Posted By: Kristam Moffett When starting a health and fitness program the most important thing is to know what you want to achieve or what your goals are first and foremost.
There are those people who are actually unsure what their goals are and therefore fail to achieve much and become demotivated.
So let it be said that vague goals produce vague results, or to quote legendary baseball star Yogi Berra “if you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up some place else!”. On the flip side there are also many people who perhaps have too many goals and try to achieve too much, ending up spreading themselves too thin and achieving none of them!
So focusing on just one or maybe two goals means more focus and a likelihood to achieve them.
Establishing a goal needn’t be complicated and can be as simple as you like for example, fitting
into a dress you haven’t been able to in a while or simply reducing resting heart rate if better health
is your concern. Having a clear and specific goal is a great motivator which makes achievement of
it more likely.
This is where the SMART goal principles can be of use, SMART being an acronym that means the following:-
S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Achievable
R – Realistic
T – Time based
To give you examples on this Specific might be either a set body weight you wish to achieve, a dress or jean size, a contest you are training for or even just to train 3 times per week on a consistent basis. It’s important to remember your individual goal is YOUR goal and even if it’s simple being specific can help you achieve it.
Measurable relates to how you measure success for example, if training for a particular body weight then the scales could be your measuring tool. If training to improve overall health then lower blood pressure and resting heart rate readings might be better? Once again no need to complicate things just having something relevant to measure success is beneficial.
Achievable means it should be something that will push you out of your comfort zone a little but not to be unrealistic. This should speak for itself but maybe not a good a idea to have a goal of training 5 days a week having been inactive for the previous 10 years!
Relevant means a goal should be important to YOU! Training for a goal someone has set for you be it a spouse or partner for example can be a recipe for poor motivation. If you have set the goal and it’s relevant to you then the likelihood of you achieving it is greater!
Time based simply means a time frame in which you intend to complete your training goal for example, wanting to fit in to a particular dress for an occasion or event.
Hopefully the above gives you some clarity regarding your fitness goals and don’t feel you must stringently use ALL the SMART principles either. Even if they give you some guidance or feel only some of it is relevant to you then that’s great, just focus on the points that work for you!