Posted on May 29, 2015 by Jenny Cromack

Goal Setting

You may have already set yourself targets or have ‘dreams’ of achieving different things. Too many people will set themselves something to achieve and then never fully satisfy this goal. A great example of this are the New Year resolutions people make. They will tell themselves and others this year I want to get fit or I want to get in shape. Very few ever really get to where they want.

To help people achieve their goals it will help to create an understanding of the principles behind goal setting and the process of goal setting. By having an insight into how it works we can helps ourselves and others ensure we have the support and motivation throughout the whole journey of achieving our goals not just a start and end point.

Goal setting, when done well, is a great way to keep you motivated, keep you positive, and track progress. Goals can be made up of anything, for most it is weight loss, getting in shape or the like but it doesn’t always have to be aesthetically based. The possibilities are endless, it can be performance based, visual, or general lifestyle based.

An easy way to ensure the goals you set are effective and provide you with the best chance of fulfilling them is to remember a simple acronym. There are many variations of this but one I use is SMART, so set yourself SMART goals.

SMART stands for:

S – Specific: This means your goal shouldn’t be general, “I want to be fit”, which means different things to different people. Break this down, what is it that feeling fit (or whatever your goal) will help you do or how will it benefit you? Run a 10K? Walk to work everyday? Anything as long as it is has a specific nature.

M – Measurable: You must be able to measure your goal. At the end of the day if we can’t measure it how do we know if you truly have achieved it, or how can we track progress? This doesn’t mean you have to have a piece of equipment that measures it. It can be how long does something take you to do? How do you feel on a comfort or exertion scale? As long as there is some reference we can use to make comparisons.

A – Agreed: This feature varies in different definitions however I like this one because if you relate back to my Self-Determination blog satisfying a sense of autonomy or control helps induce intrinsic motivational tendencies. Thus making you more inclined to be motivated to work to your goal.

Therefore your goals should be chosen by you, and agreed by you if you work with a trainer. You then become part of the process and thus more likely to comply to the goal attainment process.

R – Realistic: This is an important one for me, the goals we set must be physically possible. Obviously if they are well out of our reach then we are very unlikely to achieve them. For example, to say I will be an Olympic athlete in six months is not going to happen. This is extreme but highlights that we need to be honest and realistic with ourselves and in the long term it may lead to bigger better goals as we progress.

T – Time-based: This is another important aspect of goal setting. We need to put some time frames on our goals otherwise we won’t be given a drive to push ourselves to getting there. If we don’t our goal could just last forever never achieving it. We can create short-term goals to achieve in order to get to our long-term goal. This gives us stepping stones to achieving our goals and therefore small incentives, successes, and motives along the way to our main goal.

Types of Goals:

There are different types of goals that can all be combined to create a process of achieving an ultimate goal. Everywhere you read you will find different types of goals with different names but a lot of the different variations in the name have the same or similar descriptions. For the purpose of this article I feel that splitting into 3 goals that are easy to follow and understand, all linking in with each other to form a process or journey to achieving what you want.

Outcome Goal (Long Term Goal):

This is basically your ultimate goal, usually the first thing that comes to your head when you decide what you want to achieve. It is the “end point” and the reason you have maybe engaged in a behaviour. This is the thing you will be striving to achieve and your major motivation.

We will put these into a health and fitness scenario for you to understand. The most common goal is to lose weight, so let’s say this is you and go through the SMART principle as an example. Questions to ask with any goals are as follows:

Is it Specific? – No, but making it losing 14lbs is, or further dropping 5% body fat too.

Is it Measurable? – With the above yes, we can weigh you and perform fat tests.

Have you Agreed/Chosen it yourself? – I am presuming so but make sure you are happy with the goal.

Is it Realistic? – Yes, 10lbs is realistic, obviously depending upon the next time frame.

Is it Time Based? – Original statement wasn’t but if we then take the above points and said ok realistically dropping 2lbs a week then I would like to see it at 7 weeks.

This is now a good goal we have ticked all the boxes and can go about trying to achieve it. However, if we just had this sat in the 7 week future we don’t have anything to spur us on in the meantime so we need to consider the following to provide us with the stepping stones to this 7 week goal.

Performance Goals (Short Term Goals):

This type of goal is very suitable for the likes of the fitness, exercise and health setting. These goals are made up of short-term individual performances, this could be something like as part of my aim to lose the weight I want to run a series of 3K, 5k, and then 10K runs. Or it may be resistance based so I want to squat 50kg, 60kg, and 70kg progressively. These types of goals are very specific but all contribute to your ultimate goal but are related to specific performances. So it is a good idea to sit down plan how you want to achieve your ultimate goal, then set these individual performance goals a space them over the 7 weeks, setting little short term goals.

Process Goals (Short Term Goals):

These feed into the performance goals, and thus ultimately the outcome goal. These process or action goals relate to the actual behaviours or actions that are needed to achieve your performance and outcome goals. Following the health and fitness theme, an example of these goals would be I want to do 3 weights sessions a week, and 1 running session a week over the next 7 weeks. These are your actions, they are specific, can be measured through diaries or training logs, it is chosen by you, realistic, and given a time frame. They can also be monitored and adjusted as you progress.

Take Home Message:

Goal setting is very simple but unless you understand the principles behind effective goal setting it is hard to use it to its full potential. Stick to SMART goals and set yourself the performance and process stepping stones along the way. Think of it as a ladder to your outcome goal, without these rungs on the ladder you can reach the top. A good tip when documenting your goals is to have your goals set out in order with a checklist or tick box so you can tick off your progress as you achieve each individual goal. This provides you with the sense competence, and control we crave as human beings when it comes to being motivated. Use these principles to be the first of your friends to actually achieve your resolutions in the future.