A goal defines where you are going, and helps motivate you along the way. The steps toward achieving the goal are the roadmap. Some parts of the map are difficult, but having the end point helps remind you why your hard work is worth it. You can use this format to set any type of goals. At Fit American Families we use it for health, weight loss, exercise, eating healthier-just about everything, even writing our blogs!
Taking the time to put your goals in writing has many benefits:
· A goal gives you a target to aim for. Something that is meaningful to you.
· A goal helps focus your time and energy.
· A goal can provide motivation, persistence, and desire.
· A goal can help you prioritize your activities and choices.
Defining your goal takes a little work. Goals should be SMART:
Specific. Be as specific as you can about your goal. I want to lose 10 lbs in 3 months. I want to have healthier breakfasts everyday.
*Who: Who is involved?
*What: What do I want to accomplish?
*Where: Identify a location.
*When: Establish a time frame.
*Which: Identify requirements and constraints.
*Why: Specific reasons, purpose or benefits of accomplishing the goal.
EXAMPLE: A general goal would be, “Get in shape.” But a specific goal would say, “Join a health club and workout 3 days a week.”
Measurable - Establish concrete criteria for measuring progress toward the attainment of each goal you set.
Define your goal so you can determine if you’ve reached it and/or made steps along the way. Seeing measurable results will motivate you.
When you measure your progress, you stay on track, reach your target dates, and experience the exhilaration of achievement that spurs you on to continued effort required to reach your goal.
To determine if your goal is measurable, ask questions such as……
How much? How many?
How will I know when it is accomplished?
Action-oriented – When you identify goals that are most important to you, you begin to figure out ways you can make them come true. You develop the attitudes, abilities, skills, and financial capacity to reach them. You begin seeing previously overlooked opportunities to bring yourself closer to the achievement of your goals.
You can attain most any goal you set when you plan your steps wisely and establish a time frame that allows you to carry out those steps. Goals that may have seemed far away and out of reach eventually move closer and become attainable, not because your goals shrink, but because you grow and expand to match them. When you list your goals you build your self-image. You see yourself as worthy of these goals, and develop the traits and personality that allow you to possess them. Use verbs such as lose weight, run 2 miles, workout 5 days week, prepare 3 healthy smoothies each week .
Realistic- To be realistic, a goal must represent an objective toward which you are both willing and able to work. A goal can be both high and realistic; you are the only one who can decide just how high your goal should be. But be sure that every goal represents substantial progress.
A high goal is frequently easier to reach than a low one because a low goal exerts low motivational force. Some of the hardest jobs you ever accomplished actually seem easy simply because they were a labor of love.
Timely – A goal should be grounded within a time frame. With no time frame tied to it there’s no sense of urgency. If you want to lose 10 lbs, when do you want to lose it by? “Someday” won’t work. But if you anchor it within a timeframe, “by May 1st”, then you’ve set your unconscious mind into motion to begin working on the goal.
Your goal is probably realistic if you truly believe that it can be accomplished. Additional ways to know if your goal is realistic is to determine if you have accomplished anything similar in the past or ask yourself what conditions would have to exist to accomplish this goal.
T can also stand for Tangible – A goal is tangible when you can experience it with one of the senses, that is, taste, touch, smell, sight or hearing.
Go ahead, take a couple minutes to write out one of your goals, whether it’s eating healthier, exercising more or anything you would like to achieve.
Make it a SMART goal. Now tuck that goal someplace where you can look at it from time to time to remind you of one of your priorities. You deserve to achieve your dreams!
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