Why?  Because if you don’t decide where you want to go, any road will take you there.  Because if you don’t set goals, you’ll just float along life with no direction.  Because if you don’t set your sights on something, you won’t have a compelling reason to get up early and stay up late.  Because if you don’t set goals, you’ve already failed.

“Failed?  Failed at what?”  If you don’t set any goals at all, you’ve already failed to accomplish all the great things you’re capable of.  It could be losing weight, building muscle, earning extra money, building a relationship, really anything you can imagine.  Anything – you can really have and achieve anything – if you’ll only set a goal and consistently work towards it.

SMART Goals

Every great journey begins with the first step and every great accomplishment, whether it’s finding the cure for the cancer or putting a man on the moon, begins with a goal.  But how do you set goals?  The best way I’ve found to explain the process is by using the acronym S-M-A-R-T.  Here’s what it means:

S – Set SPECIFIC Goals

Make sure your goals are as specific as you can possibly make them.  Saying “I just want to be happy” is not going to cut it.  ”I just want to lose some weight” isn’t effective either.  In both cases, you’ve got to be specific.  What exactly would it take to make you happy?  Exactly how much weight do you want to lose?

Setting a nonspecific goal like “I want to make some extra money” may prove very disappointing.  You might find a discarded penny on the sidewalk and stop to pick it up.  Boom, you just completed your goal!  You just made some “extra” money.  You see how important it is to be specific?

The first key to effective goals is to be specific, specific, specific.  If you can’t clearly see the outcome of your goal when you close your eyes at night, it’s not specific enough.

M – Make Your Goals MEASUREABLE

Now that you’ve made your goals as specific as you can, you need to find a way to measure your progress.  You might think that making your goals measurable is simply an extension of making them specific but it’s much more than that.  Making them measurable is like putting a ladder under an apple tree that allows you to climb up, step by step, to reach the best pieces of fruit the tree has to offer.  Making your goals measurable provides a step-by-step road map to their accomplishment.

If I ask you how your weight loss goal is coming along, you should be able to tell me exactly how much weight  you’ve lost as well as exactly how much further you have to go and how long you think it will take you to get there.  All specific, measurable steps.

Once you specifically define what it is you want, figure out a way to measure your progress.  It could be dollars, days, pounds, inches, boxes shipped, whatever.  Just find a way to measure your progress.

A – Make Your Goals ACTIONABLE

Like all the others, this one is key.  Your goals should be something that you can DO, WORK TOWARDS, or ACT ON.  Here’s the difference:  if you say “I want to make a million dollars” and don’t add any actionable steps, it’s a wish, not a goal.  On the other hand, saying “I want to make a million dollars through affiliate marketing (or product creation, or by writing a novel, or whatever you want to do),” then you’ve got something you can actually work on.  This puts you in control.

Every January 1st, most people set “I want to lose some weight” as one of their New Year’s goals.  Can you see why 99.9% of people that set this kind of goal never accomplish it?  It’s not specific.  It’s not measurable.  It’s not actionable.

Now, the person that says “I want to lose 15 pounds by the end of March through better diet choices and exercise” has got a much better chance of reaching their goal.  Their goal is specific, measurable, and actionable.  They’ve got something specific to work on.

Note:  some people list the “A” in SMART as “Attainable” as in “your goals should be Attainable.”  I like “Actionable” because I think it better describes the fact that YOU HAVE TO WORK ON YOUR GOALS.  They don’t come true all by themselves.

R – Your Goals Should be REALISTIC

Time for a gut-check:  is your goal realistic?  Can you really see yourself achieving it?  If you can’t, you need to work on 2 things:  your self confidence and your goal.  Once you become practiced at goal setting and have accomplished a few, your self confidence will explode and you’ll automatically begin setting bigger and bigger goals.  However, at the beginning, make sure you don’t set your goals so high that they end up discouraging you instead of inspiring you.  Make them realistic.

Also, make sure your goals are congruent with your life in general.  In other words, don’t work towards a goal that is actually going to create problems in other areas of your life.  For example, don’t set a weight loss goal that is so aggressive that you damage your overall health in the process.

T – Make Your Goals TIME BASED

Set a time limit on your goals.  Otherwise, you’ll always procrastinate and put off working on them for another week, another month, another year.  Set a deadline and stick to it.  Saying “I want to lose 5 pounds by the end of the month” has a lot more power than just saying “I’d like to lose some weight.”

Putting a time limit on your goals is another way to measure your progress.  You tell yourself, “I’ve got until the end of the month to reach my goal and it’s already the 15th.  I’ve got to get moving!”  There’s massive power in that.  It creates a momentum that propels you forward and keeps you moving.

Reaching Your Goals

Is it really this easy?  Well, yes and no.  Setting effective goals is a straightforward process.  However, you still have to DO THE WORK and that part isn’t so easy.  But setting up the right process, making your goals specific, measurable, action oriented, realistic, and time based will provide a framework where you can see exactly how much progress your work is producing.  Your work will have purpose – and that will inspire you to maintain the pace.

You see, if you can’t measure where you are and you’re not sure where you’re going, it’s difficult to find a compelling reason to do the work. If you can’t see the “big payoff” at the end and see yourself moving closer to it, there’s no incentive to put in the extra effort and you’ll quickly find reasons to procrastinate.

So be SMART about setting your goals this New Year.  Stack the deck in your favor but making your goals specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time-based.  You’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish!

Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach andPersonal Fitness Trainer (NESTA)

P.S.  Be sure to get my latest Fitness Blueprint called “Little Things That Improve Your Health.”  This ebook is packed with loads of helpful information on how to build a better body and you can get it FREE – no email, no cookies, no catch.  Download and enjoy!

Email Me:  Hiram Perez   

Technorati Tags: goal setting, goals, smart, resolutions, new year, motivation, weight loss, lose weight

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I overheard two people talking the other day while I was waiting in line for something or another.  One person was telling their friend their plans for the upcoming weekend.  They described in complete detail where they were going, who they were going with, what they were going to do when they got there and how wonderful and perfect everything was going to be.  They ended by saying that they just couldn’t wait for the weekend to get here.

The second person said something that was pretty profound and that has really stuck with me…

The second person said that they tried not to look ahead to the weekend because all it did was make the days go by too fast, like time was flying past them.  As a result, they felt constantly stressed out from trying to “catch up” but never being able to.  “Sure, the weekends came quickly, but you never get the chance to accomplish everything to wanted to do during the week and before you know it, the entire week is gone.  The problem with focusing on tomorrow is that you lose today.”

My first thought was, “Wow.”  I don’t think you can say it any better.  The problem with focusing on tomorrow is that you lose today.

Let me give you an example of this principle in action.  I’m writing this the week before Thanksgiving so it’s relatively late in the year.  Christmas will be coming up soon, and then New Year’s.  You know the drill.  So let me ask you, when you get together with friends or family this time of year, what’s the one thing that almost always comes up?  Someone invariably says, “Boy, the year has sure gone by fast!”  and everyone around, including you, agrees.

Another example is when you’re looking at pictures of your kids (or grandkids).  One of the first things you notice is how much they’re grown.  What’s the very next thought that comes into your head?  Right – how fast time has flown by.

Why is that?  Why is it that time seems to fly by so quickly, especially when we get older?  I think the main reason is  because we’re always looking forward to the next “weekend.”  It may not be the actual weekend we’re looking forward to, it could be 5 pm, or next Wednesday, or Sunday evening, or any other date or event in the future.  When we do that, when we focus on what we’ll be doing and experiencing in the future, we sacrifice the present.

Turning Off the Autopilot

Ever go into “autopilot” while you’re driving?  You’re cruising down the highway, it’s a beautiful day, and you’re thinking about what you’re going to do once you get to wherever it is you’re going.  You can picture exactly how you’ll feel, what you’ll say, how you’ll act and how everyone else will react.  Then, when you arrive at your destination, you can’t remember a thing about the actual trip.  You can’t remember the traffic, the lights, the construction, nothing.  Ever happen to you?

Sure, we’ve all done it.  We’ve all spent time in the future dreaming, thinking, planning, and that’s OK.  However, we all need to understand that when we’re on “autopilot,” or focusing on the future, we’re missing out on what’s going on around us right now.

I highly recommend that you make a conscious effort to turn off the “autopilot” periodically.  Schedule an appointment with yourself in your day planner if you have to and when the scheduled time comes, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and visualize yourself reaching over to a big switch labeled “Autopilot” and flipping it to “OFF.”  Now open your eyes.

What do you see?  Look at some of the individual things around you.  No, no, don’t do a quick sweep and say, “OK, done.”  Pause and look at the things around you.  Let your eyes naturally come to rest on one individual thing.  Now, look deeper.  Notice details, texture, color, shape.  Take the time to look at something and really see it.  Then take a deep breath and go on to the next item around you.  Forget about everything else.  In fact, nothing else exists right now except you and the item you’re looking at.  Focus on nothing else.  Take another deep breath.

Now, expand your focus and take in the entire room or the entire landscape.  Notice how all of the individual items fit together to form the bigger picture.  Notice how clear and colorful everything is.

How does this make you feel?  Did you see things you never saw before?  Did it generate some new ideas or thoughts about things you should be working on, or which direction you should be moving in?

For some people, quickly changing from a micro-focus to a macro-focus can be disorienting.  Some people actually get dizzy.  But being able to “stay in the moment” while visualizing and planning the future is key to achieving your goals.

Watching Where you’re Going as well as Where you Step.

Learning how to balance the “todays” with the “tomorrows” is a key part of a successful life.  Yes, you need both long term and short term plans.  You need to know that you’re heading in the right general direction and that all your efforts and hard work will eventually get you to the specific destination you planned on ending up at.  So you do need to focus on “tomorrow.”

However, you also need to make sure you’re watching where you place your next step.  Otherwise, you might step right off a cliff destroying any chance of ever reaching your long term goals.  In other words, you also need to focus on “today.”

My grandmother, who still remembered the horse-and-buggy days used to tell me to “keep your shoulder to the wheel but look up every once in a while to make sure you’re not pushing the cart into the ditch.” I think she had it right.  “Keep your shoulder to the wheel” means to focus on the things you need to do today in order to keep your goals moving forward.  The rest of the saying pretty much speaks for itself.  Don’t get so caught up in your day-to-day activities that your life goes into the ditch.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving Holidays!

Hiram
The Balanced Health Guy
Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach and
Personal Fitness Trainer (NESTA)

Technorati Tags: goals, goal setting, planning, focus, visualize, health, emotion, balance, time management, future

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