Are you getting SMART this year?
I don’t particularly like New Year’s resolutions. They’re all too easy to abandon in the first few days of January, when you’re coming down from the high of the Christmas festivities to be forgotten until the following year.
Instead I try to set myself habits to build on throughout the year or goals to work towards over the coming months.
That way there is plenty of time to steer yourself straight if you find yourself veering off course but also you can reassess what perhaps was an unrealistic goal and set yourself something more achievable.
Now, without wanting to brag (well, maybe just a little bit), I achieved quite a bit in 2017.
I completed a digital marketing diploma (which only took 18 months longer than was originally intended), I set up my own business and won my first clients (website is currently being built and will be launched early in 2018), took a six month (and counting!) break from alcohol and completed a huge physical challenge I have been shying away from for at least six years (which you can read all about here).
Of those achievements, completing my diploma and growing my business were the only goals I’d set out at the start of the year. The rest of it just fell into place.
But this year I’m taking a slightly different approach to my goals, I’m taking the SMART approach. What’s that I hear you ask? Well this is a highly exciting acronym (I can already hear your groans) that I picked up while studying for my diploma.
So, one of my goals for the year is to lose weight. Now this is a goal that I set myself every year, as I’m sure many of you do to. However, this year I am going to be very specific and say it’s my aim to lose 3kg within the first three months of the year.
Why the first three months? Well I’ll come to that later but you have to be specific about what you’re trying to achieve.
So if you’re resolution is to improve your 5k time or your step count be specific. That could be to hit 10,000 steps every day or to improve your 5k time by 10% or by a minute, but make sure there is a specific goal that you’re aiming for.
There is a famous business saying that if you can’t measure something, then you can’t improve it.
So first of all you have to measure where you are currently. So for me that will be getting on the scales on January 1st, squinting through one eye, passing out from the horror of how much weight I’ve gained over Christmas, and then making sure I make a note of that abomination.
I use (well not over the last few weeks but come January I’ll be bang back on it) the My Fitness Pal app to record my weight and my food intake. But that means I have a base line to measure against and, depending on how often I weigh myself, the means to track my progress.
So again, whether you are planning on improving your 5k time or upping your step count make sure you not only measure where you are now but that you are continually measuring to see if you are meeting or objectives.
Like a lot of acronyms this one starts to fall apart in the middle. But obviously SMAT goals doesn’t sound, well, as smart, as SMART goals. But anyway the point is you need to make sure that your goals are achievable/realistic.
So I’m not going to set myself a goal of losing 6kg in the first three months of the year, because I’m being realistic.
It may be that I manage to lose 2kg in the first month but I’ve watched enough episodes of The Biggest Loser to know that weight loss fluctuates. So a great month could conceivably be followed by a terrible month.
However, if I’ve lost 4kg in the first two months it may be realistic to think that 6kg is achievable.
If this is the case then I can then perhaps adapt my goals. The thing is there’s nothing more demotivating than setting a goal and not achieving it, even if it was unrealistic to begin with.
So rather than setting yourself a goal of achieving 12,000 steps a day, start of at 9,000 or 10,000.
Just make sure you are constantly adjusting your goal (whether that is up or down) so you have something to aim for and improve on that is realistic and achievable.
If you do not give yourself a specific timeframe it is going to be incredibly hard to assess whether you have achieved your goals or not.
After three months I can see if I have achieved my desired weight loss. And based on those results I can then set a goal for the next three months. Obviously by measuring my progress I will be able to see whether I had set myself realistic and achieveable goals and then refine them for the next timeframe.
Also it enables me to take in to account different factors – for example I suspect that I will lose more weight in January than I will in April for a number of reasons.
First of all I know the fat comes off a lot easier in the early days of a weight loss programme because you resolve is stronger and, boozing or no boozing, people tend to hide away a bit more and there is less socialising.
Also the more weight you lose, the less you have to lose, so the harder it is to get off – I once heard a great analogy about how you can scoop out a tub of butter with a dessert spoon but to get the last bits out you need a tooth pick.
Anyway, on that note I’ll wish you a very merry Christmas and would like to thank you all for your support over the last few months since the blog has been back.
If you find my ramblings useful please share and don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @therealmrtriha1.
Instead I try to set myself habits to build on throughout the year or goals to work towards over the coming months.
That way there is plenty of time to steer yourself straight if you find yourself veering off course but also you can reassess what perhaps was an unrealistic goal and set yourself something more achievable.
Now, without wanting to brag (well, maybe just a little bit), I achieved quite a bit in 2017.
I completed a digital marketing diploma (which only took 18 months longer than was originally intended), I set up my own business and won my first clients (website is currently being built and will be launched early in 2018), took a six month (and counting!) break from alcohol and completed a huge physical challenge I have been shying away from for at least six years (which you can read all about here).
 |
| I can't wait for a few month's time when I can look back on this and see it as an achievement... |
Of those achievements, completing my diploma and growing my business were the only goals I’d set out at the start of the year. The rest of it just fell into place.
But this year I’m taking a slightly different approach to my goals, I’m taking the SMART approach. What’s that I hear you ask? Well this is a highly exciting acronym (I can already hear your groans) that I picked up while studying for my diploma.
S is for specific
So, one of my goals for the year is to lose weight. Now this is a goal that I set myself every year, as I’m sure many of you do to. However, this year I am going to be very specific and say it’s my aim to lose 3kg within the first three months of the year.
Why the first three months? Well I’ll come to that later but you have to be specific about what you’re trying to achieve.
So if you’re resolution is to improve your 5k time or your step count be specific. That could be to hit 10,000 steps every day or to improve your 5k time by 10% or by a minute, but make sure there is a specific goal that you’re aiming for.
 |
| Tomorrow I shall aim for 275 steps... |
M is for measurable
There is a famous business saying that if you can’t measure something, then you can’t improve it.
So first of all you have to measure where you are currently. So for me that will be getting on the scales on January 1st, squinting through one eye, passing out from the horror of how much weight I’ve gained over Christmas, and then making sure I make a note of that abomination.
I use (well not over the last few weeks but come January I’ll be bang back on it) the My Fitness Pal app to record my weight and my food intake. But that means I have a base line to measure against and, depending on how often I weigh myself, the means to track my progress.
So again, whether you are planning on improving your 5k time or upping your step count make sure you not only measure where you are now but that you are continually measuring to see if you are meeting or objectives.
 |
| I think that line is going to go back up before it comes back down... |
A is for achieveable, R is for realistic
Like a lot of acronyms this one starts to fall apart in the middle. But obviously SMAT goals doesn’t sound, well, as smart, as SMART goals. But anyway the point is you need to make sure that your goals are achievable/realistic.
So I’m not going to set myself a goal of losing 6kg in the first three months of the year, because I’m being realistic.
It may be that I manage to lose 2kg in the first month but I’ve watched enough episodes of The Biggest Loser to know that weight loss fluctuates. So a great month could conceivably be followed by a terrible month.
However, if I’ve lost 4kg in the first two months it may be realistic to think that 6kg is achievable.
If this is the case then I can then perhaps adapt my goals. The thing is there’s nothing more demotivating than setting a goal and not achieving it, even if it was unrealistic to begin with.
So rather than setting yourself a goal of achieving 12,000 steps a day, start of at 9,000 or 10,000.
Just make sure you are constantly adjusting your goal (whether that is up or down) so you have something to aim for and improve on that is realistic and achievable.
T is for within a given Timeframe
If you do not give yourself a specific timeframe it is going to be incredibly hard to assess whether you have achieved your goals or not.
After three months I can see if I have achieved my desired weight loss. And based on those results I can then set a goal for the next three months. Obviously by measuring my progress I will be able to see whether I had set myself realistic and achieveable goals and then refine them for the next timeframe.
Also it enables me to take in to account different factors – for example I suspect that I will lose more weight in January than I will in April for a number of reasons.
First of all I know the fat comes off a lot easier in the early days of a weight loss programme because you resolve is stronger and, boozing or no boozing, people tend to hide away a bit more and there is less socialising.
Also the more weight you lose, the less you have to lose, so the harder it is to get off – I once heard a great analogy about how you can scoop out a tub of butter with a dessert spoon but to get the last bits out you need a tooth pick.
 |
| I really was running out of illustrative ideas |
Anyway, on that note I’ll wish you a very merry Christmas and would like to thank you all for your support over the last few months since the blog has been back.
If you find my ramblings useful please share and don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @therealmrtriha1.
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