Are you making S.M.A.R.T. goals?

Now that we are into February this is about the time that a lot of new year's resolutions are starting to fail. Maybe you are not seeing the progress you'd like or maybe that 6am spinning or boot camp class is not as easy to attend as you thought. Perhaps you are eating clean and exercising when you should but you are not 'losing weight' like you hope. But maybe you aren't doing as bad as you think. Maybe your goal is so bad you are set up to fail. That's why you should make your goals SMART; Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely.  So here is the standard new year's resolution: "I'm going to lose weight this year". Admirable but not very smart so let's see if we can make it a little better. We will go through each of the elements of a SMART goal and then apply them to this most popular pursuit.

Specific
When it comes to setting and eventually achieving goals the more specific the better. Sure it's great to have the overarching purpose or vision to 'lose weight', 'be healthier', 'get stronger', or 'build muscle' but if that's as far as actual goal setting those statements are horrendous. So you increased your deadlift by 5 pounds this year, so you accomplished your goal of getting stronger right? But I don't think this is what you had in mind when you wanted to get stronger. Another good example is the weight loss goal.

Now there are people who really do want to lose weight as in actual poundage they weigh. They don't care if it's water weight, muscle or fat. An example of this could be a boxer or wrestler trying to lose weight so they can compete in their chosen weight class. For most of us however when we say we want to lose weight we really mean fat. So say what you mean. Saying "I want to lose body fat" is a lot more specific then simply weight loss. If anything specificity is the most important principle in setting good goals.

Measurable
Now that you have a more specific goal in mind its important that it is measurable as in how do you know that you have achieved said goal? If I say I want to be 'leaner' what does that mean? How do you measure 'leanness'? Do you have a device in your bathroom that you step on and it says 'lean' or 'not lean'. Instead pick bodyfat percentage, weight in pounds, even your BMI as ways to measure progress. Another good example is having a pair of pant or dress size that you want to fit into. You either can or can't. Adding this into our goal statement  it would read: "I want my bodyfat percentage to be below 15%".

Attainable and Realistic
I put these together because they are so similar. The best way I can describe the difference between these two is when you ask if something is attainable what you are really asking is "Is this even possible?" Let's say my goal is 'I want to have my name on the next ballot for President of the United States in 2016'. Is it specific? yes and is it measurable? yes my name either is or is not on the ballot. But it's not attainable as I'm not old enough (35) to be president in 2016 by law  so my goal is really not attainable. However if I change my goal to be 'president of the He-Man Woman Haters club' where no such rule applies then yes technically it is attainable.

Whether a goal is realistic or not is a slightly different matter. If my goal is to lose 30 pounds in a month then yes my goal is attainable but it might not be realistic. Having a realistic goal is huge without you are destined for failure. This is a good time to bring up the idea of 'chunking' your goals into tiny bites of realistic achievement. Instead of losing 40 lbs in a year try dividing that number into 10lbs every three months and in a year's time you will have reached your goal. Although it's the same end result the 10lbs every three months appears more realistic and your are more likely to accomplish this. So is decreasing my bodyfat percentage to below 15%? Yes it is. Is it realistic? depends on your starting point and timeframe but yes should be realistic.

Timely
This is an easy concept but often overlooked. Your goals need to have an expiration date. This will do two things. One, having a deadline will give you the needed stress to push yourself and not procrastinate. Again if I give myself a whole year to lose 40 lbs I can tell myself that I will 'make up' for lost time/efforts later in the year but if I have 10lbs to lose every three months I don't have that luxury. Also, I think humans just naturally succeed more with deadlines. Second, if you have an end date it gives you the opportunity to evaluate and measure how well you did and maybe change your strategy. This is how to avoid those 'roll over' goals from the past. After you reached your deadline you can evaluate if you actually achieved your goal. If you did then great you can focus on something else for set period of time if not then look at what worked and didn't work and set a new goal with renewed vigor. So my final goal could be something like this: "I want my bodyfat percentage to be under 15% by July 31, 2014.