We all start the year with great intentions. How many times have you set yourself a New Year’s Resolution like “get fit” or “lose weight”? These resolutions, while full of great intentions, are often too broad and vague to be achievable, and we usually end up giving up on them before the end of February (or sometimes even January).
Rather than setting yourself such broad goals, why not try and take some wisdom from the world of business and make your fitness and health goals for the year SMART. SMART here stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound. These SMART goals can all help you work towards a broader goal, for example, looking your best for your best friend’s wedding later in the year, or running a marathon or 10k. Breaking the broader goal down into smaller chunks will make it much more likely that you’ll succeed.
So let’s have a closer look and see how you can make your healthier habits SMARTer.
Specific
Try not to be too broad in your goals and make them specific, small and detailed. For example, a specific goal would be to drink eight glasses of water a day or go to a yoga class three times a week.
Measurable
If your goals are too vague you can’t measure your success and so you’ll be less motivated to keep up your new habits. A measurable goal might be to lose 1kg. You can measure your progress easily and know if you’re on track to achieve it. Another easily measurable goal might be to run 5km without stopping.
Achievable
You should also be realistic in your goals. If you haven’t run since high school gym class, setting yourself the goal of running a marathon might not be achievable and your progress towards it might be very slow, causing you to lose motivation. So why not set the goal of running 5km or 10km, a much more realistic amount. Equally, if you have a very busy schedule going to the gym every day might not be possible, so be sure to set yourself a goal that you can achieve, like going to the gym twice a week and doing some exercise at home twice a week.
Relevant
Are your smaller goals all bringing you closer to your overall aim, whatever that may be? If you want to look your best in a bikini this coming summer it might not be so relevant to have the smaller goal of deadlifting 100lbs. Instead, you might want to focus on something that reduces your cellulite. For example, by using the Glo910 massager three days a week, you’ll see a visible reduction in your cellulite within a few weeks.
Time-bound
This can refer to the frequency of the new habits or when your deadline is for achieving them. For example, you could have the goal of running three days a week or the goal of running 5km without stopping by May. Combining both these elements, giving you a weekly measure and a target date can be even more powerful.
With SMART goals for your new healthy habits, we hope you’ll see results steadily throughout the year and keep up your new positive habits for many years to come. Why not share your SMART goals for 2019 with us on our Facebook page, using #SMARTGlo.
