Why Every Woman Should Set SMART Goals (& How to Create Them!)

Without writing these goals down or having a way that you can hold yourself accountable you’re probably not going to succeed. It’s time to set a resolution you can stick to by setting a goal that is Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Trackable.

Prefer to listen? Check out our full podcast episode on SMART Goals!

What does SMART Goal stand for?

SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely.

These 5 characteristics can help you finally hit your goals in any area of your life!

Why Should Every Woman Set SMART Goals?

As women, we tend to put ourselves last. We have a dozen roles in life: spouse, mom, daughter, career woman, school room mother, soccer coach, niece, Sunday school teacher, community leader, etc.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed and not commit to self care or set goals for ourselves.

This is exactly why every woman should set SMART Goals for herself!

If you’re mindful about what you want to accomplish and make your goals specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely, you’ll be more likely to accomplish them!

How to Set SMART Goals

Below we’ll break down each characteristic to help you stay motivated and set SMART Goals.

Specific

Vague resolutions are things of the past. It’s time to get specific.

Maybe your goal is to be healthier but what does becoming healthier mean to you? Does this mean getting your cholesterol down? Does it mean working out daily?

Be specific.

For example, a specific health goal may be, I want to lose 20 lbs.

Measurable

Next, you need to make sure you can measure your results. With an overall goal to lose 20 pounds, you may break that down to lose 1-2 lbs per week for 15 weeks.

This allows you a good goal of losing 1-2 pounds per week, right?

Now that you have your weekly goal, you’ll want to be able to measure it daily.

What does it look like each day in order for you to hit 1-2 pounds weekly?

When you’re first starting off with a goal which is new to you, you have to track until it becomes a habit. You’ll want to track your food and track your weight.

What should you track when it comes to food? What about calories? You’ll need to reduce your calories if you want to lose some weight.

You can track how many calories you need to take in daily by either writing your goal down or using the My Fitness Pal app. It’s a really simple and free app which allows you to scan the UPC code of a product in your refrigerator or type in the product to search their database.

Attainable

Next, let’s make your goal of losing 20 lbs attainable in your day-to-day life.

Ask yourself, “What do I need to do daily to lose 20 pounds?”

You’re going to have to increase your activity, right? So, what does that mean? What does that look like? Do you need to take more steps? Do you need to maybe invest in an Apple Watch, a Fitbit, or some kind of pedometer so you know you’re increasing your daily steps? Do you want to do a low impact, high impact, or advanced workout?

Figure out which sort of activity are you going to do each day which works for you to help you move closer to your goal.

Don’t try to run 10 miles and then crash for the rest of the week. Don’t try to go for 800 calories because this is not realistic.

Set an attainable goal.

Realistic

The next characteristic of a SMART goal is making it realistic.

A lot of people go in with their health goal and they just kill it the first day. Then they can’t walk the second day and they’re done.

If you go into the gym on the first day, you don’t have to go in plus run five miles. Keep it realistic. Start running a mile or even a half-mile and gradually increase to reach your goal of five miles.

If you’ve eaten really well Monday through Thursday and Friday decide to eat a whole pizza, just know when you get on the scale Saturday it’s probably going to reflect you’ve eaten a whole pizza. Don’t be mad at the scale. Understand this is what it is. Try to do better the next week.

Timely

When it comes to setting your goals, you need to give yourself some time and grace.

If your goal is to lose 20 pounds, don’t make it super short and don’t make it to where you have to lose 3 pounds a week or something like that. Make sure you’re treating this as something you can do and allow you to live the life you want to live right now.

Final Thoughts on Setting SMART Goals

Keep your goals realistic so you have something to look forward to each day.

Tracking your progress lets you easily see what you need to accomplish for the day.

Don’t restrict yourself too much because restricting causes too much bingeing. You could start the day by saying, “I’m going to have a realistic diet today. I’m going to work out today. It’s not going to be crazy because I still want to be able to walk tomorrow.”