Making Your Goals SMART!
By: Dr. Adrian Granite
On a regular basis I hear people talk about how they are trying to lose weight, become healthier, gain financial freedom, travel more, etc… These are great goals to have and most people think about these things, but the issue most people usually run into is how to achieve them. Something that I learned through my chiropractic education is when you create goals for people, they have to be SMART. This means that they need to be Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. Using the idea of getting healthier, let’s look into what this means.
Specific – A goal needs to be more detailed than I want to get healthier. There are many different metrics of health. Pick one or two that are most important to you and start there. Health is not something that is achieved over night. It is something that takes hard work and dedication. For example, let’s change get healthier to I want my blood pressure to decrease to a normal level.
Measureable – How do we know our goal is being met? Get healthier could mean a million different things. If we are concerned with blood pressure, then we need to look at the systolic/diastolic reading and use that as a way to measure. I want to decrease my blood pressure to 120/80.
Attainable – This means that we can achieve it. This is usually done by setting our mind to it and creating a plan to be successful. How am I going to lower my blood pressure to 120/80? Am I going to change my diet and exercise more? Do I need to consult with my physician about medications? I am going to exercise 3X/week to help decrease my blood pressure to 120/80.
Realistic – Your goals need to be realistic to you. Aiming high is great, but sometimes we need to have 1, 5, and 10 year plans. If you are trying to lower your blood pressure from 200/120, maybe we should shoot for 160/100 first, and when that is met, then we can think about 120/80. We don’t need the go big or go home mentality. Sometimes by taking baby steps, success appears to be a lot closer than we originally thought. I am going to exercise 3X/week to help decrease my blood pressure from 160/100 to 120/80.
Timely – This is pretty straight forward. We need to figure out a time frame to achieve this goal. This puts everything together. We use short term goals and long term goals when preparing treatment plans for patients. What are the results going to be in 4 weeks and what are they going to be in 8 weeks? I am going to exercise 3X/week to help decrease my blood pressure from 160/100 to 120/80 in 4 weeks.
Try this out with your current New Year’s resolution. I hope it helps!
