Set Yourself Up for Success!

    It’s great when new faces walk into the gym, ready to make a change to their lives for the best. With New Years coming up, I imagine there will be millions of people ready to start up new habits that are health related. “I want to lose weight!”, and “I want to get big!!” will most definitely be a large percentage of new years resolutions worldwide.
    But why be so loose and general with your goals? Let’s increase the chances of people actually achieving these goals -and not giving up in mid-January - by starting up on the right track.

    The single best method to setting up your goals would be through the SMART(er) method. With a few steps and some thought, you can set yourself up for greater chance of achievement.
    Used not only in the fitness industry, but plenty of management scenarios use this method. It’s simple and can be used for small goal-setting to long term goal-setting. Lets expand on the earlier example of, “I want to lose weight.”

“I want to lose weight”

S-pecific
M-easurable
A-ttainable
R-elevant
T-imely

S(pecific)- Weight lose is a fairly ambiguous goal, so specify the phrase as much as possible. Think of the end result of where you wish to be. Ex. “I weigh 250lbs and want to weigh 200lbs by next December. Therefore I want to lose 50lbs by next December (11months)”. When? How much? What else is expected? Who is needed? GET SPECIFIC.

M(easurable)- Once you quantify a goal, you will be able to measure our progress and keep motivated. “It’s June and I’ve lost 34lbs! If I keep this pace up I’ll hit my goal for sure!”
    What if your goal is “unmeasurable”. For example, “This year I want to exercise so I will feel better about my body”. How do you measure happiness? Well let’s quantify it. Create a scale, “On average my happiness with myself is 3/10”. (1 being- not happy at all with myself, 10 being-extremely happy with myself). Now you can set for yourself and measure, “By this summer, I want to be a 7/10 on the happiness scale, so I can go to the beach comfortably.”
    More examples:
-Gain 5 lbs lean mass in 12 months.
-Go to the gym 3x a week, for 6 months.
-Run the 10km marathon by next February

A(ttainable)- This goal must be REALISTIC. Can you honestly say it’s attainable? As a Fitness Professional, the most common “road block” that I come across when sitting and discussing goals with clients is realism. You never want to shoot for something that is unreachable, OR, cut yourself short of your abilities. “How can I make this goal happen?” Ask around and get education on your goal. You may want to lose 30 pounds in 14 days, but this goal is unreasonable. On average you may only be able to healthily lose 1-2lbs per week. (Everyone one is different and there are special/different cases). So your 30lbs in 16 days should really be closer to 30lbs in 16 weeks.

R(elevant)- Is this important to what you want? Is this something you are willing to work towards achieving? The more relevant the goal to your desires, the more likely you are to achieve it.

T(imely)- Make a deadline for the goal. A specific time frame in which you want the goal to occur. Again, get specific; instead of “next year”, use “January 1st, 2013”. This way your progress can be tracked with ease. Also, with a deadline, you will feel more pressure and work harder towards the goal.

You can set a more detailed goal by use a SMART-er system. The “er” can be added and to determine:

Enjoyable - is this something you can enjoy doing? How can you make this an enjoyable experience?
Rewarding - Will the outcome be something of value to you? In what primary and secondary ways will you make a personal gain? Ex: “I not only lost weight and feel better about myself, BUT I also lowered my blood pressure and resting heart rate!”

    This basic method of goal setting isn’t time-consuming and will be extremely beneficial in the long run. It can used for almost ANY type of goal, not just limited to fitness. Try it for yourself and you will in no doubt be headed on the road to success. 


-Tyler Pritchard
P.T.S.