S.M.A.R.T. Resolutions
The New Year rolls around and everyone decides that they want to do things differently or be better in the New Year. Many of us start the year off with magnificent goals but fail to do some proper planning to help those goals come to life. There is a very simple acronym that helps with goal planning S.M.A.R.T.
Specific – Everyone’s favorite resolution is to simply “lose weight.” But, if we were specific about this goal we would have a greater chance of achieving it. A better goal would be something like “I want to lose 10 lbs by summer.”
Measurable – Being able to measure your goals helps keep you on track. I used to work for a commercial real estate company and every project we worked on had a timeline stating what needed to be completed and by what date. This timeline allowed us to track our progress and allowed for NO surprises at the goal end date.
Attainable – No matter how much you want something or how hard you are willing to work for it, some goals are just not attainable. For instance, the president of the United States must be a natural born citizen. Therefore someone who is not a natural born citizen can never become president and such a goal is futile. Whereas, aspiring to some other high ranking office (such as the Governor of California) is much more attainable.
Realistic – I am not one to shoot down people’s goals but sometimes we make goals that are darn near impossible. It is not to say that these goals cannot be achieved but the chance of failure is high. I once made a goal of running a half marathon. Running a half marathon is not an impossible goal, but it was rather unlikely for someone who hadn’t done any cross country running in over a decade. I later changed my goal to running a 5K and then a 10K and now I can definitely see a half marathon in my future.
Timely – How many times have we heard someone say, “I am going to start my diet TOMORROW.” If they allow themselves, they will continue to postpone that diet day after day. By setting a Stop Point they know that tomorrow is one day closer to their goal end date therefore allowing them less time to accomplish their goal.
A goal without the items listed above is like a business with no business plan… destined for failure.
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Thanks AP. That was some good advise, but my problems seems to be of the nature of “falling apart.” It is not that I want to lose weight. It is more like I would like to stop gaining weight. And I just seem to keep getting lazier with each passing year.