SMART Goals

One of the main reasons that people give for not being consistent with fitness is that they don’t know what to do or how to get started. Have you ever felt that way? I get it, I’ve been there too. 

What helped me get started was to get organized and to get clear on what I wanted. I knew that I wanted to get fit and I knew that it took effort. One of my goals was to be able to do a Spartan race and be able to climb a rope. 

So let’s play a little game called, “Plan my Fitness” and we’ll use SMART Goals to achieve our goals. 

SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. 

Specific: Let’s take a generic goal like “I want to run more” and defining what it means. Answer: “I want to run a 5k”. Now we have an idea of where to get started. 

Measurable: How will I know that I am successfully working towards the goal of running a 5k? Setting times to train for the 5k is a way to measure if you’re successful.
Answer: “ I will train Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 4 pm”.

Attainable: What resources can I use to achieve my goal?
Answer: “I will train using the Couch to 5K app”

Relevant: Why this goal now? Why is this goal meaningful for me? In order to stick to a goal, there needs to be an underlying reason to work towards it.
Answer: “I miss the calm that running gave me.”

Time-bound: What is the deadline to achieve this goal?
Answer: I want to run the Turkey Trot 5k on Thanksgiving. 

Now we have a doable workout goal and plan. 

Workout goal

“Because I miss the calming feeling running gave me, I will start training using the Couch to 5k program on Monday, Wednesday and Friday to prepare for the turkey trot on Thanksgiving.” 

And there you go, SMART Goals for the win.