Breathe Magazine

Every thing we do in life, we do for a reason. Sometimes the reasons are very obvious, like going to work so you can make money to pay the bills, or taking a shower so you don’t stink.  Other times, the reason is a little more muddy, like why do we stress ourselves out, or why do we procrastinate when a deadline approaches?

Sometimes people do the same thing, but for different reasons. Exercise is the perfect example. Some people exercise for stress relief, others for weight loss.  Some for health, others to look good in a bathing suit.   A lot of people feel that superficial goals aren’t valid, but I think anything that gets you exercising is a good thing.  Just because you are working out to get a six pack, doesn’t mean you aren’t going to improve your cardiovascular endurance. Your body doesn’t know why you are exercising, it only knows if you exercise. It is a necessity.  It doesn’t matter what  the motivation is, as long as it works for you.

For some people, this is enough.  Reminding yourself of the benefits of exercise before you tie your sneaks for the gym is enough to push people through their workout: you do it because you have to. Other times, general reasons are not enough, you need something specific to work for.  This is where effective goal setting is crucial.

In order to set good goals, you have to set S.M.A.R.T. goals. 

SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-sensitive.

The obvious example to use is weight loss, so let’s make this a little more challenging. Let’s use another common one- to increase strength.

In order to set a goal that will keep you motivated, we must first make it Specific. Our goal is too broad so, how do you define increasing strength? What does increasing your strength specifcally mean to you? To some it may mean getting through everyday life will be easier (lugging groceries, carrying your kids, etc.) and for others more concerned with performance it refers directly to how much weight you can lift. Either way, strength refers to muscular endurance and power, which means our muscles and the weight we lift is going to be our main focus.

Making a goal specific will help you know when you have achieved it, help you develop your plan of attack and give you something exact to shoot for.

Next, the goal must be measurable, so you are going to have to put a number on it. Obviously, with weight loss this is where you choose the amount of pounds you want to lose.  For our strength goal, we are going to pick muscle strength, or how much weight you can lift, which is easily measurable and trackable. There are two ways you can do this. You can choose a percentage, like wanting to increase your strength by 20%, or you can set a weight or performance goal, like wanting to be able to bench 100 pounds, or do 5 pull-ups. 

Let’s choose pull-ups. I’ve never been good with percentages.

Research shows that setting smaller increments (I will increase by 1 pull-up every month) as opposed to one, big sweeping statement (I will do 50 pull-ups by the end of the year) is more effective. The amount of time is not as daunting and it puts a sense of urgency on it.  A year is a long time, but the end of the month is here before you know it.

Next, the goal must be attainable, otherwise, why are you even trying?  Being able to do 5 pull-ups by the end of the month when right now you can’t even do one isn’t going to happen. Too extreme of a goal and you’ll end up getting frustrating and giving up.  Success is a huge motivator to push you onto further goals, so set goals you know you can do with a little hard work and dedication.  5 pull-ups? Totally doable.

Relevant is kind of a given. This is where we form our plan of attack. The plan we choose is going to be relevant to our goal. We want to do pull-ups, which means we need to increase our upper body strength.  To increase our upper body strength, we aren’t going to run on the treadmill, we are going to lift weights.  With our goal, we are going to have to up the strength training beyond the minimum requirement of 2-3 times a week, and train our upper body every other day. Its important to give your muscles a day of rest so they can heal properly and get stronger.

The last key, and probably the most important, is to make your goal Time-sensitive. If you don’t put a deadline on it, there’s nothing to keep you moving. Goal deadlines are tricky business: you want to set it far enough in the future to give yourself time to achieve it, but not so far off that “I’ll do it tomorrow” becomes and option.  Timelines make it easier to map out your progress and set mini-goals to keep you on track. 

So, we started with the goal “I want to increase my strength” and have now set the SMART goal of “I will be able to do 5 pull-ups in 5 months, adding one pull-up each month by training my upper body every other day.”  We know what we are striving for, how we will acheive it and when we will acheive it by. There are no if, ands, or buts about it now- you either do it or you don’t. 

The SMART model is meant for exercise, but it works for any goal you set for yourself, like getting out of debt, or learning to play an instrument.  Take your current goals you and run them through the SMART test- did they pass?