S.M.A.R.T. (sing to the tune of “We Are Family” by Sister Sledge) goals set clarity and focus to help you accomplish more instead of just wishing you had.
stop thinking about the things you want to do, and just do them.
i’m saying this as a reminder to myself, and to all of you.
we have a lot of goals, ideas, plans that we often talk ourselves out of because we don’t believe they’re good enough, that we’re good enough.
think of all the missed first steps you could have taken if you had just done the thing you’d wanted to do instead of saying, “but why tho?”
so today, instead of thinking about what you should do, just do it.
stop thinking about it and just act.
so what if you fail. so what if it doesn’t work out the way you wanted it to.
so what if others perceive your first step as a failure. you can’t take the first step without taking another, then another after that.
how does that song from “santa claus is coming to town” go?
put one foot in front of the other or some shit like that?
so imagine you just never took a single step.
are you better off? how will you ever know if you don’t try in the first place?
who cares if it isn’t perfect? what does it matter what he or she or they think?
what if you had just done the thing you sought out to do the first time you thought about it?
or even the very last time? compared to today, you would still have accomplished more than doing nothing at all.
alls i’m saying is stop talking yourself out of doing what is going to improve your life, make you happy. start taking action so you can begin to see the results sooner rather than later, or worse, never.
we can do that by setting SMART goals.
S.M.A.R.T.
take notes because this is going to be one of the most useful tips you can pick up to improve your consistence and accountability when it comes to actually doing shit.
S.M.A.R.T. stands for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound.
all right you can put your pen down and listen again.
let’s take an example goal and whittle it down to make it SMART. say you wanna lose weight.
zzzzzz eyeroll amirite? i didn’t even wanna do this topic because i would honestly be a hypocrite.
i’m not physically fit. i eat too much chocolate and not enough nutrient dense food.
so for me to tell you, hey lets talk about being active and eating right, is like drake telling you not to get so emotionally invested in a girl, it just seems like the messenger isn’t right.
but back to the big picture goal – losing weight.
“i wanna lose weight” you say.
but is this goal specific and measurable? not really. how much weight? over what period of time? how, sway? how?
you need to be able to answer the popular “w” questions if you wanna get really detailed.
all right, so we’ll change this to, “i wanna lose 10 lbs by running 10 miles a week.”
now your goal is both specific and measurable. you can weigh yourself with a scale and calculate distance, both quantitative. you’ve set an action with a measurable goal.
attainable
is your goal realistic? saying you want to lose 10 lbs is pretty realistic. but if you’d said, “i wanna lose 80 lbs,” it may be much less attainable, not impossible, but difficult, which may set you up for failure.
is your goal relevant to you?
only you can decide what your needs are and what goals will work for you, so be mindful of choosing goals that are relevant to you and your life. losing weight has to be something of importance to you, so don’t make it a personal goal if it doesn’t mean shit to you.
time bound
choosing a timeframe to accomplish your goal is important because it keeps you constrained to a schedule.
saying you wanna lose 10 lbs by december when it’s august is both attainable and time bound.
saying you wanna lose 50 lbs with no set goal date isn’t going to help because there’s no deadline to keep you accountable for yourself.
so the biggest issue i have with dealing with nutrition and fitness is i get overwhelmed with the concept as a whole because i’m not breaking down my big picture goal into microgoals.
it’s not enough to say i’m going to go on a diet because that’s not specific enough. it’s not measurable, attainable, realistic or time bound.
so how can i tweak this so i can be successful in achieving better eating habits?
personally, i would say, “all right amanda, breakfast is a nutrient dense green smoothie every single morning.”
this is specific. it’s measurable because i am tying this goal into my morning meal, so i know exactly when i should be having this smoothie – every morning.
it’s attainable because making a smoothie is no biggie. it’s easy and cheap, and the ingredients are found at any grocery store, if you can stomach having to shop.
(in case you’re wondering, my smoothie is kale and spinach, bananas, mixed nuts, peanut butter and a splash of water to smooth it all out. it’s honestly like dessert every morning.)
my goal is relevant because my body tells me when i’m NOT eating right, so eating better foods directly affects me.
it’s timebound because i’ll be eating that shit every breakfast for as long as i remember to switch it up.
that last goal may have been a stretch, but the more specific you make it, the easier it is to hold yourself accountable.
hopefully you get the point.
anyway, i bought this new portable digital recorder so i can record on the go, so no more excuses. hopefully, you will overlook any major quality issues in exchange for more frequent episodes.
my goal is to be consistent with this podcast. lately, i’ve been averaging about an episode a month, which is nowhere close to where i wanna be. but hopefully between spending a lincoln on a new mic and getting a ticket recently for speeding, i can focus my resources on what matters – creating something positive for you, for me, and the energy will be reciprocated.
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