Making SMART fitness goals to start the year
Building Healthy Lifestyle Habits
As we approach the beginning of the New Year, many of us pause to consider goals. Many will create New Year’s resolutions while others have given up on the idea of resolutions because it has become an annual failure.
Don’t give up on creating goals! Let’s find a way to make certain we set achievable goals.
Setting SMART goals are a way to plan to reach specific priorities you have identified. Let’s break down what is meant by SMART goals. SMART goals will be Specific, Reasonable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound.
Under Specific, we want to determine “What is the desired result?” This will include who, what, when, where, why and how.
Measurable is how you determine progress by including numerical or descriptive measurements.
Achievable will answer the following: What skills are needed? What resources are necessary? Does the goal require the right amount of effort?
If it is Relevant, the goal will align with the overall strategy.
Time-bound would include the deadline and would include whether that deadline is realistic.
Now we know how to set our goals; next we need to determine what they are.
Fitness goals will vary based on what each of us wishes to accomplish. Is your goal to just get started and exercise regularly? Is it to add one more day of activity or is it to run a marathon next Fall? Each of these goals can be planned using SMART goals.
Let’s try one of these scenarios using SMART goals.
For those who are not getting much exercise currently and want to start, this could be a plan. Our SMART goal could be to walk for 30 minutes at a moderate pace five days a week and to be doing this by July to improve fitness. This can be quantified since it is 30 minutes, 5 days weekly. It would be achievable since it is walking; we would have time to build up to 30 minutes, 5 days a week. We will need a good pair of walking shoes and to dress for whatever weather exists. Regular walking will allow us to become more fit. As a new fitness walker, we could even start by walking 10 minutes per day for three days weekly and build up to the goal by July.
Someone who is already exercising regularly will want a more challenging goal. Someone who runs several days each week may want to challenge him/herself by planning to run a Marathon in November. In order to reach this goal, it would mean increasing the long run each week to make certain that a 20 mile run could be completed by one month before the marathon.
We can all benefit by setting goals with a clear plan to achieve them. Try using SMART goals as you plan your fitness goals for 2021. Working with someone at an organization such as the Y can help you reach your goals.
Building Healthy Lifestyle Habits is a weekly column by Barbara B Jordan YMCA and IU Health Morgan along with healthy living programming funded through a grant from Kendrick Foundation.