Should You be Setting SMART Goals?

To answer my own title question up top - yes, you should absolutely be setting SMART goals. Let’s discuss why.

Each year between November and January, I notices an uptick in the content created around SMART Goals and how to use them to “slay your New Years resolutions” (or something like that).

What does SMART stand for?

There have been some slight edits along the way, but for our purposes we’re using:

Specific. Measurable. Attainable. Realistic. Time-bound.

(Originally, “attainable” was “assignable”)

Where did SMART goals come from?

The ideas behind the SMART framework were first introduced in 1981 article (Doran, Miller, Cunningham), titled “"There's a S.M.A.R.T. Way to Write Management's Goals and Objectives." One really helpful clarification within the article is that, while the framework is meant to be a guiding tool, not all goals/objectives will utilize all 5 criteria. Fantastic, because I don’t like using all 5 of them with every client.

Let’s talk about how you can use SMART goals

Specific

I use the goal-setting tactics I wrote about in 3 Easy Steps to Set Your Fitness Goals to set my specific goal. Saying something like “I want to get stronger” usually, isn’t compelling enough to drive meaningful change. We need to really dig and dig some more to figure out what the real root of the goal is. A better, more impactful goal would be “I want to get stronger so I can help my parents move furniture.”

That article takes you through how to do that.

Measurable

In setting SMART goals, we hope to have goals that can be measured over time. While maybe the whole goal may not be measurable, portions of it can be.

If you want to get stronger to be able to help your parents move furniture, that’s really a task that you either can or cannot do and there is no easy way to measure it. That said, if you know you’ll need to be moving a dresser that is 100lbs, being able to work up to a 120lb hex bar deadlift or a 40lb farmers carry, sure would make a huge, transferrable difference in your ability to help your parents out.

Measurable can also be literal. I want to have an 80lb lat pullown. I want to be able to do 3 pullups. I want to be able to walk/run/jog 30 consecutive minutes without resting.

Attainable

Look babe, I want you to reach for the stars…. but when we’re setting goals your best bet is to chop up that bigger goal into attainable portions.

If I want to be able to run someday, I first need to get my cardio up to a point where I won’t feel like I’m dying if I jog for 18 seconds. Maybe in my head, I want to run a 5k next year, but I know before I can really actively go for that, I need to make sure that I can walk a 5k. Then I’ll need to test out a mix of jogging and walking.

So a good starting, attainable goal is for me to start by walking the equivalent of one 5k. Then I see how I feel during and after. Assuming I feel ok, I’m going to walk TWO 5ks each week for 4 weeks and try to get my heart rate up into Zone 2 for the duration.

After the first 4 weeks of success, I’ll update based on ability.

Realistic

This is similar to attainable.

I would be silly to say “I want to run a 5k next week.” While the base idea of wanting to run a 5k is fine, next week would be a delusionally short timeline. Saying “I want to run a 5k next year - now, that is realistic. It gives me ample time to ramp up to the bigger goal, thus improving my chances of success.

Time-bound

This is one I don’t find to be helpful for each and every client. Some people need to know that they can fail in order for them to feel ok setting a goal at all. Those people might feel suffocated by a long-term, time-bound goal. I’ve got some ideas for this I’ll cover in a sec.

For those who can keep their eye on the prize of a goal that may be further out that next week, sometimes adding a timeline helps them stay focused and driven. If its February and I want to be able to help my parents move furniture in July, I know that I’ll need to stay relatively on-track with my strength training to be able to meet or exceed my strength goals before the day I’ll actually need the functional strength for moving the furniture.

An idea if you hate the idea of something being time-bound

I do this for myself and some clients, and we get really tight with the timeline.

A real life example:

I’ve been eating like shit and now my digestion is really making me pay. Today, I’m setting a goal of getting 5 servings of fruit and/or vegetables and meeting my 130g protein goal. I can’t always think super far in advance, but I can absolutely manage myself today.

Not for everyone, but I also do a body scan every 4 weeks. It’s a tight enough timeline to keep me accountable to my goals, but not so spread out that I feel like I’m able to be too lax with my workouts/eating stuff.

Here is your SMART Goal-setting checklist:

□ Read THIS article on how to create a real goal. This can be a big, long-term goal but it should be pretty specific.

□ Create some ideas about how you’ll measure success along the way. Or, if you create small goals - what does the final success look like?

□ Make sure the goal is something that is both realistic and attainable for you. This is a real know-thyself moment.

□ Try to give yourself some sort of timeline. It could be a bigger goal 3 months from now, or a smaller goal that you need to accomplish today.