Making Goals: How to set Yourself up for Success

When you start your fitness journey, you probably have some goals in mind.
Perhaps you want to lose 20 pounds, gain muscle, feel less stressed, have more
energy – or all of the above! Those are great goals, but how are you going to
accomplish them? That’s where your trainer comes in.
Together, you will sit down and go over what you want to accomplish during your
training sessions. We use the acronym SMART/ERS goals to help figure out what’s
really important to you fitness-wise. But what does SMART mean, exactly?
Specific: is your goal specific? You want to lose weight? Great! Let’s break that down
further. Do you want to lose 30 pounds in three months? One to two pounds per
week? We need to dig down deep and find out what exactly you want to accomplish.
Measurable: how are we going to track your goals? If it’s losing weight, we would
use a scale and tap measurer. If you want to have more energy, that’s not as easy to
track, but it can be done! Can you play longer with your kids? Do you find taking the
stairs at work way easier? Those may be good ways for you to gage your energy
level.
Attainable: can you actually do this? If you’re eating healthy and doing your
workouts, then yes! If you are willing to do the action and put in the effort, there’s
nothing stopping you from achieving your goals.
Realistic: are your goals achievable, or are you maybe shooting for the stars? It’s
great to want to lose 50 pounds and run a marathon, but doing that in two months?
Probably not going to happen. Don’t set yourself up for failure! Make goals that you
can accomplish and then celebrate the heck out of that.
Time sensitive: what are your long-term and short-term goals? We also need to
think about how much time/how many days per week can you commit to working
out. If you’re running kids around to sports and work five days a week, committing
to working out five days a week probably isn’t doable, unless you’re willing to make
some changes.
Diving deeper into this acronym, what does the ERS stand for? These will become
more relevant when you reach the maintenance stage of the Transtheorectical
Model of Behaviour Change, but it’s good to know what they mean.
Evaluate: throughout your program, you and your trainer will track your progress to
see how close you are to your goals. Where have you really excelled, and what areas
do we need to focus more on? This is the time to figure that out!
Realign: after we evaluate your progress, it’s time to make any modifications to get
you closer to your goals in a timely fashion. We want to address any roadblocks so
we can get you to your ultimate goal.
Success: the time has come; you’ve reached your goals. Celebrate that! And while
you’re eating a clean dessert, think about what you want to accomplish in the next
few months. Train for a summer marathon? Build up stamina to go mountain
biking? Lift half your body weight? Whatever it is, talk to your trainer and let’s make
it a SMART goal!
Having something to work towards is a great motivator for getting fit. Your trainer
will be with you every step of the way, guiding you towards success, but be ready to
put in the work to make it happen!