How smart goals work
People often ask me how smart goals work. Today I want you to look back at the list that you made yesterday and decide what is really important to you. I have written in the past about “SMART” goals and these are something else we will talk about today.
First lets look at what is important and what you want to focus on this year. In looking at yesterdays list I am sure that emotionally you cringed at some of the bad things that happened because you knew full well that they were you own fault. Where they really important to YOU or where they important because others make them important to you.
At the same time for many goals we will make them because they just look good. “lose 20 pounds” is a great unemotional goal that a lot of people make but will that change your life? Along the same line will losing 50 pounds do it? Losing weight is a nice goal in one way because it will give you a yardstick but in the end it is kind of meaningless without a result.
Instead you main health goals should give you a sense of the new you when you see them. A goal like lose 20 pounds, get a makeover and new clothes to look smokin’ hot would be more in tune with making an emotional difference.
Finally the goal that you are setting has to make sense to you in a year or more out. If you had a goal that was to get in better shape then you would not really have much to go on a year from now. How could you tell if you were in better shape? Was it enough to you or not?
How smart goals work
This leads us to the idea of SMART goals and how smart goals work. A SMART goal is on that is specific, measurable, accurate, realistic, and time bound. Here are some examples of these five criteria for a goal.
S = Specific – Instead of saying that you want to lose weight you say you want to lose 20 pounds
M = Measurable – To lose 20 pounds in a year you need to lose 2 pounds per month and know that you have 4 flex pounds for the year
A = Attainable – The goal must be something that can be attained by you. Do you really want this and why?
R = Realistic – Is it realistic that you can lose 20 pounds in a year? If you have never lost 5 pounds before why would it be realistic that you could lose 20 pounds?
T = Timely – You need a time boundary. We have two here 2 pounds lost per month and also the 20 pounds in a year.
So now that you know how to set a good goal and know how smart goals work, you can accomplish it in time for you to set a few of your own. Try to keep the list down to 3 goals as the problem that you will see is that if you have a large list of goals you will have trouble keeping them straight and having them work out at the same time.
And one last thing. Make sure again that those new years resolutions are not sterile. Have fun with them and make sure they are emotionally fulfilling to you. Now that you know how smart goals work you can have fun with them and make your dreams really come true