Setting yourself goals, reviewing them regularly (for what’s working, what isn’t and what you need to change to make them work)  is the key to keeping you on track if you have specific things you want to achieve with your health and fitness.

Every goal you set should be simple and clear. Check if they are SMART:

SPECIFIC
Are you being as clear as possible? ‘Get fitter’ isn’t specific, ‘Do a full pushup’ is!

MEASURABLE
How will you track your progress? If not, you’re going to struggle to know whether you’re achieving it.

ACHIEVABLE
Do you have the ability, skill or discipline to achieve your goals? 6-pack abs seems like a great goal but some people genetically can’t achieve them.

REALISTIC
How will your goals fit in with your life? Do you have the time and energy required to put into achieving them? If not you may need to modify your expectations.

TIME-BASED
Give yourself a timeline. This will mean you’ll regularly review your goals and can modify them if need be.

In addition to this, you could consider your  BHAGs - also known as your ‘Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals’. These are your long term goals, or bold visions for the future. The thing about BHAGs is they are so... BIG... we need to break them down into medium term and short term goals to get there.

Make your weekly goals as small as possible by focusing on consistency with the skills and habits that you need to create and maintain in order to reach your BHAG.

Reviewing your goals

• Whether it’s at the end of the week or at the end of the month, it’s a good idea to check in with your goals and review them. Be honest; did the goal work? If not why not? How can you make it work better next week/month?
• It’s perfectly okay if the goal was just too hard to achieve. Sometimes we don’t know unless we give it a shot! Break it down even more into small steps and make it as easy as possible.
• In order to make progress with your goals, you really need to be close to 100% certain that you are ready, willing AND able to do what it takes to achieve them. If you're not all three, you may find you've set a task that's too difficult.

The big rules of goal progress

Aim for progress, not for perfection. The reason many of us fall off the wagon when it comes to our goals is that we’re so focused on the BHAG that we don’t notice the progress we’re making along the way then we give up because it feels like we’re getting nowhere. The problem is that the journey to achieve BHAGs is often not direct; it’s up, down, forwards, backwards, and zig-zaggy all over the place. Progress is often a lot slower than we think it will be when we set out.

Try not to get too caught up in the end goal - look for the ‘wins’ - the progress you’re making along the way -  and focus your attention on them, then keep them going. Consistency is the key.

Try to keep goals positive rather than negative. Add rather than subtract (‘Include more veges in my diet’ rather than ‘Avoid all junk food’).

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