SMART Goals

Setting Goals Will Help You Achieve Success

I have always found myself being someone who sets goals and works towards achieving these.  Whilst I know that this isn’t for everyone, I do believe there can be great benefit for those who do set aside some time to do this.

When it comes to goal setting, there are many different areas that you can focus on, ranging from health, fitness, wellbeing, work and financial aspects of ones life.

I remember sitting down with a friend of mine when I first started Principle Four Osteopathy in 2011 who had just started his Masters in Business and he introduced me to the SMART principles.  Prior to being introduced to this, I would often talk about my goals and write them down for the year.  I would break my goals down into health, work, financial, travel and relationship areas and then at the end of the year I would revisit these goals and see how I went.  A lot of the time I would have achieved a lot of these goals, however there would always be some left on the sheet that I hadn’t achieved.  This is where I believe the SMART principles to goal setting can make a big difference.

The SMART Acronym stands for:

  1. Specific
  2. Measurable
  3. Attainable
  4. Realistic
  5. Time Bound

The key to setting SMART Goals is to make sure that you address each area.  I have listed one of my goals below in regards to weight training.

My goal was to perform a 1 rep max bench of 125kg. I had started a 10 week training program where my previous 1 rep maximum was 115kg.

My SMART Goal- 1 rep maximum bench press 125kg – 10 weeks from the start of the program. The date and time was set to a saturday morning at 8-9am when I carry out my chest workout. The goal was realistic and attainable because I have been training for several years and methodically set out an exercise program that I would follow each week.

To further make my goal concrete.  I told the people I trained with as well as my friends and also wrote down my goal and placed it in an area that I could see everyday.  This helped remind me of my goal and helped create focus towards this.  I also visualised myself performing a 1 rep max bench press of 125kg.

Whilst these strategies may not suit everyone, I would suggest adopting a variety of methods to help with your goal setting and achieving them.  In addition to this, I would suggest that you should all start thinking about setting some goals.  Many people always want to wait for the perfect time.  I would argue that there is never a perfect time.  The best time is NOW!