I love goal setting… not going to lie!  I am very futuristic, so it’s easy for me to daydream, to set goals for the future, and to create a plan to reach those goals.

I’ve always enjoyed sharing my monthly goals and yearly life goals with y’all, but putting my weight loss goals out there is SCARY!  Putting my weight loss goals on paper for y’all to see brings a pressure that’s hard to explain… but at the same time it’s great because I’m tired of not reaching the goals I want so badly to reach.

So what’s different this time around?  Well, to start, I know where I stand and I am definitely in a place where I am motivated to change!

So let’s talk about goal setting for a minute… When setting goals, I always recommend making sure they are SMART goals!

SMART Goal Setting

I could set the goal to run a 6 minute mile, but if we run it through the SMART goal setting technique I will quickly realize that I need to create a new goal!

Specific- When you create a specific goal, you want to go through the 5 W’s… who, what, when, where, and why.  Being as specific as possible will help you to reach your goal.

Example:  “I want to lose weight”, is not a specific goal.  A specific goal would be, “I want to lose 45 pounds by October 2013 in order to be at a healthy weight before having children”.

Measurable- Establish how you will measure your progress towards reaching your goal.  This could be in inches, pounds, etc.

Achievable- I think the A and R in SMART are closely related.  You want to make sure your goal is something you can achieve.

Realistic- In the same way, you want to be realistic.  It is not realistic of me to stay, “I want to run a 6 minute mile”.  What’s more realistic at this point in my life is to say “I want to run a 9 minute mile” and then to create the goal from there.

Time Oriented- You want to make sure you establish a time frame by which you want to reach your goal.  This goes back to being realistic though, as it’s not realistic for me to lose 45 pounds in 2 months in a healthy manner.  Making the goal of losing 45 pounds in 8 months is a lot more realistic and it’s achievable.

When I create goals I usually list SMART next to it and check off that the goal meets each of the letters.  If it’s not Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, or Time Oriented then I have to go back to the drawing board.

Long Term Weight Loss Goal

Another tip is to create long term goals first and then to break that goal down into smaller goals.  This will help you to feel that the goal is more attainable.  Having the goal to lose 45 pounds can be daunting, but breaking it down losing 6 pounds a month makes it that much more achievable and realistic.

Short Term Weight Loss Goals

Now in all honesty, I wanted to establish a dozen goals but the reality is, it’s as simple as my one goal.  I will still create monthly goals (stay tune for March’s this week) but I really believe that my one long term goal and my three short term goals are the foundation.

Weight loss goal setting (or any type of goal setting) can be scary but sometimes creating a goal, writing it down, and making it known to others may be just what you need in order to reach that goal.

Tell me one goal you have for yourself… don’t be scared to put it out there!

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Filed under: Deep Thoughts • Goal Setting • Health • Motivation • My Weight Loss • Weight Loss

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