Detailed goals are your road map to success. Without setting proper goals, you won’t know what you need to do to achieve them, whether you are actually making progress towards achieving them, or making the best use of your time.

I’m sure everyone has heard all sorts of goal setting rules and instructions. And boy are there ever a LOT of information, and lists, and rules on the Internet. This acronym is as good as any and it’s easy to remember.  SMART.

S = Specific
M = Measurable
A = Attainable
R = Realistic
T = Timely

Every one of these items is necessary to make a detailed goal, with a clear outline of how to achieve it.

Specific: This is pretty straightforward. Can you see a difference between these 2 goals? I want to read more books. I want to read this particular 3 book series before Christmas. Which one of these is more specific? Which one reads like a road map to accomplishing it?

Measurable: If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. Generally speaking, the goal statement is the measure of progress. Let’s look at that example from earlier “I want to read this 3 book series before Christmas”.  By working towards completing it, you are measuring your success. Read the first book, you’re 1/3 complete. When you measure your progress, you stay on track and stay motivated.

Attainable: Make sure it something that is actually possible. If you set that goal as “read 3 books by this afternoon” you know that isn’t going to happen. And you won’t even try. You need to pick something that is kind of a stretch, and requires commitment, but isn’t impossible. What we obtain too cheaply, we esteem too lightly.

Realistic: Realistic does not mean “easy”. Realistic means “do-able”. It means that It should push the skills and knowledge needed to achieve the goal, not break them. Set the bar high enough for a satisfying achievement.

Timely: You need to set a timeframe for accomplishing the goal. This keeps you focused and it keeps you on task. An open-ended goal will never get done, because you can always do it tomorrow. People will use as much time as they’re given to complete a task. If you have 30 minutes to get it done, you will get it done. If you have 30 for the same task, you will take all 30 of those days.  If there is no timeframe set, who knows when you’ll get it done, maybe today, maybe tomorrow?

I want you to take these principals and apply them to your fitness goals. Goals like “I want to lose weight” will turn into “I want to lose 15 lbs by day/month”. Or better yet, I want to go from a size X to a size Y”.  Or “I want to get a pull-up” “I want to get my 500m row time down to 1:25”.

Make a huge list or everything, then prioritize them into things you can do now (clean the kitchen), things you can do soon (read that book), and things that will have to wait. (Tour Europe).

Now get to it.

Chris Walls is a Personal Trainer at the Crossfit Kelowna training centre.  For more information on Crossfit, please visit http://www.crossfitkelowna.com