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Building Blocks to Better Living
Setting and reaching your goals the SMART way
Today you will learn
• Four key components to effective goal setting
• How to set short term goals to achieve your long term goals
• How to motivate yourself through tangible and intangible rewards
• The importance of tracking your progress
What do YOU want to achieve?
• What’s wrong with these goals?
–My husband wants me to stop smoking
–My kids want me to become a vegetarian
–My doctor says should lose weight
What are you going to get out of this?
• Change is hard
• People need to get something they want
• Benefits need to be practical & relevant to you
Four components of effective goal setting
SMART
S - Specific
• State exactly what needs to be accomplished: exactly what are you going do, how much? When? How often?
• Not specific: I will walk more
• Specific: I will walk for fifteen minutes during my at lunch break on Monday Wednesday and Friday this week.
M - Measurable
• Helps determine if you met the goal
• Allows you to evaluate progress
• Not measurable: I will lose weight
• Measureable: I will lose 1 pound by the end of the month.
A - Attainable
• Goals need to be something you can really accomplish – Not too easy – not too hard
• You need to believe you can accomplish them
• Scale of one to ten – at least a seven in confidence level.
• NOT Attainable: I will never eat dessert again.
• Attainable: I will limit myself to having a small dessert on two occasions this week.
R -Relevant
• Goals need to be pertinent to you personal interests needs and talents.
• NOT relevant: ?
• Relevant: ?
T - Timed
• Goals without a timeline are vague – it’s easy to slip out of them
• Timelines help you stay focused on attaining the goal
• Timelines can be short and long term.
• NOT Timed: I will manage my time better by listing my tasks in Outlook
• Timed: I will set up the tasks function and list my upcoming tasks in Outlook this Friday.
Your road map: short term & long term goals
• Long term goals • Represent big change • Require time to reach
– a month or more
• Short term goals • Steps that lead to attaining the long term goal • Can be accomplished in short periods of time
– less than a month
• Make mid-course changes if needed
Include actions/behaviors in your goals
• What’s wrong with this?
• Long term goal: I will lose ten pounds by March 31
• Short term goal one: I will lose two pounds by the end of the week.
• Short term goal two : I will lose five pounds by the end of the month
Rewards help you achieve your goals
• Tangible vs. intangible
• Tangible (external): most helpful when first making changes
• Intangible (internal): kick in later
• Little rewards for short term goals/ big rewards for long term goals
• Need not be costly – or material
• Delayed gratification – may need to superimpose
Tracking your progress
• Is consistently linked to successful health change
• Is especially important when you are first starting to make a change
• Allows you to see if you’re reaching your goals
• Allows you to make changes as you go along
Example
• Long term goal: I will prepare myself and be ready to quit smoking on Tuesday, March 13
– Short term goal one: I will meet with my doctor to discuss nicotine patches and other medical support options by February 24.
– Short term goal two: I will enroll in the Freedom From Smoking class that begins on February 15, and I will attend all the weekly sessions.
– Short term goal three: I will remove all smoking materials from my home, car and office by March 12.
A few more tips
• Put your goals in writing
• Tell someone about your goals
• Enlist support
• Place positive prompts to reinforce your resolve to change (e.g. walking shoes by the door)
• Remove stimuli that might trigger undesirable behavior (remove junk food from the counter)
• Allow for occasional time off or scaling back.
Thank you for attending! http://www.campusrec.illinois.edu:16080/wellnesscenter
For more info contact Michele Guerra
244-2205 (direct) 265-WELL (9355)
Hours: M – F: 8:30 am – 5:00 PM
