It's officially 2023, and like many of us in the world you are ready for some change this new year. You might have a laundry list of goals and resolutions to lose weight, save money, or finally make that career change. You are well-rested from the holidays and feel motivated that this will finally be the year you get your life together!
Despite the readiness, we feel every new year, studies show that 91% of us won't achieve our New Years resolutions. Whether we lose motivation as time goes on or simply just get busy with life's commitments, at some point the majority of us put aside our goals and intentions for the year. Sound familiar?
So how do the 9% follow through on their goal commitments? What's their secret?!
On the Growth on the Daily podcast, I break down step by step how to realize sustainable success this year to reach your goals and become a better version of yourself. Listen to the podcast and then return to this blog post for an in-dept view of the SMART goal technique.
What are SMART goals?
If you Google "goal setting", every article, blog post, podcast, and YouTube video talks about SMART goals. The idea behind SMART goals is toset goals that have a higher potential of being achieved using the S.M.A.R.T acronym. SMART goals are designed to be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely.
Specific
To make your goal specific include the relevant details comprising the goal. Think about the action that is taking place to achieve success. For example, instead of saying "lose weight" you can reframe it to "Weigh 150 lbs". The latter gives you the action of weighing yourself on a scale and provides a particular target to reach indicating the point where you have achieved the goal.
Measurable
A measurable goal contains a unit of measurement or quantity. In the previous example, "Weigh 150 lbs" the weight is the measurement in pounds. The benefit of including quantities in your goals is that they provide a scale to measure your progress. Each time you weigh yourself, you can gauge your distance from reaching your goal.
Attainable
Attainable goals although challenging are truly actionable. It would be unattainable for an adult to have a target weight goal of 50 lbs as that is biologically unfeasible. However, a target weight that is within the healthy weight range based on your biological composition is achievable. It's important to remember that attainable goals should still be challenging because the purpose of goal setting is to push you to a better version of your current self.
Realistic
To set a realistic goal it's important to have a clear picture of your long-term path. What does your lifestyle look like over the next few years? Only you know yourself and what you can truly achieve in a given time frame. For example, if you are barely covering your expenses and have slim savings &/or investments, it would be an unrealistic goal for you to be a homeowner by the end of the year (especially in this economy sheesh!).
Timely
All goals need a timeline to help gauge the rate of your progress in achieving your goal. If you leave your goal as simply "Weigh 150 lbs" you have a lifetime to achieve that and without a deadline, you'll likely make very little progress. Give yourself a deadline that will challenge and motivate you in a healthy manner. If you have 20 lbs to lose to get to 150 lbs it would be unhealthy to set a deadline for the end of the month (and you'd probably hate that month!). Instead, you could aim to lose around 1-2 lbs per week with a deadline set 3-5 months from now.
Using the SMART goal technique you are one step closer to setting yourself up for success this year. Stuck on how to determine which goals to set this year?Check out Ep.20 New Year Better Me on the podcast to learn my goal-setting process!
