When you set a goal, you should make it SMART. This is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Acceptable, Realistic and Timed. Stating your goal following this criterion you are much more likely to achieve it.
My partner signed up for nutritional training for athletes and I was reading the table of contents of the program. One of the instructions was to submit s SMART goal to the Facebook group each week. This made me think, what if people do not know what a SMART goal is? That is why I decided to write this article and make the video.
One of her goals is to drink more water during a bike ride, as we exercise quite hard while riding and if you don’t drink enough, you can get muscle cramps.
To make her goal SMART she wrote to the group that she will drink 3 bottles of water during a ride. This now becomes specific, it’s measurable (3 bottles), acceptable (not overboard), realistic (makes sense), and can be timed as it applies for each ride.
I also recommend writing down your goal using my goal planning worksheet that you can download for free. I also have an article and video that walks you through each step. I even have a more in-depth training on goal setting that you can purchase at half price using coupon code SMART (offer valid until for 2021). Here is the link to that training on Eloguens.
In my worksheet there is a section for identifying solutions to obstacles. This is a crucial step especially for difficult goals and is one reason why people abandon their goals. You need to think through the things that can hold you back and come up with solutions and my worksheet will help you do that.
You can also add ER to SMART and that makes it a SMARTER goal. The ER stands for expected results. Taking the above example, a SMARTER stated goal would be; Drink 3 bottles of water for each bike ride and have better muscular endurance and avoid cramping. This statement makes the goal clearer and increases motivation to act as you remind yourself of the outcome you are expecting. Start setting your goals as SMART or SMARTER and increase your chances of achieving the results you want.
