In this mid-year check in series to get us ready to assess, reset, and finish the year strong we’ve evaluated, we’ve committed to consistent actions, now we’re going to craft specific, effective goals to execute.
Anatomy of Effective Goals according to NASM
In my Wellness Coaching certification from the National Academy of Sports Medicine they have found that effective goals have the following components:
★ You are committed & ‘bought in’ to the goal
★ The goal is attainable & realistic to your life as it is currently
★ You value the outcome(s) that will result from the goal
★ The goal is important to you – aka you have a meaningful “why”
★ The goal is challenging, but not threatening
★ You have self-efficacy around the goal – aka you believe in your ability to achieve the goal
With this in mind, we can get into a good frame of mind on goals that make sense for ourselves. The above principles aren’t necessarily necessary to set a goal. However, the more effective we can be with our goals, the more motivated we will likely be to take action to achieve them.
Process Goals
In order to achieve the outcomes or results you’re looking for when you’re setting out on setting goals, our goals actually need to be process oriented. A process goal breaks down how you’ll achieve the outcome you’re looking for. If you’re looking to lose 15 pounds, your process goal will look like reducing your calories by 500 calories a day for 15 weeks in order t to lose 1 pound a week.
Many times we mistakenly set performance goals which would be “I want to win first in my age group at this 5k race I’m training for”. Inherently, this isn’t a ‘bad’ goal to have, per say. However, it places the locus of control outside of you. You can’t control what other people do. In this instance, you can’t control if someone has a better race than you that day. Which is why it is better to make process oriented in which you focus on what you can control. Instead, it might make more sense to say the time I’m looking to get on this 5k is below 32 minutes, I will train for ‘X’ weeks with the following program to prepare me to get that time on race day.
Again, you can only control what you can control. Therefore, effective goal setting revolves around the specific actions you can take that bring you closer to the outcome you’re looking for.
Know Your Why & Make it Meaningful
When you’re pursuing a goal, oftentimes you’re making a change to your lifestyle or some other behavior pattern. While making positive change(s) is a worthwhile pursuit, it isn’t always easy. And although we try to make it enjoyable, change isn’t isn’t always fun.
This is why we need a meaningful why.
I had a coach that called our “why” a “compelling reason”. I like this frame of mind because when the going gets tough and you don’t want to put in the work to make a change, sometimes you need to give yourself a reason that compels you to continue putting in the work.
Your why should be personal and meaningful to you. Your why could start out as being for someone else, but it’s been proven time and time again that you have to change for you. One of the main reasons it has to be a personally compelling reason is because if you were to be changing for a person, they can’t do the work for you. Programs like Alcoholics Anonymous, in which the participant is making major lifestyle and behavioral changes, demonstrate all the time how until a person wants to make the necessary changes for thesmelves, making changes for someone else won’t last. No one else can do the work for you when it gets difficult, when it’d be simpler or more comfortable to regress, or you simply ‘don’t feel like it’. You need a compelling enough why to fall back on and a reason that will keep you going.
Outline the 5 W’s
We already mentioned knowing you’re why. I also like to have a defined Who, What, When, Where, & How for goals. Fairly self explanatory, but in order to create specific goals it helps to label:
★ Who is doing what/Who is involved
★ What is to happen
★ When it is to happen
★ Where it is to happen
★ How it is to happen
An example could be: I (who) am going to go to ABC yoga class (what) at X day at Y time (when) at Z studio (where) and I will walk to and from in order to get extra activity in (how).
Another example could be: I (who) am going to go to have 3 colors of vegetables (what) at least one meal a day (where) by dinner time (when) and will be prepared either sauteed or steamed (how).
Decide In Advance: Tracking & Obstacles
Decide in advance how you’re going to track yourself. Then, decide in advance how and when you’ll check in to evaluate and measure your progress. Maybe you check in daily or weekly, but you should do a bigger picture check in maybe every 4-6 weeks in which you look at the data (aka however you decided you’re measuring progres)s and see if you need to adjust your strategy or recommit yourself.
It may also be a good idea to decide in advance how you’ll handle obstacles that are likely to arise. To do this, imagine the best case scenario of how you handle this situation. Be very specific in how this plays out. It’s even helpful to write it down and have this ready for when the obstacle arises to remind yourself how you’d like to show up when the time comes. It can be as simple as: if you’re looking to cut back on calories and drinking then this may look like deciding in advance that instead of an alcoholic beverage, you’re going to stick with sparkling water and lime for the night when you’re out with friends.
Keep It Simple, Stupid
Believe me, I’m all about an elaborate routine. But sometimes I find people having an elaborate routine is draining or unnecessary or gets in the way of you getting anything done. Especially when starting out, keep the goal as simple as possible. Almost laughibly easy. Master it. Then gradually build on top of that.
The other benefit of keeping it simple: the more chaos that life throws at you, the less likely you are to be derailed. I once saw this brilliant idea of you can have your “perfect” scenario that entails the elaborate routine, but you should also have a baseline of a simple, bare bones, non-negotiable version that you can achieve when you’re having an absolutely “Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” so that way you can keep the habit and will have done something to inch you closer to your goal and the results you’re looking for.
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