Be S.M.A.R.T About Your Fitness Goals: Achieve Results in 2019

Sun. Mar 24, 2019

Read in 6 minutes

Improve the odds of attaining your fitness goals by using the SMART method.

Be S.M.A.R.T About Your Fitness Goals: Achieve Results in 2019

I’m midway through the fourth week of my fat loss transformation and one of the factors that has helped from the start and throughout has been the application of the S.M.A.R.T formula.

What Are Smart Goals?

SMART is an acronym: each letter of the word “smart” stands for a word. Together, these 5 words serve as a guide that will help you set effective goals.

“S” Is for Specific

The “S” stands for specific. From the beginning I was specific with myself about the goal I wanted to achieve:

Fit comfortably in my tailored suits by reducing my waist size from 37.75 inches to 35 inches.

I could have said to myself that I wanted to “become less fluffy” or “lose weight” but these would not have been specific.

“Lose fat” would have been more specific but would not have told me how much.

“M” Is for Measurable

“M” stands for measurable.

You want your body to express the vitality you feel within.

Setting targets and measuring progress lets you know you are heading in the right direction.

Tools to Track Progress

For the purposes of generally tracking progress I would recommend using:

fat caliper A fat caliper is a simple device for measuring fat and tracking fat loss. You can purchase one on Amazon for under $10.

No Need to Overdo Measurements

I used to geek out on taking body fat measurements. But I have found that the most precise fat percentage measurement, a DEXA scan, is expensive and not necessary.

Sure, the methods I recommended above of assessing body fat percentage are not as precise as a DEXA scan. But they are precise enough to allow you to assess a general trend. That should suffice.

In the final analysis, who cares if you are carrying 15.2% body fat versus 9.8%. What matters is that you are healthy, happy living inside your body and comfortable in your clothes.

You want your body to express the vitality you feel within, not achieve some arbitrary percentage of fat tissue.

Given that my goal is to specifically attain a smaller waist measurement, this factor of the S.M.A.R.T formula was baked in.

“A” Is for Achievable

The “A” stands for achievable. As I mentioned in a previous post, you want the goal to fall within the realm of what is possible to you and not be governed by what others have achieved.

Choose fitness goals that are achievable.

I’ve often heard it said that “what one man can do, another man can do!” Presumably, this would include women as well.

Regardless, this is blatantly false with regard to countless human goals, and no less so in the realm of fitness goals.

Just as some individuals show a propensity towards musical or mathematical brilliance from a young age, some individuals show a propensity towards athletic brilliance or towards a certain kind of physique.

In the realm of fitness, whether your goal is to gain strength and muscle or become leaner, look back to what has been attainable and sustainable for you in the past.

Even here, what one person can do at one point in their lifetime may not be what even that same person can achieve later in their lifetime. You may have had a chance to be a champion gymnast in your teens but that opportunity has passed if you are now in your 70s.

Make your fitness goals achievable for you.

“R” Is for Relevant

The requirement that a goal be achievable is closely related to the requirement that a goal should be relevant to you and your life.

That is what the “R” stands for.

Make choices that lead to a flourishing life.

Unless you give yourself permission to be utterly self-interested with regard to your goal, it will not have the power to motivate you, especially with a longer term goal.

Goals are things we should strive for because they are signposts that we are moving in the right direction towards the best life we can male for ourselves.

We properly don’t just want to “get by” in life or just meander from one random event to another. We ought to exercise all the power we have as causal agents to fashion a flourishing existence.

Create something epic.

So that means we need to be more purposive then we see the characters in a typical French film being. As director of your life you want to make it an epic, not just a series of events without a theme.

Making your goals relevant to you and consistent with what you see as your “life project” is essential to fueling the pursuit of every goal you set for yourself.

“T” is for Time-Bound

Lastly, “T” stands for time bound. More rarely, and often from simple ignorance of what is required to attain a goal, individuals may shoot themselves in the foot by not giving themselves enough time to achieve their goal.

“Losing ten pounds of fat and three dress sizes in two weeks” would be an example of this. “I’m going to give myself a year to become an A-list actor” might be another example. In either case, the goal pursuit is set up for failure.

Set realistic deadlines.

Take time to inform yourself about the nature of any particular goal and the numerous component goals and actions attaining it may require.

Integrate this knowledge with your best guess as to what may be achievable by you and proceed accordingly.It is more likely that we tend to put off pursuing our goals as if we had many lifetimes to get it right. Our lives are finite and thus we don’t have an eternity to achieve the many goals that comprise our life project.

Moreover, telling yourself that you are going to lose fat or write a novel “someday” will not motivate you as powerfully as setting a deadline for a goal’s completion will.

Replace “someday” with a timeline.

Because life happens, the deadline for the attainment of any given goal may have to be pushed back on occasion.

Be honest with yourself as to when making allowances for life happening crosses over into excuse making.

There is nothing I can write here that will tell you where that line lays.

As with most things in life, whether you are successful in attaining your goals requires considerable self-awareness, honesty, integrity, intellectual independence, effort and a fundamental belief that you deserve the best life you can make for yourself.

Get Started On Your Own SMART Goals

I hope this post has been helpful to you as you create your 2019 fitness goals.

Feel free to book a free phone appointment with me if you’d like help setting, measuring, and attaining your physical fitness goals.