How To Set SMART Goals

By Jenny Jaucian, Fitness Entrepreneur, Coach, Trainer, & Weight Loss Specialist (JennyJFitness.com)

Are you someone who sets a New Years Resolution to finally go on that diet, start your workout routine, and then completely fail or forget about it one month in?

Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Research shows that 45% of people fail to keep their New Years resolutions by February. Only 19% of those people kept their resolutions for two years.

What’s the difference between those who fail at making their New Years resolutions stick versus those who actually keep them?

The difference is creating a SMART goal.

In this blog post, you’re going to learn the 5 components of SMART goal setting so that you can finally achieve your New Years Resolution.

S – Specific

“I want to get fit” is not specific enough. What does that actually mean to you? What does “getting fit” equate to? Does it mean pounds lost? What about body fat percentage? Or, is it running a sub 7-minute mile? Understanding SPECIFICALLY what your goal is helps to provide clarity.

Bad example: “I want to get fit.”

Good example: “I want to lose 10 pounds of body fat.”

M – Measurable

Now that you’ve gotten specific, how can you track it? What doesn’t get measured doesn’t get accomplished. Putting numbers behind your goals helps to understand whether or not you’re making progress. In order to lose the 10 pounds of body fat (from example above), are you going to track your calories? Or, steps walked per day? Or, how many workouts you get done in a week? Having different units of measurements can help determine whether or not what you’re doing is working.

Bad example: Just going by how you feel

Good example: Committing to workout 3 days per week and taking body measurements weekly.

A – Action-Oriented

What ACTIONS are you going to do to move the needle forward? Thinking about what you’re doing to do doesn’t burn calories, but ACTION does. List out a mind dump of anything and everything you can do to achieve your goal. You might not do all of them, but creating a list of all potential ideas to help you achieve your goals helps to build motivation and momentum. Make sure to take each action one step at a time so that they slowly become habits.

Bad example: Continuing your nightly Netflix binge watch

Good example: Commit to a nightly 15-min walk around the neighborhood

R – Realistic

Are your goals realistic for you? If your goal is to lose 50lbs and you weigh 130lbs, that’s not really realistic or safe. But if you weigh 200lbs, then that’s more realistic. You want to make sure that the goal is realistic to you, your current fitness level, and lifestyle. You also want to make sure the goal is realistic within the timeframe you give yourself to complete the goal.

T – Time-bound

A goal without a deadline is simply a wish. You MUST set a target date to complete this task. If you don’t, you’ll continue to put off your goal and procrastination will set in. Having a specific deadline helps you to reverse engineer your goal. For example, if you set your goal to lose 10 pounds by the end of February, that’s a little over a 1lb weight loss each week if you were to start on January 1st. If you set your goal to lose 10 pounds by January 30th, you have to be more aggressive and lose a little more than 2lbs per week. Do you see how setting a deadline determines your intensity and measurements each week?

Bad example: No deadline

Good example: Lose 10 lbs by February 28th

I hope this SMART goal setting framework helps you to totally CRUSH your 2021 Goals!