SMART goals - setting yourself up for success

Hi all!  This is something that I did for the first month before I tried to count calories or add exercise.  I found it really helpful!  Actually, I think that I would probably have failed if I tried calorie counting right away - I was addicted to caffeine and bread and couldn't imagine eating a lot of fruit and veges!

SMART GOALS - Setting yourself up for success!

I read that making a resolution such as "Eat healthy in 2008!" was almost certainly doomed to failure.  Why?  Not specific enough!   The idea is to make S>M>A>R>T> goals (an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely).

So instead of saying "Eat healthy", the idea is to make a S>M>A>R>T> goal, eg. I'll eat 2 pieces of fruit every day, ticking them off on a chart, and reward myself by going to the movies if I get 50 ticks within 4 weeks (in 4 weeks, you could actually tick off 56 if you never missed a fruit snack!).  That's a good goal because it is very specific, you can measure it, -  it is achievable (provided you can afford the fruit), it is realistic (you can maintain it) and it is timely. 

The idea of doing it for four weeks is that research shows that it takes at least 21 days to form a habit.  So after your fruit challenge you should be so used to adding fruit to your shopping trolley and snacking on it, it will be a habit that stays with you!

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what to do - post your goal here and check in to let us know how you are going!  Be very specific and realistic - that way you set yourself up for success.

Here's my current goal (started on 1st of April):

Eat 20 salad lunches or more in 4 weeks. 

S - specific? - definitely

M - measureable? - yep, made myself a little chart to tick off

A - acheiveable? - Yes, but I have to shop more often to buy greens!

R - Realistic? - Yep, that works out to 5 salad lunches each week.

T - Timely? - gave myself a set time in which to achieve the goal.

So far have eaten salad 5 days out of seven - I am on track.

I love this idea, I think you have done amazingly well to make the changes you have this year. Especially giving up the coffee. I also love the way you build some slack into the goals, so that if you skip a day it isn't the end of the world. I tend to get over ambitious with goals, then ditch them when I mess up one day. I Think you must be a great teacher.

I will probably think of some more ideas later, but at the moment, my goals for the rest of the month (23days) are:
- go swimming 10 times
- get up before 8am, 18 times (grad student with no set schedule)

I was cleaning out my room yesterday and I found some stickers from when I was teaching English in Korea, so perhaps I will use them to give myself!!!!!! and make my own star chart!

Have a good evening!

Thanks Jane!  The coffee was hard to say goodbye to - I used to have 8 cups a day, with full cream milk plus two spoons of sugar!  Took me about two weeks to gradually step down to having only one decaf a day.  Now I can't get enough of unsweetened herbal teas.

Great goals, Jane! 

• Giving you a tick for being specific
• a sticker chart is a great  way to measure your success. 
• Sounds achieveable - you've given yourself some slack for sleep in days. 
• Are you being realistic - is it easy for you to access a pool every 2nd day?
• There are 23 days left in the month so that should be enough time to make a habit! 

Suggestion - give yourself a bed time as well.  Knowing what student life is like, it's easy to not get enough sleep.  Apparently, this slows the metabolism as well as the mind!

I should try to give myself a swimming goal - I live at the beach but rarely go swimming!  Apart from lack of motivation, my problem is the tide - can't go swimming at low tide this time of year as you must stay within the protective stinger net.

Righto, here's my exercise goals - so far, I have been losing weight solely through dieting. That's got to change now.  The recent death of my poodle put off my plans to start earlier - it just felt so strange to go walking without her!

Goal 1 - To walk 30 minutes daily and to build up my jogging intervals from one minute of jogging to five minutes of jogging over 4 weeks. (I aim to walk/jog at least 20 mornings, adding an extra minute on the fifth/tenth/fifteenth/twentieth days)

Goal 2 - To do a short strength/calisthenics workout in the afternoon or evening (20 workouts over 4 weeks - working abs, back, legs & arms)

For me these are scary goals!  I've had heaps of success changing what I eat but have not really managed to live up to my hopes of getting more exercise.  Time to get SMART about it, making myself a sticker chart and giving it to my son to measure how I go. I know he'll push me to force me to achieve these goals and will probably exercise along with me.  I am definitely someone who prefers to have an exercise companion!

Goal 1 progress - day 1 - have taken one walk/jog out of twenty (jogged for 1 min intervals)

Goal 2 progress - day 1 - completed one strength workout out of 20

I am wondering if i have been realistic about increasing my jogging intervals to 5 minutes by the end of 4 weeks!  Maybe the consistent exercise will really effect my endurance!  Right now, I can hardly breathe after just one minute!  Don't know much about jogging/running - anyone who does let me know!

Jella, way to go on making your goals for the first day. I really admire your jogging goals. I've always been  a great walker, but even as a kid, never much of a runner, maybe when the weather gets a bit warmer I'll think about it.

I however have been much less sucesful, I would love to claim that I got up an hour too late due to daylights savings confusion, but I would be lying. I guess I will have to actually set an alarm. But it is 9 am and I am up, which is an improvement.

I also haven't been swimming yet, somehow the idea of going when it is hovering just above zero doesn't do it for me.  I hope that today will be warmer, so it seems more appealing. I am very envious of you in Queensland, although I guess if you have to worry about jellyfish etc it isn't quite so much fun. I was also listening to the abc online today about the boy in NSW who got killed by a shark, which is just terrible. I guess even if it is freezing, the pools here in Germany are relatively safe!!!
have a good evening!

Well an improvement is a good thing!  Definitely set your alarm!  Don't feel badly - you built room for sleepin days into your goal, What does it matter if your first day was one of the sleep in days you budgeted for.  A 9am sleep in sounds heavenly - mind you so does your 8am wake up goal!  I normally have to be up at dawn!  Wanna swap???

Jane - do you think the swimming goal is realistic at this time of the year? I am guessing the pool is heated!!! Is it your own pool, or do you use one at a gym/city centre/school?  Make sure you dive in ASAP!  Not wanting to brag or anything but the ocean temperature in winter here is just lovely for swimming - actually it's the best time of the year for it as there are no jellyfish!  The jelly fish are deadly poisonous. 

Hey, are you an Aussie???

Hey, yeah, I know, I am lucky to be able to sleep in so late. I know this is something that is not going to be continuing for much longer, so I am enjoying it now.

The swimming thing should be getting realistic soon, normally by now the weather is a little nicer than it has been so far. next week the forecast is for the teens so that is pretty warm (comparatively) I'm really lucky, I live about 5 minutes away from a public swimming pool, it has an indoor heated, outdoor heated (which you swim to from inside), and outdoor 50m pool, so as far as physical discomfort swimming goes, there is absolutely no excuse, it is more the mental thing at the moment of being too cold, not that the water actually is. Hopefully it will be warm enough today to go.

Yeah, I am actually an Aussie, but I've been living in Europe for most of the past 6 years (god!).

This is a great idea! I've seen other people setting monthly goals but I've never jumped in. Well today I think I will!

Through the end of April, I will:

Goal 1: walk to work at least 2x/week (morning, lunch, & evening)

Goal 2: go to the gym at least 7x

Now I need to figure out my reward...hmmm. Not food, & not too expensive..I'll get back to ya on that.

Welcome Chris! 

Good to see you joining in - I look forward to seeing how you go - those goals sound great.  You don't need to keep it just within the calendar month - my goal will stretch into May.  The idea of doing it for 4 weeks is that it takes at least 21 days to form a habit. 

Wanna know my reward?  New bras!  For a while it looked like I was losing weight every where but there - then all of a sudden nowhere but there!!!  Good news is that I can actually shop for some really pretty ones now that I've dropped a size both across the back and the cup.  I've already bought two basic ones and a sports bra - first I've owned in 15 years, but I'm looking forward to buying bras!

I've got a little chart to cross off my walks and my strength workouts, decorated by my daughter!  My teenage sons have become interested and offered to be my personal trainers - if I paid them!!!  Cheeky buggers!  Told them no way but that they could get the same reward as me if they completed the challenge as well.  The word reward sparked their interest - until I told them the reward was some lacy bras! he-he-he, Oh I love grossing my kids out!!! All joking aside I'd love my 15 yr old to join in as he is carrying a little too much weight, I'll have to have a serious talk with him about what he would see as a reward.

Goal 1 - To walk 30 minutes daily and to build up my jogging intervals from one minute of jogging to five minutes of jogging over 4 weeks. (I aim to walk/jog at least 20 mornings, adding an extra minute of jogging to each interval on the fifth/tenth/fifteenth/twentieth days)

Goal 1 progress - day 2 - went for a walk today - two/twenty completed.

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Goal 2 - To do a short strength/calisthenics workout in the afternoon or evening (20 workouts over 4 weeks - working abs, back, legs & arms)

Goal 2 progress - day 2 - missed strength tonight early 2 bed - 1/20

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Pulled a late one last night, so too tired to do a strength routine tonight. 

My younger son actually pulled me away from the computer this evening to go for a walk with him!  I was feeling really tired and would probably not gone if left to my own devices!  So maybe, I've got myself a personal trainer???  Now I just have to convince him to get up at dawn to do the interval training - wish me luck! 

My SMART goal:

Over the next four weeks (starting tomorrow), walk briskly for 25 minutes four mornings a week.  So that's 16 ticks by May 8th.  I can do that!

Reward - to be determined...

I like this idea.  I am going to put the idea into my daily life.

Welcome shrinkingcaro and srlhome!

shrinking_caro - (do you shorten this? shrink? caro?) Your goal sounds doable.  Very specific and realistic! 

srlhome - This idea worked so well for me!  I've kicked the caffeine, reduced the bread I ate, started eating fruit every day, got into the habit of eating salad for lunches and eat at least 5 types of veges each night.  All because of this type of goal setting.  I've always been one to have great plans but then not follow through!

I picked the end of the month because it's PAYDAY!  I know very well if it's not close to payday I won't get my reward! What fun is that?!! (and it's 22 days from the 8th .) I'm going to throw in some small extra rewards for going OVER my weekly goals too. Just something little, like a bubble bath or making the family let me watch What Not to Wear!

Tick 1, goal 1: walked to & from work twice yesterday. Tick 1, goal 2: went to the gym last evening.

Feeling good!

 

Well done, chris!  Absolutely good idea to make your reward day pay day! lol

I love bubble baths, I really miss them!  We only have a shower are our new place! 

jella - it gets shortened to caro!  Which in turn is short for Caroline!

jella is short for Majella. :-)

This sounds like 'Just what I needed!'

Exercise-- especialy cardio, and CONSISTANT, has been Tricky for me... I'll need to make some plans and set rewards which will both work for me... TOM has been a problem lately-- never predictable, either, so I'll have to overcome that better than I have so far... Grrrrrr!

I have a Special Date to aim for... May 7th will finish a year for  me, here at CC!

I'd like to really accomplish some good habit-forming goals by then-- and lose some definite-but-Healthy weight!

excitedly waves a welcome to 2BB! Good to see you!

It's a good 4 week stretch till your CC anniversery (congrats in advance)- plenty of time to form the habit of consistently doing cardio.  Work out how many slack days you'd be willing to let yourself have in that time, that'll leave you the number of workouts to do.  I know you enjoy lots of different cardio workouts - post some here - might inspire me to have a go at something else once I'm really into the habit of interval running.

Post your goal in here after doing the SMART checklist , is it:

S - specific? - M - measureable? A - acheiveable? -R - Realistic? T - Timely? -