Let’s make your fitness goals less intimidating by making them SMART

The internet will tell you many different ways to create goals for yourself. The ideas of self-help and goal-setting have become quite a trend, especially in the past couple of years as the pandemic hit us all across the globe, making it the centre of so many reading materials both online and offline.

This blog post is actually no different. Still, I hope it can serve as a reminder or offer any help if you’re figuring out how to set goals for yourself properly.

We can all look at the most common tip in creating a goal: it should be SMART to make things simple and doable.

Specific: Let’s use a fitness goal as an example. We can say, “I want to have a healthier lifestyle,” which is quite alright, but having a more specific version of it can do wonders for how you strive to achieve it. For example, try: “I want to have a healthier lifestyle by joining some fitness groups near me.”

Measurable: Taking from the example above, what if you make it even more specific by adding up some target milestones? We can say, “By actively participating in outdoor group fitness classes near me, I should be able to reach my target muscle mass.” This makes your actions more aligned with what you want to achieve, making it more manageable to fulfil your fitness goal.

Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound: Sure, our goals are more measurable now, but are they realistically possible? One of the major things that can hinder us from reaching what we set out to achieve is when we put unnecessary pressure upon ourselves. Obviously, succeeding in our fitness goals doesn’t happen overnight – not even in a week or even a month.

In one of our most recent blog posts, we tackled how acknowledging what we can do and taking that first step are vital to our progress, so it goes to show that saying something like, “I need to achieve my body and fitness goals in 1 month” is definitely not practical.

Instead, try breaking it down into “mini goals” so that they’re S.M.A.R.T.

Let’s give it a try.

Our main goal can be: I want to have a healthier lifestyle so that I don’t easily run out of breath. Instead of merely planning to have a way of life that’s more active and healthy, we can make it S.M.A.R.T

“I want to practise a healthier lifestyle and make it a fun experience for me by doing outdoor bootcamp exercises. Through my active participation in these outdoor fitness activities, I can reach my target muscle mass in 6 months.” This sounds more realistic and specific, but we have to acknowledge our starting points so that it won’t be too intimidating to take the first step.

Let’s say we haven’t been too active in the past couple of years, especially during the pandemic. We can add something like, “within the first month, I should be able to achieve the recommended number of daily steps. Within the second month, I should be able to do 10 3-rep arm exercises with a 4-kilogram weight. Within the third month, I should have an established routine which I will just enhance and add up from my fourth month onwards.”

Doing something like this makes our action plan more specific and realistic while still doing the necessary steps to achieve our goals. That, and it makes it more doable and less intimidating, right?

If these goals resonate with you, come and join us at You Can Do Fit! We’re an all-women fitness community where you can feel safe achieving your fitness goals. No fuss and stress, just overall fun! We have a couple of ongoing outdoor group fitness classes and some online ones, too. So have fun achieving a healthier lifestyle anywhere, anytime!