The A.B.C.'s of Goal Setting: the S.M.A.R.T. Method
Hello beautiful wellness seekers, I'm Liz Moser, and I'm a Mayo Clinic and National Board-Certified Health and Wellness Coach
In the last few blogs, I've talked about first base goals, my term for relatively easy actions you can repeat often, if not daily, to cement long-term lifestyle changes.
Another term and a more appropriate coaching term for first base goals is a smart goal. S. M. A. R. T. Smart.
Smart goals are coaching 101, and I'm surprised in two years of recording vlogs, I've never touched on smart goals, so here it goes.
Smart goals or S. M. A. R. T. is an acronym where S stands for specific, M - measurable, A - achievable, R - relevant, and T - time-bound.
Let’s use the SMART goal setting method with a common concern of my clients, ‘I want to eat healthier!’
Desiring a healthier diet is broad and has different connotations for each client.
The first thing I do when I hear that concern is support my client towards the S in smart goals or, specificity. I want their goal to be straightforward, precise, and easily defined.
I might ask, what does eating healthier mean to you? Or in the past, when you were rocking your diet and nutrition, what were you eating? Or what’s one small action you could take to eat healthier? These questions are about getting them to narrow the field to specific actions and see what worked and what they are interested in doing now.
Let’s say one specific action they arrive at is eating breakfast. Some days they skip breakfast, and they want to cut that bad habit out; furthermore, they want to ensure that breakfast has a serving of fruit.
Got it! Breakfast with fruit every morning. That’s pretty specific.
Next is M for measurable. In other words, what is an explicit tool or point of reference you can use to assess whether you are successful in progressing toward or reaching the said goal? Well, it’s straightforward: you are either eating breakfast or not. This is an easily measurable goal. My client could snap a picture of their breakfast and text it to me so that I can share their success with them. Or they can add breakfast to their nightly checklist and cross it off on the days they complete the action. Pictures or nightly checklists, two ways to measure the goal as completed.
Then I need to work with my client to ascertain whether eating breakfast with fruit every day is attainable or the A in smart goals. Specifically, is this goal realistic in terms that the client has a reasonable amount of time, money, and skills to eat breakfast with fruit every day? I might ask questions such as do you have fruit in your house now or how often you buy fruit? Do you have time in the morning to eat? If you're rushed for time, what's a backup plan? Maybe prep the night before? Whether a goal is easily attainable or not can be a lengthy but valuable conversation.
Next, is eating breakfast daily relevant, the R in smart goals, to my client's plan to eat healthier? Or does this action (breakfast with fruit) and the larger goal (eating healthier) hold particular importance within my client's life? Will incorporating breakfast daily with a serving of fruit directly impact their goal of eating healthier. Again, I’d say that’s realatively clear-cut, most nutritionists would agree that consuming breakfast is vital and more fiber from fruit and veggie is beneficial to your overall health.
Then T is for time bound. Or, my client and I need to discuss when breakfast will occur and for how long they are committing to this action. Maybe they want to try this on for two weeks or a month (check out my vlog 12 Habits To Try On For A Healthier You In 2022) sometimes, that takes the pressure off of adopting a habit FOREVER. Also, when will you eat breakfast? I'd have a conversation with my client about their typical morning and when they think they can fit breakfast in. For instance, is it the first thing with your coffee? Or is it the last thing after you're showered and changed? Or, if you look at your busy morning, is it in the car on the way to work? Then we need to discuss portable packable options.
There you go! We just made it through the entire process of creating a SMART goal. For the ‘big picture’ goal of I want to eat healthier, we broke it down into a more specific action I want to eat breakfast with fruit every day. Then we went through the process and made sure it was not only specific but measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
I suggest trying out the SMART goal check with any action or habit you want to adopt and keep me posted on how it goes.
I’m Liz Moser, a Mayo Clinic and National Board-Certified Health and Wellness Coach, and thank you for reading this blog about the A.B.C.'s of setting goals or the SMART method. If you have any questions about this blog, health, wellness, or wellness coaching with me, please reach out via my website at lizmosercoaching.com.
Bye for now, and be well,
Liz
