For the year or so, at the beginning of the month I usually set a few goals and then recap them at the end of the month and give my effort/achievement a “score” on each goal. Some months I really rock it and knock them all out, and some months I am way off my mark. Why? I feel like one of the main reasons is not having a plan.
A lot of times, we tend to make goals, and then forget about them until the next week/month/or year without doing “check ups” or without ever coming up with a plan of attack to begin with. You may have heard the old acronym about goals and being smart, but just in case you forgot, here it is again:
The SMART Goal Acronym
- Specific (what is your goal? who is involved? Location? reasons for this goal?)
- Measurable (can you measure the success of this goal? Will it “end” at a time or achievement?)
- Attainable (don’t set it too high that you could never achieve it)
- Realistic (Do you have faith in yourself that you can do this?)
- Timely (When will you see results? How long will it go on?)
With this in mind, here are a couple of goals I have for the month of September:
1.) Run 4 days a week
2.) Drink 8 glasses of water a day
3.) Stop negative thinking/pessimistic attitude
Looking at all three goals, I believe they all follow the SMART plan. Here’s how:
1.) Run 4 days a week: I will mark it in my planner/calendar as a to do item, it is measurable (I either do it or don’t) It is very attainable and realistic for me and I am putting a time on if for the end of September.
2.) Drink 8 glasses of water a day: I plan to use my cell phone app to track my water consumption, will try to do this every day until the end of the month, it is attainable and realistic, and timely.
3.) Stop negative thinking/pessimistic attitude: This one is a bit tricky. I have to force myself to STOP as soon as I realize I am doing this. I am going to try to change my thinking to something good and positive when I realize I am being negative. My measure for this goal is to try to stop negative thinking before it turns into a “bad attitude” for the day. It is realistic and attainable and my timetable is on a daily basis for the rest of the month.
This month’s fitmixer® giveaway topic is to help us realize our fitness/health goals and what steps we can take to achieve them. I encourage you to head over to Fitmixer’s page and earn entries into their monthly giveaway.
You can win two pounds of your choice of Fitmixer product! It’s simple and quick, head on over! (Doing the extra entry for telling them which ambassador sent you would make me really happy!)
QOTD: No question, just please go over and enter to win! You can always leave a comment letting me know you did, just for brownie points.
This post is part of my ambassadorship with Fitmixer, but the views and opinions expressed are my own.
Great reminder about goal setting. I am one who tends to make vague goals then forget about them when I get busy. I need to get SMART!
Im such a goober.
EVERYTHING AROUND HERE IS SMART GOALED 🙂
can you tell I have a masters degree Im not yet using?
Great goals! You so got this month! :0)
And by the way, you totally brought me back to Nursing School! Hahah! We had to use the SMART tool for every Nursing Diagnosis/Intervention! :p
I like your goals and like that they are SMART. Too many people ignore the pieces to that.
I am totally with you on goal #2! I need to drink more water!
I’m obsessed with fitmixer!!!! Def entering NOW!
are you going to fitbloggin??
Great goals! I love the SMART method…often times our goals are unattainable, so this helps a lot.
Great goals! Good luck with them, esp #3. 🙂
“SMART” thinking! I remember hearing this in a marketing course in college…why didn’t I think about using this in my own fitness/health life?
I like your SMART goals for the month :). I’m going to try to run 4x a week too and also keep up with strength training and yoga… which is the hard part because running so much, I just don’t want to do the cross training even though it prevents injuries!
I love these goals because they are so practical! And I love the SMART way of doing it…I wrote a huge blog post on SMART(er) Goals at the start of my 101 days of blogging to keep me accountable, and it’s been great!
Great goals, Heather! I need to work up upping my water intake, too.
Love this! I just did a goal check in over the weekend and realized how I have been slacking on some of my goals. Trying to get back on track!
Those goals definitely sound SMART! It can be so hard to make goals when you’re not on a specific plan.
For ideas/strategies for positive thinking, run to this website:
http://positiveselftalk.com/index.htm – you will not be sorry! For others who may be interested, it is written from a christian perspective.