Achieving your New Year’s Resolutions the SMART Way
With 2018 around the corner, it’s not uncommon to find people looking ahead to the New Year eager to turn over another chapter in their lives. Perhaps you’re considering such a change yourself? There’s something about the start of the new year that helps to motivate and focus people. It’s a good a time as any to start fresh.
We’re usually familiar with the “resolutioners” — the ones who make goals and strive for change but fail to follow through with their intentions. While there are lots of reasons those good intentions fall off the track, not setting a goal to begin with shouldn’t be one of them!
Do you want to lose weight and become more active? Are you looking to learn a new skills like salsa dancing? Perhaps you’ve been dying to try out a few restaurants in town? Whatever your goals and intentions are, it’s important to think about how you set those goals. Often, setting the right goal can give you a great foundation for success.
When you’re setting any types of goals, it’s important to make sure that they follow the SMART principle. The letters of S.M.A.R.T all stand for something that you need to remember when you’re beginning to set goals. We’ll walk you through what that means so that you can think about setting a New Year’s Resolution that you’ll be able to achieve. Here we go!
S — Specific
When setting a goal you want to achieve, you want to make sure it’s specific. What this means is that the goal has parameters that can be followed. For example, saying “I want to lose weight” is a common goal — but it lacks specific details. How much do you want to lose? How fast do you want to lose it? How are you going to lose it? It’s important to set out these guidelines at the start of the process so that you have details guiding you.
But remember, you can be too specific and make the goal impossible to work towards. It’s important to find a balance of a goal that is specific enough to keep you focussed but broad enough to not hinder your progress.
A better goal for weight loss would be “I want to lose 20 pounds in 6 months by taking up swimming”. Now, you know how much you want to lose, you know how long you have to achieve the goal, and you’ve also thought about how you may plan on doing it. Some of these specific details (like time and amount) can be measured and that’s a perfect introduction to the next letter in the SMART principle.
M — Measurable
You’re more likely to be able to work to achieve your goals if you know what or how much you’re working towards. Having a goal that is measurable will help you do just that. Let’s go back to our previous example of weight loss.
Saying “I want to lose 20 pounds” provides a concrete number to aim for. This means that when you’re researching how to achieve your goal and gathering the information to help you along the way, you’ll be able to relate it all to your desired outcome of “losing 20 pounds”. The same goes for measuring experiences. If you say “I want to try new foods” you might have more success if you know just how many new foods you’re aiming to try in 2018. Making measurable goals that you can actually do is important as well. Just because you might say “I want to lose 100 pounds” does not mean that you’re physically able to attain that goal… which brings us nicely into the next letter in the SMART principle!
A — Attainable
You’ll want to make sure that your goal is attainable. Are you able to lose 20 pounds? How about 5 pounds? What about 100 pounds? This amount should be based on the research you do, the work you’re willing to put in and knowing yourself. Only you know what is doable for you over the course of the goal that you’ve set out.
If you’re unsure where to set the benchmark for how much weight you should lose or how you would go about becoming the best guitarist in the world, then perhaps these goals are too much of a big idea. Instead, you can set smaller goals that will help you achieve the bigger goal in the end.
For example, learning 5 new guitar chords a week is much more attainable than all of a sudden having to becoming the best guitarist in the world in a few months. This isn’t to say that it’s not possible, but is it possible and realistic for you? This brings us to the next step…
R — Realistic
It’s important to set goals that are realistic for you, your skills, your resources and your life. Becoming the world’s best guitarist is a noble pursuit, but if you work during the day you might have a difficult time finding the time to get in all that practice.
If you want to do more swimming, but you don’t have a pool and live far away from the one on your community, is that a realistic goal that you’ve set for yourself? In that case, you could try a different exercise activity that you are able to do quicker and with the resources available to you, like running shoes and a paved path or trail.
Setting a realistic goal will ensure that you can have a chance at success given the time you have in the first place. Speaking of time, that brings us to the last of the SMART principles.
T — Time-Based
Whatever you do, make sure you set out a time for yourself to complete the task or the goal. This goes back to basic measurability. If you know how long you have to complete something, you’ll be better able to formulate a plan to execute the things you need to do to achieve the goal.
Saying “I want to learn to speak German fluently in 6 months” means that you know that you have 6 months to do it. You can then plan ahead, look at the calendar and begin to plan your days, your weeks, and the months ahead. This might include with books or resources you’ll buy, which weekly classes to enroll in or where to go on your next vacations! The milestones you set along the way will help you assess and achieve your target goal given the timeline.
That’s it — you’re now a master of the SMART principle. It’s a great framework that you can apply to many things in your life. It doesn’t just have to be about goal setting. Any tasks you need to complete, from work projects to New Year’s Resolutions, can be SMART.
Goal setting isn’t always easy so remember it’s important to have supports around you to cheer you on or be there when you’re not hitting the targets you want to be hitting. If you have the dedication and the willpower, you’ll be able to achieve it.
If you’re finding it difficult, then perhaps adjust and shift your goal. It can be hard to get it right the first time, so be sure to self reflect on how you are progressing towards your goals — and be sure to ask those supports how you’re doing!
At my7, we’re setting goals for 2018 as we speak. We have restaurants we want to eat at, activities we’ve been dying to try out, and products that we think look awesome. You can check out some of the things that people in our community want to do or achieve by heading over to my7.
You’ll probably find some inspiration for setting your own goals to achieve in 2018, too!
As always, Happy Choosing — and Happy New Year, from the my7 team.
