I recently held a goal setting workshop at our Eldersburg location, and the insights were just too good not to share with you all. In this blog, I summarize the basics of goal setting and how to make sure you actually attain your goals this year by pulling from principles taught by some of the best in the industry.
The Science of Goal Setting
A goal is an ambition or aim that’s set for you to strive to achieve. Oftentimes a goal is set just out of reach–something you have to work for. There are three main principles I want to focus on for goal setting: finding your why, setting SMART goals, and leaning into the habit loop.
Finding Your Why
Simon Sinnek, author of Start With Why, talks about his “golden circle” model, which is made up of “Why” on the inside, followed by “How” and “What”. When we begin our goal setting with “why,” we have a purpose for what we are doing and a reason to come back to when times get tough. If your goal starts with the “what” of “I want to lose weight,” you are missing out on the driving force behind your goal. Ask yourself: Why do I want to lose weight? Maybe because at your current weight, it is hard to move around and be active. Again, why should you care? Well, maybe you have young children, and you struggle to play with them. Now your goal of “I want to lose weight” has turned into “I want to lose weight so that I can be a more active parent for my child.” That’s a hell of a lot more motivating than the first goal.
SMART Goals
I know most people are probably tired of hearing this by now, but yes, SMART goals do actually work. Specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound are measures of bulletproofing your goal to make sure you’ve thought about all of the variables that could keep you from achieving them.
Specific: Are you saying “I want to lose weight” or are you saying “I want to lose body fat”? There’s a difference!
Measurable: How much body fat do you want to lose? 5%? 10 pounds?
Next I like to skip forward to time-bound: When do you want to achieve this by? 6 months? The week before your daughter’s wedding?
Lastly, check out: Is my goal attainable? If you’re unfamiliar with how quickly you can sustainably lose weight, consult a trainer or do some research. And is your goal relevant: Does it actually matter to you and your life? Maybe a goal to lose 5% body fat is not relevant if you are already at the low end of a healthy weight, or if there are other health markers you might need to address first.
Habit Loop
James Clear in his bestselling book Atomic Habits talks about how habits rule our lives and contribute toward our goals. He identifies the “habit loop” as the source of all habits and conditioned behaviors: Cue, craving, response, reward. In order to help build a habit, you want to make the cue more obvious, the craving more attractive, the response more easy, and the reward more satisfying. Conversely, if you want to extinguish a habit, you want to make the cue invisible, the craving unattractive, the response difficult, and the reward unsatisfying. I recommend reading Clear’s book to learn more!
The last piece of advice I leave you with is this: do not be afraid of failure. If you never fail, you are not pushing yourself enough. If you have never asked for a spotter for your benchpress, you haven’t pushed yourself far enough to fail, and you do not know your upward limit. I urge everyone to pick goals that flirt with failure, in order to truly test what you are capable of. Lots of luck to you in the new year!
Shannon McGoey, CPT is a personal trainer at Merritt Clubs Eldersburg.
