As the new year approaches many of us will come up with a short list of resolutions as a way to help ourselves become the best version of ourselves. These can be anything from committing to changing a personality trait, eating better, being a more active member of the community, losing weight, improving relationships, or just doing something different. This kind of approach to self improvement usually has great intentions and the commitment starts off strong. But what happens when several weeks or a month down the road you hit some speed bumps or just downright forget what your original goal was?
What if I told you there was a way to solidify those resolutions by setting goals that are not easily forgotten or neglected? Would that change the outcome of your resolutions?
Learning how to properly set goals is a crucial element to success and achieving the results you desire. But before we jump into that, I’d first like to address what to do when facing setbacks or blocked goals. In a perfect world, we would all achieve everything we put our minds to, but in reality, right along with setting and pursuing goals is accepting that sometimes we will face disappointment. It’s important to know how to deal with this so that we don’t break when that comes our way. There could be several reasons for not achieving a goal. Perhaps your time frame was off, maybe you lost focus on the objective, or maybe life threw a roadblock your way that was simply unavoidable.
In any case, missing a goal is not a reason to quit all together, but a great time to reevaluate and see where you’re at and where to go next. If you’ve experienced this in the past you know the feeling, I know I do. It hurts and it’s hard, but you have to pick yourself up, brush yourself off and get ready for what’s next. You can’t allow disappointment to keep you down.
So let’s get into how to set goals so that we can most effectively see them achieved. For this post I’m going to provide an outline for setting goals using the S.M.A.R.T acronym.
S.M.A.R.T.
Specific: A goal must outline what exactly you want to accomplish. “I want to be a better person” is very generic goal that has no way of showing progress or an end. “I want to spend 3 hours a week bettering myself by being physically active, or growing in knowledge.” This example gives specific activities and time frames for your goal. A few questions to ask when making a goal specific could be: What exactly do I want to achieve? Where? How? When? With whom?
Measurable: A goal must be able to be measured for progress and to know when the goal was achieved. When setting your goal you should know specifically when you reach your objective, such as achieving your first pullup, reading a full book in a month etc. It would be rather ambiguous to just say “I want to be healthier” without setting checkpoints along the way. Having a measurable goal also makes tracking that goal much easier; this ensures that you see the progress you are making toward the goal.
Attainable: A goal must be reasonable based on other areas of your life. This is not to say not to set illustrious goals, but rather to make sure you have the time commitment available for your goal. For example, if you have only been doing crossfit for a few months, it would be a little unreasonable to set a goal of winning the Crossfit Games the next year. Set big goals, but make sure those goals align with the rest of the commitments in your life.
Relevant: A goal needs to go along with your lifestyle. I am a coach and crossfit athlete, therefore my goals should not be to paint the Mona Lisa or a Picasso; it just doesn’t fit my lifestyle. A good question to ask to see if your ambition is relevant is, “Why do I want to achieve this goal? What is my objective in achieving this goal?” Making sure your goal is lined up with the rest of your life will save some disappointment if the objective is not achieved as well as help keep you focused.
Timely: A goal must have a timeline. Time is of the essence, and being able to see your goal and checkpoints to that goal on a timeline will help you stay focused. Your timeline should be flexible but structured. This gives your goal some parameters and helps to track your progress along the way.
As you begin setting goals for the new year remember to stay positive. Focus not on trying to NOT do something, but rather to DO something positive in its place. For a goal such as eating clean, the goal should not be to never consume a bad piece of food, but rather to focus on eating healthy foods. Instead of focusing on removing something, focus on adding something else. By staying positive you set yourself up for success in meeting your goals and enjoying seeing the progress along the way.
Time to get out the pen and paper, begin brainstorming, write ideas, dreams, aspirations, and start setting yourself up for a great year. It will take some time and effort, but it’ll be worth it. Be SMART. Let’s get 2016 started on the right foot.
Resources:
http://www.yourcoach.be/en/coaching-tools/smart-goal-setting.php
http://www.crossfitinvictus.com/blog/5-ways-to-successfully-reach-your-goals/