-bound
A specific goal may also include a measurement. For example if your goal is to lose weight that doesn't fit into any of the categories on it's face value. If your goal is to lose 5 pounds, that is both specific and measurable.
Attainable may be the one that most people struggle with, but we will address that in the next section. For now let's stick with something that is attainable. In our example of losing 5 pounds, that is attainable for most people. If we meet that, we can set another SMART goal.
Relevant can take some work. Is losing 5 pounds relevant? Well, like all things, it depends. If you are trying to lose weight just to lose weight, it is most likely not relevant. On the other hand, if you are trying to lose 5 pounds so you can fit into a pair of pants or to improve health, then it is relevant.
The last section of SMART goals deals with the when. When will you achieve this goal? In a month, in a year, in a week? It is important to have an end to your goal.
If we look at the goal we started with, "I want to lose weight," we notice it is not a SMART goal and we may struggle to meet it. To change this into a smart goal, it may look something like this:
"I want to lose 5 pounds in the next 6 weeks so I can begin my overall journey to better health."
That is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.
BHAG
What is a BHAG? It is a Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal. This concept was introduced in the book "Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies" by James Collins and Jerry Porras. This is a goal you set that doesn't necessarily fit into the SMART goal category. This may be a goal that you set and then use smaller SMART goals to move closer to your BHAG.
The purpose of a BHAG is to think big. You want to make this a huge goal. An example may be:
"I want to keep 100,000 people off of the operating table."
(That's our BHAG at BodyFix PT and Performance). Once you have a BHAG, you can make smaller SMART goals to bring you towards that goal.
Tips For Making Goals
We assume everyone has talked about, or though about goals. Anything from waking up earlier, going to bed earlier, eating less junk food, exercising regularly, paying bills, walking a mile, running a 5k, etc., are all goals. Sometimes we have trouble making and then reaching our goals.
Lets look at running a 5k for example. In order to reach this goal, you will need a time frame. So let's say we want to run a 5k in 8 months (this is just an example, you can do it shorter or longer). Next we should come up with smaller goals that will help us to meet that goal (this would be the relevance part of SMART goals). So we can start with wanting to walk a 5k by the end of this month. That is a good start, then we would make another goal or we can have a list of goals that will help us meet the 5k in 8 months.
So let's look at what some of the best recommendations for goal setting are:
Write them down - when you write a goal down, you are more likely to achieve it
Have an accountability partner - even when you write them down, it is nice to have someone, besides yourself, that can keep you on track to meet your goals
Review and update goals regularly - there is no set time to review your goals, but you may want to look at them every month or two and see if you are making progress. If not, you may want to look at making even smaller goals that will help you reach them.
Start with small steps - it is much better to start with things that you know you can do. In our first example we started with 5 pounds and it's possible that we want to lose 20 pounds
Don't feel bad if you don't reach your goals - the purpose of goals is to have something to strive for. If you don't reach your goals, it's not the end of the world, but you may have to readjust your goals or your process.
We hope that this helps you come up with some goals. If you are up for it, share a goal of yours in the comments.
We are here to help you reach your goals, reach out to us if you would like some help.
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