SMART Goals for a Healthy Life

In my post last week, I shared my five goals for 2021.  I long ago ditched the idea of making New Year’s resolutions.  Resolving to do something quite often sets you up for failure whereas a goal is something to work towards.  If I reach my goal, good for me. If I don’t reach my goal, at least I know I tried.

I have had many of my followers ask me how I decide what my annual goals are going to be.  When deciding on what goals I want to work on, I ask myself some specific questions.

1. What matters the most to me and why?  Is it to live a healthier lifestyle?  Is it to spend more quality time with my husband and other family members?  Is it to focus more on making sure I balance my wants with my needs?  It may be to enjoy each day to the fullest.
2. What do I want the more of?  For me, it is quite often time to do the things I enjoy doing.  However, I don’t want the time I use to interfere with my relationships with others.  I also want a healthier lifestyle. 
3. What would I do as a job if it didn’t matter whether it made money or not?  I would definitely write as often as I can.  I have so enjoyed writing and publishing my novels.
4. What is my passion?  Besides writing, I love to scrapbook and make handmade greeting cards.  Before the pandemic, one of my passions was working out.  I did a 40-50 minute workout each morning and then rode my stationary bike for 20-45 minutes each night.  I seemed to lose that passion when the pandemic hit our country and now I want it back.
5. What would bring joy to my life?  The thing that would bring the most joy to my life is good health for my husband, myself and for our children and grandchildren.

Once I have my questions answered, I fall back on my years in education and always work at making SMART goals from the answers and remind myself that a goal is something I am working towards.  If I don’t achieve it the world will not come to an end.

SMART stands for: SPECIFIC, MEASURABLE, ATTAINABLE, RELEVANT and TIMELY.  By taking a look at one of my goals, you will be able to see why I use this method of goal setting.

SPECIFIC-What EXACTLY do you want to accomplish.  Let’s take a look at my goal of “getting back to my daily workouts.”  My specific goal is, “I will workout at least 40-60 minutes per day at least five days a week.”

MEASUREABLE-How will I know if I am sticking to my goal?  I will know if I do my workouts as I will cross off daily each workout I complete.  I will also know if I have twelve calendars at the end of 2021 that show I did my daily workouts.

ATTAINABLE-Is this goal something that I can actually do?  Since I have done it in the past, I am pretty sure I can do it for 2021.  What specific things will I do to achieve this goal?  1) I will make a monthly workout calendar that sets aside time each day to do my workouts.  The calendar will include what types of workouts I will do and the duration of time allotted to the workout. 

2) I will post this calendar on the back of the door of my workout room.  I have not set my workout times to an unrealistic level and have figured in less time for weekend days. 

RELEVANT-Is this goal something that relates to the healthy life style I want to achieve?  For me, part of being healthy is not only eating healthy foods but making sure I get enough daily activity as well.  When you get to be my age, you must keep moving so your joints continue to work properly.  A sedentary life is not good.

TIMELY-How long will it take to achieve this goal?  Is there a beginning and an ending?  “I will work out in some manner every day for the 2021 year.” This goal is a goal for this year so the beginning is January 1, 2021 and the ending is December 31, 2021. 

Not only is this a SMART goal but it is one that I can easily do at home.  Living where we do in northern Michigan, in the middle of the woods, there are no fitness centers readily available and even if there were, I live in a state that has shut them down. 

I set up my workout room in the fall of 2019.  It is actually just one of our spare bedrooms in our house.  I slowly acquired the equipment that I use and it did not cost me a lot of money.

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The first items I purchased were two DVD’s. Since I hadn’t worked out in a while (this was in October of 2018) I thought I should start out slowly. One DVD was for Yoga and the other was for an easy workout for seniors.

I eventually graduated to a more rigorous workout.  I purchased three different books that I used to develop my workout.  As I am 74 years old, I adapted some of the Pilate moves and Yoga poses to fit where I am in life.  

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The books are all available on Amazon as are the other workout tools I have: Yoga mat, soft weighted toning balls and resistance bands.  Since I purchased them over a period of time, I still spent less than when I used to belong to a workout club.  I purchased my stationary bike 9500 miles ago at a yard sale for $5.  My total cost so far is just a little over $131.  I get to work out in the privacy of my own home, at my own pace and whenever I want.

This workout goal was easy to use to demonstrate the SMART goal setting but how about a more abstract goal such as my goal of leading a more balanced life in 2021?  Can that goal be broken down via the SMART definitions?

SPECIFIC-My goal is, “I will lead a balanced life by making sure I feed my body, mind and soul on an equal basis.”  I have created my balance wheel so that I know what specific areas I will focus on. This wheel has become the focal point of my vision board for 2021. It is hanging in a visible place so I can refer to it daily.

MEASURABLE-how will I know if I am leading a balanced life?  Am I getting 8 hours of sleep at night?  That is measurable.  Am I watching what I eat and exercising?  That too is measurable by the number of minutes I work out and by counting calories.  Am I taking time each day to read, write, do hobbies and read my devotions?  These items can be logged in my journal for 2021, so yes, they are measurable by the number of times I do them. 

ATTAINABLE-can I manage to lead a more balanced life for 2021?  I do believe I can by focusing on daily nurturing my body, mind and soul and adopting that mindset.

RELEVANT-leading a balanced life is very relevant to the healthy lifestyle I want to return to.  I need to increase the amount of time I nurture my mind and soul and not spend too much time on just nurturing by body.

TIMELY-this is a goal for this year so yes, it is time based.  I am hoping that by focusing on a balanced life this year, it becomes a habit for the future.

How do you decide what your goals are going to be?  Don’t feel pressured to set more than one attainable goal.  There is nothing wrong starting out small.  If you think a goal for the entire year is not manageable, then set monthly goals.  Short term goals are less stressful for some people and they don’t feel failure if they cannot sustain a long-term goal.  Whether you set weekly, monthly, quarterly or annual goals, try using the SMART method.

As always, “Don’t Save Today for Tomorrow.”

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