How to set goals and actually reach them

 

Habit tracking and goal setting can be an effective way to help you stay on track to achieve your fitness goals. Many people start the year with big dreams and inspiring new years resolutions, but many fail to achieve those in the new year and are left feeling defeated and disappointed with themselves.

 

Utilising habit tracking and goal setting helps to break down those bigger aspirations into smaller, more manageable chunks – helping you to succeed in the long run.

 

 

Goal Setting:

When you have a goal in mind, follow this SMART checklist to help you set and achieve it:

  • Specific – Be specific about what the goal is. What do I want to accomplish? How will I know when I have achieved my goal?
  • Manageable – We all lead busy lives. Is this goal manageable for the other stressors I already have in my life? Do I need to scale my goal down to fit into my routine?
  • Achievable – It’s easy to get excited and bite off more than we can chew. Is this goal realistic for my current fitness?
  • Relevant – Here’s where you should identify your WHY. Why is this goal important to me?
  • Time-bound – Decide on when you would like to have achieved your goal by. When do I want to have achieved this by?

Example:

Before:

“I want to be good at push ups.”

After, using SMART:

“I want to be able to do 10 push ups by this time next month, so I will practise as many push ups as I can before I go to bed each night. This will give me more strength to be able to more freely play with my kids.”

 

In “After”, we have identified what the goal is, how it will fit into our routine, adjusted the amount of push ups so that it is realistic for our current fitness level, identified our ‘why’, and decided when we would like to achieve that goal by.

Habit tracking:

Habit tracking helps you to stay on track with goals that require consistency to be achieved. For example, in our push ups goal above, we can use habit tracking to help us stay consistent with practising those push ups each night before bed.

How to:

Using a journal, or notes app, create a table where each square represents a day of the month. Label your goal at the top, to remind yourself of what you are doing and why. Each time you complete your push ups before bed, you can tick the day off and record how many push ups you achieved. This helps you to visually see your progress, and be motivated by it, as well as gain satisfaction from ticking the day off.

How this helps:

To-do lists and habit trackers, with the act of ticking things off, releases feel-good dopamine in the brain. The more tasks we complete, the more chemical rewards we enjoy.

Remember, consistency is key. By creating SMART goals and tracking our habits/progress we can keep ourselves accountable and get to those goals faster.

 

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