Day 40 - Setting Goals

I don't know why, but I keep forgetting that my 24h gym is only open 24 hours Monday through Thursday. Silly me.

In completely unrelated news, I ended up doing a bodyweight workout at home instead of my prescribed 6k run for the day. I'm hopeful that tomorrow will be more productive. Erin and I have planned to hit an outdoor skating rink, but it may be too warm and wet tomorrow for that, in which case Plan B would be a run. 

Anyway, onward and upward.

One of the interesting things that has come out of this challenge is that people often want to tell me about their fitness goals. That's exciting for me, because I love hearing about people making a commitment to being fitter and healthier. I also love hearing that I've motivated someone to set and achieve a new goal.

I thrive on goals. 

I really, really do.

Goals keep me moving forward, and the goals that I've achieved give me a sense of accomplishment and mastery that motivates me to continue setting new goals and working toward bettering myself in new ways.

When I was 13 or 14, I learned a system for goal setting at an athlete development camp. I was taught at this camp that not all goals are equally "good" - some motivate us to work harder and give us the sense of achievement we (okay, I...) crave, whereas others are unrealistic or vague, leaving us  discouraged or lost at the end of the day.

The system I learned back then and still use today is S.M.A.R.T., standing for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely (or Time-bound in some writings).

The specific aspect of the system means that your goal has to be...well...specific. It's not enough, for instance, to say I'd like to be healthier and fitter. Instead, I've got to tell myself exactly what "healthier" and "fitter" mean to me. Saying that I want to do physical activity for 365 consecutive days or that I want to run a marathon by the end of May would fit the bill. Similarly, I'm not being specific if I say I'd like to lose weight. On the other hand, saying I'd like to lose 10 pounds tells you (and me) exactly what I'm hoping to do.

Turns out that a google search for "goal" returns many corny images.

A good goal is also measurable. There has to be a way for me to know I've made progress. How will I know I've met my goal? Instead of saying I want to be a better runner, I could say that I want to run 5k in under 28 minutes, or that I want to run 4 days each week. I think this is one of the most important aspects of goal-setting for me. I want to know that I've been successful, and I can only know that if I'm measuring my progress. Those who know me well know that I love to look at the stats my Garmin Forerunner spits out - knowing how far I've run, how fast I did it, and how often I've been pounding the pavement makes me feel successful and motivates me to keep going.

Of course, the best goals are attainable. This doesn't mean you shouldn't be ambitious - of course you should! But goals that are too far out of our reach make it difficult to get started, and quickly discourage us. Ambitious goals are great, but impossible goals aren't.

This is what I imagine having a stroke must look like.

Realistic goals are goals we have the tools to achieve. The realistic aspect of goal setting is where I usually create my plan of attack; if I have the necessary tools to carry out my plan, I know that my goals are realistic. For example, when thinking about completing this challenge and my goal of 365 days of physical activity, I had to think about whether I had the baseline fitness to achieve the challenge, whether I had the time each day to put toward the challenge, and whether I had the necessary equipment, resources, and support. I might decide that I want to compete in high jump in the next Olympics, but if I have no access to coaching, no time for training, and two bum knees, I may not really have the tools I need to achieve my goal. Ultimately, I'll be discouraged.

Finally, goals should have an aspect of time built into them. I find that if I don't set a time-line, I'll never get done...because I'll never get started. A time-line is a crucial motivator, as anyone who has ever written a paper, studied for a test, or cooked a Christmas meal for 20 people, can attest. That's why it's not good enough to say that I want to eventually run a marathon. I had to sign up for a marathon to push myself to get in the necessary training. This is why competitive events like racing can be so helpful. By no means am I a fast runner, but signing up for a race gives me a time-limit for the completion of my goal.

I'm sure there are other goal-setting systems out there, and I've love to hear about how you frame your goals. Comment below, shy readers!