S.M.A.R.T. goals for the New Year

Our mantra here at Urban Escape Fitness is "Living the Lifestyle". To me that means, finding ways to add fitness into your life every day. This is not limited to exercise, but includes the full spectrum of ways to improve your body and mind: from eating fruits and vegetables, to getting ample sleep at night and even finding ways to eliminate stress from your body. Now in the spirit of the new year, I wanted to talk about strategies for goal setting, beyond "To get healthy" or "To workout more!"

When making a commitment to yourself to make a change, you need to assess where you are now, and where you would like to b. This becomes your goal. So, if we break the process of improvement down into achievable steps, we set ourselves up for success. If you have an intelligent plan, it becomes fail proof to follow it. So lets's say that our new years resolution is to improve our level of health and fitness. How do we establish goals and achieve them?

Welcome to S.M.A.R.T. goal setting:

It's one of the funny little things I remember from my very first personal training textbook a decade ago. The acronym is easy to remember and actually great when put into practice. So let's break it down....

S: Specific.

A goal must be specific, as opposed to a more general one. It should be clear and unambiguous. The 5 W's will help you to chose a goal that is specific.

What: What do I want to accomplish?
Why: Specific reasons, purpose or benefits of accomplishing the goal.
Who: Who is involved?
Where: Identify a location.
Which: Identify requirements and constraints.

M: Measurable.

If a goal isn't measurable, then it becomes unclear if you are attaining it. Allowing yourself to measure progress will also encourage you to keep trying!!

A: Attainable.

The trick with goals is often times trying to maintain momentum. When you decide to set a goal, make sure you're going down a path with the ending in sight. One the easiest ways to lose momentum is to set out for a goal and fail. Some people deal well with failure and rejection, however for most of us these are somewhat debilitating. When possible, try to set yourself up for success.

R. Relevant.

Imagine a biologist setting a goal to change 20 tires by lunchtime. That goal is Specific, Measurable, Attainable (imagine he works on cars as a hobby) and Time-Limited. BUT! Is in no way relevant, and without all 5 of the SMART criterion, the goal becomes weak. You want to set goals that MATTER, and that are related to other goals.

T: Time limited

The final, and easiest part of goal setting to monitor is making it time-limited. This simply means that you aim to get from A to B by C. You will also find along the path to your end goal (which might be for example "To lose 5 lbs by June 1st") you have mini goals that you accomplish along the way. For example "Week 1: make it to the gym 4 days", 'Week 2: no red meat, "Week 3: make it to a yoga class on Sunday". Back to idea of maintaining momentum, we need those mini celebrations along the way. Like when you successfully stayed away from refined sugar for 15 days, and realized you really don't crave it anymore. OR when you have a week straight of hitting your gym goals, and you realize your back stops hurting. All the positive feedback is what becomes our mini little "highs" that provide positive reinforcement to our brain and other systems to make us want to do more!!!!

So here is my gift to you all: the tools to set S.M.A.R.T. goals this year, and become a more successful, stronger, better and happier you!!!