The start of a new year usually comes a long list of to-dos involving health and wellness endeavors, possible career goals and maybe a few financial intentions. Earlier this year, a YouGov poll found that the top three goals for 2018 were to:
- Get healthier.
- Get more exercise.
- Save more money.
While all of these goals are great and mainly focused around self-development, there’s just one problem with all three––they’re too broad and not specific to your personal needs.
Goals can range in various sizes, time-lines and there is no one size fits all. Those who have had success in obtaining their New Year’s resolutions are usually always familiar with goal setting.
Goal setting has received somewhat of a sour reputation in the last few years as it’s sometimes associated with the self-help isle of Barnes & Noble––not your first pick. Or, you might have just given up on New Year’s goal setting because they’ve never worked out for you in the past. The trick to completing those New Year’s resolutions is learning how you can set the right goals that are attainable with your personal lifestyle.
Here is our favorite way to track goals this year:
SMART Goals
SMART goal setting has been teaching people how to properly set goals for some time now. Instead of jotting down what you’d like to accomplish on a piece of notebook paper, this what of goal setting creates structure and creates tangible steps towards one’s main objective.
SMART Goals stands for:
Specific
Achieving your upcoming goals starts with getting specific about what exactly you want to achieve. If your goal is to save money or lose weight, exactly how many pounds are looking to shed and how many dollar bills are you looking to collect in that savings account? It’s time to get precise and make those goals a reality.
Measurable
Another key step to setting SMART goals is making sure they’re measurable. If your goal isn’t specific or measurable, it’s going to be hard to keep track of your progress. There’s no better feeling than achieving your goals, so make it that much easier by setting measurable goals!
If your goal is to lose weight, pick a number or measurement size to aim for. This will make it that much sweeter when you hit that special number.
Attainable
This right here is one of the most important steps to setting SMART goals. Setting a goal, especially if it’s related to weight loss, could be dangerous to your health if you don’t set realistic standards. If your goals is to lose 10 pounds before a wedding next weekend, you aren’t doing your mental or physical health any favors by trying to lose a substantial amount of weight in 7 days.
We encourage our GRIT FIT Fam to reach for the stars, but each individual is different and we must make realistic and attainable measures to reaching these goals. New goals are meant to enhance your life, not cause outside stress or inconvenience. If you feel a new goal you’ve set is stressing you out, it’s time to re-evaluate and ensure these goals are attainable for your lifestyle.
Relevant
When setting new goals, you should also reflect on why this specific goal relates to you. Did you set this goal to lose weight for yourself, someone else, or an event? Is this a relevant goal in your life that you can make time for? Sit back and do a little soul-searching to determine whether this new goal can fit into your agenda.
Timely
When we set New Year’s resolutions, the world is our oyster, as we have an entire 365 days to complete this goal. This all sounds like plenty of time, until we all get to December and realize our weight-loss goals have been in the back seat the entire year. We can all avoid procrastinating our New Year’s goals by setting a tentative plan with deadlines to hold ourselves accountable.
GRIT BOX Fitness teaches timely goals in our 6-week challenge, as this is a realistic timeline to change bad fitness and health related habits, into good ones.
Make sure you’re setting New Year’s goals with a positive attitude and setting SMART goals to help you live your best life this year. If you’re interested in trying out your first boot camp or kick-boxing class, take a look at our schedule. Don’t worry about a drop-in fee, the first class is on us. Happy New Year from the GRIT BOX Fam!
