Struggle With Reaching Your Goals? This Might Be Why

When looking at a goal, no matter if it's a resolution, meeting a deadline, or trying to get in shape for a wedding - there exists a well established process for outlining and setting up plans to accomplish a given goal.

Many people will fail to reach their goal because they blindly begin to change their lives too drastically or too aggressively at the start. The truth is, change is hard and it needs to be done methodically. Luckily there is plenty of science done in the area of lifestyle change.

The research says that there are two major factors that someone needs to consider:

The route to take that will make us successful in accomplishing change

The method by which we hope to enact that change.

In regards to the latter, we create an outline of where to start and where to go so we know we are on the correct path to achieving our goal. We want to establish very specific and measurable benchmarks to indicate we are on route to our end result.

When dealing in lifestyle change, we can concentrate our efforts and limit decision fatigue by using SMART goals. SMART Goals are an acronym for:

Specific - your goal should be defined using action words or statements (I will, I must, there must be)

Measurable - assign some quantitative value to you goal that can measure change (pounds, inches, dollars)

Attainable - the possibility of realistically achieving your goal, is it realistic

Relatable - is the goal relevant to what your desired outcome? (goes back to our "why")

Time Sensitive - there must be some deadline associated with when the outcome is to be achieved

If we were to take the goal of someone trying to losing 20 pounds of fat before summer, we could break down the specifics of how to set a goal related to the SMART outline above:

Specific - Lose 20 pounds

Measurable - Using a body fat mass equation

Attainable - losing 20 pounds of fat before summer (20 pounds in 16 weeks is 1.25 pounds per week - which is safe and manageable)

Relatable - The overall goal might be to to get in shape, losing fat will help with this

Time-sensitive - 4 months

So if we are to put the whole goal together using this framework, we would reword it to:

"My goal is to lose 20 pounds of fat at a rate of 1.25 per week as measured by a body fat mass equation which will help me get in shape, and I will lose this weight by May."

This outline helps guide your perspective and your efforts, so you keep the main thing the main thing, and don't lose track of where to go.

Now it's your turn. Check graphic below and fill out the boxes. Going through this process will help you create your own SMART goal.

Many people get stuck when they are trying to define their goals, making them too broad, not setting deadlines, or choosing an irrelevant or unrealistic goal. Using the SMART goal strategy and defining the "why" behind your goals will help you get started on the right foot.

Stay tuned for the last post in the New Year's resolution series to find out how you can map our your goals and make a route that will make you successful!