Why Your S.M.A.R.T. Goals May Not Be That Smart

So New Years comes around, you create a new file on your desktop titled ‘GOALS’ or ‘NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS’.

And you fill it with all the things you want out of the coming year;

• Be nicer
• Lose weight
• Go overseas
• Learn another language….

If you are even more serious you might start to get specific;

“I want to lose 12kg by 23rd March so I can fit into my pair of size 10 jeans that I haven’t worn since I was 22 and it will make me feel more confident”. And while that is all well and good, there is a fundamental thing that is so often forgotten…

How are you going to create the above? There is more to it than just “joining a gym”, if it was that easy, every person who signed up to their local gym in the new year would actually stay on after the first month.

If I wanted to get the goal of losing 12kg, but I (like so many others) have failed many times in the past. Due to ‘not enough time’, ‘not seeing results’, etc…

Why would this time be any different?

Not wanting to be negative, but losing weight, or achieving anything is just like baking a cake (I’m a bad chef). If your goal above was to “Create an amazing chocolate cake” it would require you to get a recipe (a good one, with lots of reviews and testimonials, so you know you could trust in it), probably check to see how complicated it was to create and look for a beginner option if you are anything like me in the kitchen, and then finally you would go to a good quality food supplier to get all the resources you needed to create the best cake to ever enter this world.

Using our weight loss example above, what recipe and resources might be needed for the person who has failed in the past due to ‘not enough time’, ‘feeling intimidated’, ‘not seeing results’ and hasn’t exercised for quite some time? We can go really deep into this, but to keep it simple we will just touch on a few things to spark some thought;

Resources

• TIME/TRANSPORT – How are you going to get there, who is going to look after the kids etc or pick them up from school. Maybe a gym with a flexible timetable that allows you to train when you want, and when you can fit it in to your busy schedule. Who else can support you on your journey and can free you up a little to make this work?
• KNOWLEDGE- Never working with a coach before you have realised that you don’t know what you are doing, so the first step is to find facility or coach that has a proven record of success with people who are just like you. That works on improving all areas of your life, just not the fitness aspect.
• PLACE TO TRAIN – Find a gym/coach that sits down with you when you first start to answer any questions you may have, put your mind at ease, assess you for what you are capable of and put a plan in place to show you how you will get to your goals. Possibly an easier option for beginners, so you are training with people at your level who you will immediately resonate with as they are feeling exactly the same as you.
• SUPPORT NETWORK – Who are you going to go to when times get tough, who can keep you on track and hold you accountable? Is it your new found coach? People you train with? Or your Friend?
• MONEY – If your goal is now a high value like you say it is, what will you possibly give up so you can focus on this? People always find money for things they value, and always struggle to find it for things they don’t.

Recipe

• Find a place to train that handles the above, that you are at-ease with and looking forward to working with.
• Schedule the time to make it happen. Block it away in your calendar on the days less likely for things to go wrong. Maybe training 2x/week initially? It’s not every day, but its something you know is manageable for you right now, and you are at peace with that. You know it is still 2x/week more than you have done every week for the past year. And by not trying to bite off more than you can chew at the start it won’t be long until you get your mojo back and start turning up more often.
• Travel there.
• Turn up and work out.
• Learn and be educated by your coach. So you not only do things but know why you are doing them.
• Make friends. Develop relationships with other people who you train with. It will make you more driven to train and make it more enjoyable.
• Preparation – Devoting a couple of hours every Sunday afternoon from 2-4pm when you aren’t so busy to prepare food for the week ahead. You know that from the past during the week things get crazy and you always feel run down and the last thing you feel like doing is spending extra time on a weeknight up cooking, so this is one way to set yourself up for success.

There is much more to it, but for a hypothetical person it gives us some idea of another way we could look at setting things up.

It seems such a basic concept, but we can see by writing it out on paper that we may struggle with X, so can put a plan in place to help the issue and be proactive – rather than reactive. We can also see if we possibly missed something completely.

For those who aren’t a current member but would like some help heading in the right direction please reach out and contact us and we will let you know how we can help.